The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has become quite the anomaly in the entertainment realm. Amidst a landscape where television shows take years in between seasons and many major films take half a decade to get off the ground, Sonic has consistently put out a new installment every two years. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that, against all odds, the films somehow manage to get better each time.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 continues the modern trend of major franchises prioritizing the introduction of new characters over established stalwarts. Shadow the Hedgehog (Keanu Reeves) is a beloved figure in Sonic lore, making his debut in Sonic Adventure 2, the swan song for the Dreamcast, Sega’s final piece of hardware. The Dreamcast’s entire original demographic is old enough to have kids of their own, a reality never lost on the filmmakers.

The plot is fairly cookie-cutter, if not a little overly complicated. Shadow wakes up from fifty years in suspended hibernation to seek revenge on the Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N.) that put him there. Team Sonic, now composed of the titular hedgehog (Ben Schwartz), Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey), and Knuckles (Idris Elba) are summoned by G.U.N. Director Rockwell (Krysten Ritter) to stop Shadow from wreaking havoc on one of their facilities. Shadow quickly overpowers all three, while a surprise attack casts suspicion on G.U.N. as an organization, causing Team Sonic to form an uneasy alliance with arch-nemesis Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey).

While the narrative often throws a little too much chaos energy into the mix, director Jeff Fowler does an excellent job juggling the film’s many moving pieces. 3 corrects many of the mistakes of the second film, particularly its over-emphasis on the human characters. James Marsden and Tika Sumpter largely take a backseat role, while Jim Carrey performs double duty as the Eggman and his grandfather Dr. Gerald Robotnik, the head of Project Shadow who spent the last fifty years imprisoned. Carrey’s character work is particularly powerful, elevating the script above its mostly juvenile ambitions.

Reeves brings ample emotional depth to Shadow, without much of the forced humor that was dumped on Knuckles in the last film. Fowler takes his time building up the newcomer over the course of the 110-minute runtime. That does come at the expense of the titular hero, who largely plays second-fiddle to Shadow and the Robotniks. There’s an interesting subplot concerning teamwork within Team Sonic that doesn’t receive as much attention as it deserved. Tails and Knuckles aren’t given enough to do, perhaps to be expected with the amount of principal characters.

The script shows some legitimate improvements over the last two. There are a few pop culture references too many, but plenty of the jokes land. The filmmakers are clearly aware of how many adults are in the audience. There’s a lot of humor that no child would possibly understand, and a few fun references to Sonic lore.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is not exactly great art, but Fowler deserves a lot of credit for competent blockbuster filmmaking. 3 is a major improvement over the first two. The franchise juggles the space between mainstream appeal and children’s fare quite well, even if it’s a little too preoccupied with low-hanging fruit. Beyond that, consistency is something sorely lacking across the modern entertainment sphere. Sonic may not fully capture the Sega zeitgeist, but it’s certainly an enjoyable time at the theater.