Why James Marsden joining the Sonic the Hedgehog movie kind of makes me cringe

LOS ANGELES, CA – DECEMBER 07: James Marsden attends the 2017 GQ Men of the Year party at Chateau Marmont on December 7, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for GQ)

Actor James Marsden is reportedly going to be the lead in the Sonic the Hedgehog movie coming out in 2019. But will his addition make the movie any better?

Hearing that there’s going to be a movie based off of your favorite childhood video game shouldn’t make you groan. And yet, when you say there’s a Sonic the Hedgehog movie coming, it kind of elicits that response.

Now, there’s more near groan-worthy news that James Marsden is going to take the lead in the movie. James Marsden shouldn’t make you groan, but when paired together with a video game hedgehog, it becomes a little cringy.

So why is this movie so cringe-worthy to begin with, when the video game franchise was once the most celebrated game out there? We’re here to break it down from the very good stuff to the unfortunate not-so-good stuff.

The good

One thing about the Sonic the Hedgehog series is that it has a pretty solid history with a successful start. While Nintendo had its success with Mario as its mascot, Sega tried to keep up with the rival company by introducing their own mascot, Sonic.

And in the beginning, the side-scrolling game was amazing. There’s a special place in everyone’s heart for the round, short classic Sonic, and you can’t beat that. If the Sonic games hadn’t evolved to what they’ve become today (and we’ll get to that point in a bit), maybe the idea of a movie wouldn’t sound so bad.

The other good part about this movie is that Deadpool director Tim Miller will be an executive producer on it. While he might not have the type of control a director would have, we’re hopeful that he has what it takes to make this movie at least somewhat as successful as Deadpool. The actual director for the film is Jeff Fowler, who hasn’t directed any major films as of yet.

The bad

Here’s where we get into murky waters with the movie, and where we’ll place the James Marsden casting news. Marsden really is brilliant as in actor, especially in Westworld. But we have to ask, what kind of business does he have in a movie like this?

Variety, which broke the news about his casting, didn’t report if he’d play a lead live-action role, or will be Sonic himself. Either way, we’re hoping he’s not like Neil Patrick Harris in that Smurfs movie where he’s kind of just along for their shenanigans.

Then there’s the production company that has us worried. Paramount has a so-so record with its animated movies. For a time, Paramount owned DreamWorks, so we got films like Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar 2. Paramount has been soft on animated movies, giving us the second Spongebob Squarepants movie and Sherlock Gnomes under their belt recently. So, yeah, they have their work cut out for them.