Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is well and truly outpacing Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s fascinating to compare the two most recent blockbuster movie releases, as their very different receptions point to two franchises at opposing stages of success. While the third Fantastic Beasts movie is hardly earning more than a shrug from audiences and critics alike, Sonic 2 is entertaining fans and reaping warm reviews.
Just look at the contrast in their Tomatometer scores. At the time of writing, the Harry Potter prequel film from Warner Bros. is, unfortunately, sitting on a rotten critics score of just 49% based on 187 reviews. That’s slightly better than Crimes of Grindelwald‘s 36%, but that’s not saying much. With first film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them sporting a Certified Fresh rating of 74%, it’s clear that the series has seriously fallen from grace in many people’s eyes.
Meanwhile, Sonic 2 has opened to a perfectly serviceable 68% critics score on the back of 147 reviews — that doesn’t quite qualify for Certified Fresh status but it does mean the sequel’s an improvement on its predecessor, with the 2020 origins story for the blue speedster coming in at 63%. Its audience score is much more impressive, with users rating it a near-perfect 97%.
To be fair, Fantastic Beasts 3‘s audience score is also much sturdier than its critics rating, as users have awarded it 85%. That actually makes it the most popular of the three so far with fans, with Where to Find Them shortly behind at 79% and Crimes bringing up the rear again with just 54%. That’s slightly encouraging, then, although the film’s disappointing box office haul proves that the public still isn’t all that excited for it.
Given these Tomatometer ratings, it’s no surprise that Paramount is sprinting ahead with Sonic 3 and some spinoffs while Warner Bros. is debating whether there’s enough magic left to fuel the two more Fantastic Beasts flicks that are planned. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore are playing in theaters now.
