speed racer? yeah, pretty good actually
We have been told on a number of occasions by people whose opinions we trust that Speed Racer was actually pretty good. Which was surprising, because even though I really wanted to see it, the reviews had convinced me otherwise.
Last night, we learned it was still playing on IMAX and went to check it out for ourselves.
The IMAX theatre here in Toronto (@ John and Richmond) fits close to a thousand people. There were about eight of us when the lights went out. It was like our own personal home IMAX. Pretty awesome.
A lack of audience doesn’t bode so well for the Wachowskis however… which is sad, because you know how - maybe a year ago - you heard rumors about this flick being mind-blowing? They were all true.
The movie was excellent, saturated with colour and movement - the best kind of drug-free head-trip. The plot was easy to follow and entertaining - I didn’t think it felt overly long at all. The races were speedily kinetic and weirdly pneumatic - mesmerizing to watch. The acting was definitely one dimensional, but in a knowing way that perfectly fitted it’s source material - a cartoon. It did all this in a manner that was pretty wholesome and family friendly, so feel free to bring kids along (not too young of course, there is a bit a of implied violence - although no worse than the Home Alone movies). It was like nothing else I’ve ever seen, which is the only reason I can fathom it got such lousy reviews.
It was a great big, larger than life, caricature of the original.
A living, breathing manga.
The way the images evoked the intense world of extreme diagonals, flat characters and dense set-pieces inside Japanese comic books was breathtaking. I could see the black lines dancing at the edges of the actors faces, as though the movie would fall back into ink and newsprint at any moment.
We left the theatre charged up and energized in a way I haven’t felt in a long time - probably since I was a kid and we went to see the big blockbusters and Disney cartoons. I definitely didn’t feel that way when leaving the theatre from Ironman (which I found merely entertaining).
To anyone that is in any way a fan of Japanese art, or art in general, don’t believe Rotten Tomatoes, this movie is a must see (so go see it now if/while you still can).
Mirrored from b e t h m a h e r . c o m.