I love Keanu Reeves' mostly performances. Yes, that matrix And John Wick The actor may not have a wide range of acting styles, but his somewhat soulful, sometimes flat delivery can work for a variety of roles. He has successfully played the stoic lead actor in films like the one mentioned above matrix And John Wickand more comedic roles that highlight his sillier side Bill & Ted or when he played a fictional version of himself Always be my maybe. Sometimes it doesn't always translate and you get harsh performances like his role in the romantic drama The lake house or the much-maligned serial killer movie The Guardianwhich earned him a nomination for Worst Supporting Actor in Razzies in 2000. Reeves has a special set of skills that, when used well, can really shine. But my God, I know he's capable of more than he lets on Sonic X Shadow Generations DLC to commemorate what's to come Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Film.
Shadow generationsthe excellent campaign of the black and red hedgehog, which runs parallel to the original Sonic Generationsreceived a free update to promote the new film, which opens December 20th. It includes a new level based on the film's depiction of Tokyo, and places Shadow in this other dimension and transforms 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 grunting when he jumps and attacks and his internal monologue. I was excited to get a little taste of what Reeves might sound like in the role of Shadow in the film, but his Tokyo-level performance is enough “This wizard came from the moon” Steps of stilts.
There are many reasons why this can happen. Reeves is a talented actor, but I imagine his time as a bona fide A-lister probably doesn't come cheap. So I can't imagine there were many recorded takes for Reeves' lines. I had the same suspicions about that ankle Paramount+ seriesthe Idris Elba's Knuckles noticeably missing over longer periods of time. During live action sound While the series is working with some of Hollywood's biggest names and using Paramount money, it will never be able to spend that much money on the games – one way to cut expenses is to cut back on recording sessions. I wouldn't be surprised if Reeves recorded his lines for this Shadow generations DLC in a single session, possibly a quick extra while he was in the cabin.
Take, for example, this line from Shadow’s inner monologue during the Tokyo level: “A beautiful city. It looks like Mary was describing the Earth.” Aside from this already being an awkward sentence, the way this line is delivered somehow sounds like it was pieced together from a few different takes or that it was Keanu's first and only attempt at learning it just as he was learning the lines. The awkward pauses, the disjointed intonations – Reeves has delivered better line readings than this.
This isn't the first time Reeves has made jerky appearances in video games. His role as Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077 spans the entire open-world RPG, and anyone who has to read thousands of lines for a video game will have a quality gap from their best and worst days in the studio. But I hear these lines Shadow generations and wonder how much time Reeves spent reading this script. I can't imagine Sega would have much to do if these were the settings they were putting into the game. Ultimately the DLC is free and I will never complain about having more Shadow generationsbut I'm happy to hear people was more impressed with his work Sonic the Hedgehog 3 when I was in this new level.
