Is 'Sonic The Hedgehog 2' Proving That Video Game Movies Are Getting Better?

"Sonic the Hedgehog 2" is reaping the rewards from both critics and the box office, and the numbers do not lie.

According to Engadget, the sequel to 2020's first "Sonic the Hedgehog" movie (which was a record-setter in its own right) has now earned a total of $71 million in its domestic box office debut. This is a way bigger mark than the previous film's $57 million, which also beat "Detective Pikachu" ($54.3 million).

So far, though, the sequel has yet to even match the first movie's global gross of $319 million. But experts are predicting that "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" is well on track, as it has now grossed around $141 million all over the world, with more on the way as it is still in its first two weeks at the time of this writing.

With this unprecedented success of Blue Blur's silver screen debut, are we now in an era of actually good video game movies? Some may think yes, and they cite specific reasons as to why.

Hollywood Now 'Understands' Video Games Better

We're willing to bet that almost all Hollywood film directors are not gamers. And this could be the very reason why video game movies sucked in the past-these people just don't understand the medium as much as they should.

But as mentioned in an article by WIRED, this trend has been changing over the past few years. More recent video game movies, like the 2018 "Tomb Raider" reboot film, were "well-done" despite not being too original. Reviews of that reboot praised the film for showing, not telling, what the protagonist (Lara Croft) is capable of and why she is capable of doing it.

This is what makes video games as popular as they are. Remember that in all games, there are tutorials that show players the game's mechanics, which also acts as a way of showing how the protagonist "learns" to do the abilities they have. They don't tell you "oh, Lara's good at this because she just is." That's the "human" element of video games: the fact that they show the truth of people learning from actual experience.

On the side of the actors, there's already evidence of a growing gaming geek culture within the Hollywood A-list. Just take Henry Cavill. Starring in Netflix's "The Witcher" TV series, Cavill has professed himself as a lifelong gamer and has brought an intimate knowledge of the "Witcher" franchise to the live-action adaptation of the fantasy IP.

The result was quite positive, as you can see. Now, the TV show has already premiered two successful seasons and is due for a third-maybe more-within the coming years. Cavill's mere presence as a huge, passionate fan of the IP is helping the production toe the line between normal consumers and gamers, considering how the "Witcher" IP initially gained worldwide fame as a video game series, and not as a series of novels which it started its life as.

'Growing Pains'

Sure, video game movies like "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" are not going to win Oscars or Emmys anytime soon. But as AP News puts it, they were just bad all those years ago because they were going through some "growing pains."

This puts it on the same level as another global, multi-billion-dollar IP: comic books, according to venture capitalist Matthew Ball. Before the likes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe became absolute cash-cows, it took almost half-a-century of "training" both the creators and the viewing public to appreciate them as blockbuster films. The same thing is happening with video games, which are actually way younger than comic books-having only truly taken off by the 90s.

With this fact in hand, many are now hopeful that "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" and other future video game movies are going to see a renaissance within the next few decades, just like how comic books had it. Among these hopefuls is David Barr Kirtley, who hosts WIRED's "Geek's Guide to the Galaxy" podcast. According to him, current trends are predicting that within 10 years, feature films based on video games would then grow to be rated "over 70 percent on Rotten Tomatoes."

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by RJ Pierce