The trailer for Paramount's upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog film was released on Monday and it has all of the ingredients to make a successful film. It is based on a popular game, it has an engaging lead character, an easy to follow a plot and a scary villain. But after the trailer was released, negative reviews came rushing in, so what went wrong?
One obvious factor to the largely negative reaction is the fact that the beloved video game character developed unnervingly human teeth and it freaked people out. The Guardian even described the movie as a "200 mile an hour slap in the face".
But this is not the first game to film creation to receive such backlash. For decades, there have been talks of a curse as popular games have become flopped films. This all started in 1993 when Super Mario Bros became the first game to a movie franchise. Unfortunately, it received negative reviews and it went down in history as one of the worst movies of all time.
So, what is the real problem behind this curse? One of the main issues is that gamers are possessive about the characters, and it is perfectly understandable considering the hours that they spend playing the game and watching it.
Gamers have an intimate relationship with the characters, which is why seeing a weird rendition of Sonic or Pikachu can send them into a meltdown. The same issue was encountered in 1993 when gamers were contented playing Super Mario World even though the characters were "faceless" and voiceless, but when Bob Hoskins played the famous plumber in the film adaptation, it didn't sit right with fans.
Another issue is that not all games have great plots. Take Mortal Kombat for example, the game is just based on kicking and/or punching your opponent, but the movie made a whole plot that fans don't care about. Filmmakers end up making bits of backstory and extra content just to stretch the whole film to an hour and a half even though the entire plot is boring, cringy or does not make sense. It makes the characters lose their charms.
After the backlash, Jeff Fowler has announced Paramount and Sega will be making Sonic the Hedgehog even better.
Thank you for the support. And the criticism. The message is loud and clear... you aren't happy with the design & you want changes. It's going to happen. Everyone at Paramount & Sega are fully committed to making this character the BEST he can be... #sonicmovie #gottafixfast ️ — Jeff Fowler (@fowltown) May 2, 2019
