I love Keanu Reeves’ performances most of the time. Yeah, the Matrix and John Wick actor maybe doesn’t have a huge range in terms of acting styles, but his somewhat soulful, sometimes flat delivery can work for a myriad of roles. He’s successfully played the stoic leading man in films like the aforementioned Matrix and John Wick, and more comedic roles that play into his goofier side, like Bill & Ted or when he played a fictionalized version of himself in Always Be My Maybe. Sometimes it doesn’t always translate, and you get rough performances like his role in the romantic drama The Lake House or the much-maligned serial killer movie The Watcher, which got him a Worst Supporting Actor nomination at the Razzies in 2000. Reeves has a particular set of skills that when utilized well can really shine. But my god, I know he’s capable of better than he gives in the Sonic X Shadow Generations DLC commemorating the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie.
Shadow Generations, the black-and-red hedgehog’s excellent campaign that runs parallel to the original Sonic Generations, received a free update to promote the new movie launching on December 20. It includes a new level based on the film’s depiction of Tokyo, and has Shadow transported to this other dimension, and changing into a new form: Reeves’ version of the character from the film. His model changes, but more importantly, so does his voice. Reeves voices the hedgehog for the level, including all the grunts when he jumps and attacks, and his inner monologue. I was excited to get a sneak-peek at what Reeves might sound like playing Shadow in the movie, but his delivery in the Tokyo level reaches “That Wizard came from the moon” levels of stilted.
There are plenty of reasons this can happen. Reeves is a talented actor, but I imagine that as a real A-lister, his time is probably not cheap. As such, I don’t imagine there were a lot of recorded takes for Reeves’ lines. I had the same suspicions toward the Knuckles Paramount+ series, which Idris Elba’s Knuckles is notably absent from for long stretches of time. While the live-action Sonic series works with some of the biggest names in Hollywood using Paramount money, it’s never going to be able to spend that sort of cash on the games—one way you could cut down on money spent is by cutting down recording sessions. I would not be surprised if Reeves recorded his lines for the Shadow Generations DLC in a single session, possibly a quick extra while he was in the booth.
For example, take this line from Shadow’s inner monologue during the Tokyo level: “A beautiful city. It looks like how Maria described the Earth.” Pushing aside that this is already an awkward sentence, the way this line is delivered somehow sounds both like it could have been spliced together from a couple of different takes or it was Keanu’s first and only crack at it just as he was learning the lines. The awkward pauses, the disjointed inflections—Reeves has delivered better line reads than this.
This isn’t the first time Reeves has given janky performances in video games. His role as Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077 extends throughout the whole open-world RPG, and anyone who has to read thousands of lines for a video game will have a gap in quality from their best and worst days in the studio. But I hear these lines in Shadow Generations and wonder just how much time Reeves spent reading this script. I can’t imagine Sega having a lot to work with if these were the takes they put in the game. In the end, the DLC is free and I will never complain about having more Shadow Generations, but I’m glad to hear people came away more impressed by his work in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 than I was in this new level.