Speed Racer: the Movie

There’s a good chance that I’m the only one in this group that enjoyed Speed Racer. It was not cinematic gold but it kept me mostly entertained for the two hours and fifteen minutes of its running time. I guess in some fairness I have more history with the series than anyone else in the crew. I was introduced to the show while in middle school and it was rather like a joining of two awesome things, James Bond-esque cars and animation. I had a bonding with the silly plots and the weird cars that crisscrossed in a weird wonderland of joy. I doubt I’ve seen the entire series, just bits and pieces but they all had this feel to them that was really unique.

Fast forward to a little before this summer. News of the Speed Racer the movie is bubbling up, and a few preproduction stills are passed to the press, especially the early shot of the Mach 5, and my little kid self pops up and says “New Speed Racer?” and then did an excited little dance. Then I find out the Wachowski Bros. are doing it, my hopes dipped a little; still disappointed with the way the second two Matrix films went. But I still held out hope. Then the first trailers were dropped on us.

My hopes were not dashed by the trailers … but my expectations were changed. This was the first glimpse of race footage … and well it was odd. The tracks were these insane roller-coaster looking monstrosities that looked more at home in a video game than Speed Racer and the intensity of the colors was want to make my eyes bleed. But that thought lead me to something of a personal revelation about the race style, it was less like the classic F1 style and more like F-Zero. Once my mind had accepted that I wasn’t so thrown off by how the race scenes looked like acid trips. I was still rather nervous about the whole premise though, since it seemed like my memories of Speed Racer were being tossed aside in favor of the super sugar eye candy special effects. Despite reservations I was still really looking forward to seeing the film since to my adolescent self a Speed Racer movie would be fun if nothing else.

Well I finally came to a screening of it. Before going into the film I had read two reviews on the web, the lowest and the highest on Google. The person who gave it the lowest review was watching it because it was his job. He was reasonably fair but with no attachment to anything it seemed he really just didn’t care. The other reviewer was more inline with how I ended up feeling about the film; noting too amazing but it an enjoyable distraction. So slightly primed for the best and worst of the reviews I ponied up my ticket fare and walked into the theatre.

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While my eyes adjusted to the monochromatic closing credits, I was still seeing sweeps of technicolor across everything. I mused that I was quietly at peace with the experience. I had some gripes but all in all I was quite pleased.

• The look of Speed Racer was by in large still intact.
• The races were the more interesting and important elements of the film and they were quite good at that.
• The Mach 5 was resplendent in all its CGI gloss.
• Racer X was a cool as ever.
• Speed won the race and got the girl, just like Brian Boitano would do.

Almost everything I expected was in the film. OH! and the air jacks were done expertly, handled with such style and panache that they leveled several of the lamer elements. My inner purist geek was pleased to see the classic Speed Racer pose still made and appearance and that his original costume also was in it for quite some time. But that didn’t quite cover some of the elements that left me cold.

Obviously no film is quite perfect, although there are many that make a good run at it, and such there are places that I wish had been done better or were just too much.

• The first one that comes to mind is the “duel” between Speed’s hub shield and the other driver’s tire spike. OMG that was so ridiculously lame. If they had collided and then separated and then used their cars to try and maneuver their weapons into position I would have been fine, but … they reach for little joysticks have a fight with the spike and shield like they were at the Ren Faire. I don’t know who dreamed that up but, no. Not OK.
• Next is the fight between Team Racer and the low level mafia group on top of the mountains. It was kinda fun for the first minute … but after that the speed lines and the hyper cut style of the scene became wearisome and I wanted to get back to the racing because that was rather cool. I doubt the fight was very long but it felt like it was really dragging on.
• Trixie is suddenly a ace class driver. This is huge mis-step, that could have been easily avoided. A turn on the simulator or some other race thing where Trixie does as well or better than Speed, during one of the flash back sequences could have dodged this bullet by a mile.
• This last one is more of nit pik but the geek purist in me needs to say something. Speed did not drive the Mach 5 in the final race. I know why they did it and I understand why they did it … but no. The Mach 5 > Speed Racer, the original japanese title was Mach 5 Go Go Go! In many ways the Mach 5 is more important than the driver. But that’s largely an issue of semantics and personal feelings.

With all these considerations I’d say this is a good low brow sort of film. The visual crush of the graphics is like a sugar induced adrenaline rush. I doubt it will induce epileptic seizures but it is very very bright and there are times when there are lots of flashes during the races. The overall effect to me was that it wasn’t Speed Racer yet it was so very much like it that I had fun. There are some elements that may go over kids heads, but that’s not always a bad thing, might give them something to reflect on if/when they watch it again. So it’s a good popcorn/cotton candy movie, less like steak and potatoes.

Grade: B, 80% — A solid effort with a few fumbles along the way. Over all fun. Kick back and let the technicolor flow over you. Be aware my sense of nostalgia may be tainting the score about +10% or so.