Movie Review: Speed Racer

by Todd Maternowski

Speed Racer is an easy movie to watch: like the vintage 60s Japanese cartoon it's based off, the movie zips forward enjoyably, with few surprises and a singularity of purpose. In Speed Racer, the heroes drive fast, the villains are easy to hate and the outcomes are never in doubt. For fans of light, airy and entertaining movies, this is for you. For those of you wanting plot twists, character arcs and/or clever dialog, you'd best look elsewhere.

First, a quick admission: I never watched the original show. Not that I didn't try --it was just too boring, too plain, and too predictable, especially when Transformers and Voltron were engaging my impressionable brain. Fortunately, the movie is neither boring nor plain, providing a sumptuous feast for your optic nerves throughout the entirety of its' 130 minute run time.

Say what you will about the cardboard characters, wooden acting or loopy plot structure: the film moves. The visuals and cinematography are borderline revolutionary, assaulting the eyes with a pounding barrage of color, action, movement and pop. With two notable exceptions, every single scene is as purposefully unrealistic as possible, full of vibrant mod art colors, furniture, buildings and background scenery. Emulating the cartoon that spawned it, Speed Racer delivers the closest approximation to anime ever before put on the big screen --for now.

With each passing year, the ante is upped when it comes to CGI, with suddenly-commercially-successful directors finding new ways to spend every dollar of their vast budgets. And like most CGI-driven films, the movie suffers in all the predictable areas.

Written and directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski, makers of the fine sci-fi movie The Matrix (as well as its two self-indulgent craptacular sequels) Speed Racer is surprisingly dark and awkwardly complex for a pure "kid's movie." Right off the bat, Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) loses his hero/older brother to racing, the sport that seems to dominate the movie's tight little world. In an opening race that spastically moves from present to past to ghost-future and back again, we establish that Speed is following in the charred footsteps of his brother Rex, who may or may not have been a bad guy before going up in flames racing against nefarious underworld types. In the process, Rex turned his back and walked out on his family, who promptly disowned him. Not exactly Care Bears plot material here.

Speed wins his race, of course, which sets the story rolling down a hill that includes Eastern European mobsters, stock price manipulation, fixed races, false heroes and father-son drama. Through it all, Speed is characteristically only comfortable when he's behind the wheel of the Mach 5. Emile Hirsch plays the one-note Speed with about as much depth and breadth as the character warrants; Christina Ricci --who seems to have morphed into a chihuahua over the last few years-- is perfectly cast as Trixie, Speed's protective rich girlfriend. Ricci's huge brown eyes and elfen haircut seem ripped straight out of traditional anime.

The rest of the cast is not asked to do much, and they perform their bits well. Susan Sarandon plays Speed's mom, who gives tearful speeches and makes PB&Js when the going gets rough. John Goodman ably plays Fred Flin--er, Pops Racer, the former wrestler-turned-auto-inventor who convincingly has a change of heart towards the end of the film. Roger Allam, looking like a manic Al Gore, plays the intensely evil corporate villain Royalton, and Matthew Fox plays Racer X, a character eerily similar to the Sphinx in Mystery Men: terribly mysterious, with similar guru-like dialog.

Unfortunately, Paulie Litt as Speed's little brother Spritle and ChimChim failed, for the most part, as the comic relief. With a few notable exceptions, Spritle is about as funny and likeable as the German kid in Willy Wonka, while ChimChim is simply annoying when he's not flinging his own feces. The under-ten set may have a different take on these two, however, and parents may want to check their trunks for stowaways the first few months after taking the kids to see this film.

Ultimately, the movie boils down to just one thing: racing. Fortunately, the racing is entertaining enough to keep the film moving. While a great deal of the racing is overly cartoonish and predictable, the combination of stunning special effects and background sets is actually pretty entertaining. Fans of games like Super Mario Kart will no doubt be enthralled by some of the racing scenery, particularly the second big race which occurs across two continents. Like a lot of CGI-heavy special effects movies, the action sequences can be annoyingly difficult to follow --did Racer X just kick his own ass? In which direction does gravity work in this world?-- but the objectives are clear, the villains are fun, and the graphics don't become seizure-inducing until the end of the final race.

Speed Racer is a first of its kind --a live-action anime movie-- and, depending on weekend box office receipts, likely the progenitor of an endless array of similar films in the future. And like most CGI-dominated films, the special effects and visual poetry of the movie will fade over time, and end up looking amateurish within a few years. But right here, right now, Speed Racer is an enjoyable and entertaining waste of two hours.

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