Sonic the Hedgehog

Considering the notorious fleet-footed protagonist, maybe it’s appropriate that Sonic the Hedgehog moves along at such a hyperactive tempo.

It’s more likely that this live-action adaptation of the venerable video game franchise is simply catering to short-attention spans in the target demographic.

At any rate, instead of running rings around its genre predecessors, this origin story peters out well before reaching any bonus levels.

After a brief introductory segment that explains why the anthropomorphic blue critter (voiced by Ben Schwartz), with his spiked hair and sardonic quips, is hiding out in a small Montana town. It’s to keep his powers — running at lightning speed, basically — out of the hands of government bigwigs.

They have hired a villainous cyborg doctor with a handlebar mustache, Robotnik (Jim Carrey), to track down the creature by any means necessary. Sonic finds reluctant allies in the local sheriff (James Marsden) and his incredulous wife (Tika Sumpter), whose partnership comes in handy toward assuring our pint-sized hero never runs out of lives.

Legions of gamers who watched Sonic outgrow his 16-bit upbringing in various spinoffs, animated series, and other multimedia incarnations got their wish when the filmmakers agreed to cater to fans’ wishes and redesign the title character midway through production.

However, rookie director Jeff Fowler’s film lacks the lo-fi charm of its source material, even if Sonic’s 1990s emergence coincided with Carrey’s big-screen heyday. Here, the most amusing sequence involves Robotnik dancing alone maniacally inside his high-tech evil lair.

From a narrative standpoint, the setup is marginally clever. However, it stumbles once the effects-driven silliness and broad slapstick gives way to would-be heartfelt themes of loneliness and finding your place in the world.

Despite some scattered laughs, the result is more obnoxious than endearing as it overdoses on Carrey’s cartoonish mugging, needlessly convoluted plot mechanics, and gratuitous product placement. Then it just spirals into incoherent mayhem in the final showdown before revealing its true intention — of course — as an intended franchise launchpad.

Even in the age of skyrocketing esports popularity, video games are still more fun to play than watch. Those at the controls will always have more of an emotional stake in the outcome. For that reason, Sonic the Hedgehog doesn’t score enough points to advance.

Rated PG, 99 minutes.