Review of Speed Racer

So I went and watched Speed Racer. I know the story line of the cartoon series from which it was derived, but wasn't sure what the movie was about. So, for the benefit of all, here is an excerpt from Wikipedia (bless them), explaining the synopsis of the movie [WARNING: Spoilers ahead]:

Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is an 18-year-old whose life and love has always been racing. Racing is "in his blood": his parents, Pops (John Goodman) and Mom (Susan Sarandon), run an independent business building racecars, and his brother, record-setting racer Rex Racer (Scott Porter), was killed in Speed's childhood in the running of the Casa Cristo, an incredibly intense cross-country racing rally notorious for rough and foul play. Before his death, Rex was rejected by his father for his choice to run the Casa Cristo, and publicly defamed for appearing to cheat underhandedly in a race. Now, Speed Racer is quickly sweeping the racing world with his artistic skill, driving the "Mach 5" of his father’s design, but remains interested only in the art of the race and the well-being of his family. When Mr. Royalton (Roger Allam), owner of conglomerate Royalton Industries, offers Speed an astoundingly luxurious lifestyle in exchange for signing to race with him, Speed is tempted but declines, knowing that his father would never wish Speed to sign with the very power-hungry corporations he so mistrusts. When Speed refuses Mr. Royalton’s offer, Royalton reveals that top corporate interests, including Royalton, are fixing races and cheating to gain profit, and then threatens Speed’s career success and very life when he still does not agree to sign on. When Royalton later proves ready to make good on his threats, Speed teams up with his girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci), his one-time rival, Racer X (Matthew Fox), and shifty Japanese racer Taejo Togokhan (Rain) to enter the Casa Cristo – known as "The Crucible" – in part of a plot to uncover the treacheries of Royalton and save the Racer business. Despite his father’s initial anger at his racing in the Crucible, his family eventually joins up as well, as Speed overcomes Royalton’s brutal team and many seemingly-unsurpassable obstacles to win the Casa Cristo, and, finally, the Grand Prix, returning racing to its true purpose and exposing Royalton’s corruption. Furthermore, it is revealed to the audience at the movie’s end that Rex did not really die (and also did not cheat), but instead underwent plastic surgery to reemerge as Racer X, helping his younger brother finally save his family and his sport.



Ok, so what did I think of the movie? Let's just say that it left me with a headache. The cinematography remained true to the concept of the cartoon, but in the movie, that turned out to be way too much. The scenes had way too many colors and the movements were too fast. Since it is a race car themed movie (with family values), a majority of the scenes were of cars racing, and with the abundance of CGI (which I digged) and colors added to this, it just left me confused. You had to really focus at times to see which car was which in the scenes, because everything turned out to be a blur. The storyline was weak - basically you know that in the end, Speed will win the races. And since it's themed around family values, you were bound to be bombarded with wishy washy family bonding. Plus, the addition of slapstick comedy by some characters were just uncalled for.

As for the acting, there was much to be desired. Emile Hirsch plays a geeky almost innocent like Speed Racer that was too overbearingly sweet for my taste. Though I did like how they made him look almost so much alike the cartoon character. Same goes to all the actors. John Goodman who plays Pops Racer (FYI, Spanish translators of the subtitles: Pops is the character's name, NOT in reference to "dad" or "papa" as he was translated into), did the only true to form characterization of the role. I was especially loathing the acting of Paulie Litt who plays Spritle (Speed's younger brother) - if anyone can be a bigger over-actor than Jim Carrey, this boy sure can. I was actually quite curious why Susan Sarandon choose to be in this movie - it is so out of her norm. But she added the earthly tone to this movie's otherwise over the top bubblegumness. The Japanese character Taejo Togokhan is played by a Korean actor and singer. And it was so badly done, I wonder why they choose him to play it. Matthew Fox, who plays Racer X, well, played a too serious character, so I have no comments on his acting, considering that for most of his scenes, he was wearing a mask anyway.

The Wachowski brothers wrote, directed as well as co-produced the movie. These were the same people that bought you the Matrix trilogy. I guess, after such gloomy dark movies, they decided to put color into this one. Way too much color. And in keeping up to doing exactly the opposite of the Matrix, most scenes in Speed Racer were done so fast, you can't see any slow moving bullets, much less race cars. This movie was actually developed way back in 1992 and since then has had many changes in writers, directors, producers, actors, etc etc. Joel Silver worked with the Wachowski brothers to make this movie into a family themed one. And because of that, I suppose the little ones would have more fun watching this movie than the people who grew up watching the cartoon version.

My Stargazing: 2 out of 5

Official Website: http://www.speedracerthemovie.warnerbros.com