They don't make ninjas like they used to
URGA MOTW
Speed Racer
To be honest, the current crop of movies this week didn't really inspire - my choices were between Prince Caspian, The Incredible Hulk and Speed Racer and I didn't have any amount of enthusiasm for any of them.
So Speed Racer became the choice due to others' votes... and it turned out to be a good one!
If you're prepared to accept the world presented to you at face value in this movie, then it's very enjoyable - it's not our world, that's obvious from the very start - everything is in bright colours and kind of cartoonish, race cars can do all sorts of amazing stunts and no driver ever dies in a crash (due to fancy foam bubbles that encase the driver when the car crashes or explodes). If you're happy to accept all this and the fact that car racing is the single most important thing (sport, lifestyle choice, industry) in the world, then this becomes an enjoyable and exciting ride for those who can put their brains into "kid" mode.
Basic plot: Speed Racer is a young up-and-coming racer, doing good things in his Mach 5 car, designed and built by his father. He and his family get approached to join the huge corporate racing team run by Roylston Industries, but after a lot of thought, Speed decides to decline the offer. Roylston is incensed and swears revenge - but also breaks Speed's perfect dream by revealing that most of the races are fixed, and it's all about business - how well a driver's team does affects stock prices so the fixing allows big businessmen like Roylston to buy and sell companies.
Speed soon finds himself fighting off other, more corrupt drivers at every turn, and agrees to fight back with the help of CIB's Inspector Detector (yup that's right) and the mysterious Racer X.
Ok, so yeah, it does follow a lot of sporting movie cliches, but it doesn't layer on the schmaltz too thick, and you've got to expect a somewhat simple plot in a movie squarely aimed at children. However, I reckon any young children who like cars will love this movie - even Speed's younger brother and his pet chimpanzee (the comic relief) aren't /too/ annoying for adults, although they do get close at times.
The style of the movie is where it rules - the bright colours, the cartoonish worlds, and the crazy CGI (both believeable and completely un-) makes it work, but the Wachowski brothers have also used some editing techniques to make the narrative well paced - blending current action with flashbacks/flashforwards in a way that's not confusing, and using the announcers "talking heads" to wipe from one perspective to another works very well and although I wouldn't necessarily say it's innovative, it certainly fits with the style of the movie.
So release your inner kid who always wanted to drive fast and loved the Speed Racer cartoon[1] and enjoy this spectacle for what it is.
8.5/10
[1] of which I remember not much more than the theme song
Speed Racer
To be honest, the current crop of movies this week didn't really inspire - my choices were between Prince Caspian, The Incredible Hulk and Speed Racer and I didn't have any amount of enthusiasm for any of them.
So Speed Racer became the choice due to others' votes... and it turned out to be a good one!
If you're prepared to accept the world presented to you at face value in this movie, then it's very enjoyable - it's not our world, that's obvious from the very start - everything is in bright colours and kind of cartoonish, race cars can do all sorts of amazing stunts and no driver ever dies in a crash (due to fancy foam bubbles that encase the driver when the car crashes or explodes). If you're happy to accept all this and the fact that car racing is the single most important thing (sport, lifestyle choice, industry) in the world, then this becomes an enjoyable and exciting ride for those who can put their brains into "kid" mode.
Basic plot: Speed Racer is a young up-and-coming racer, doing good things in his Mach 5 car, designed and built by his father. He and his family get approached to join the huge corporate racing team run by Roylston Industries, but after a lot of thought, Speed decides to decline the offer. Roylston is incensed and swears revenge - but also breaks Speed's perfect dream by revealing that most of the races are fixed, and it's all about business - how well a driver's team does affects stock prices so the fixing allows big businessmen like Roylston to buy and sell companies.
Speed soon finds himself fighting off other, more corrupt drivers at every turn, and agrees to fight back with the help of CIB's Inspector Detector (yup that's right) and the mysterious Racer X.
Ok, so yeah, it does follow a lot of sporting movie cliches, but it doesn't layer on the schmaltz too thick, and you've got to expect a somewhat simple plot in a movie squarely aimed at children. However, I reckon any young children who like cars will love this movie - even Speed's younger brother and his pet chimpanzee (the comic relief) aren't /too/ annoying for adults, although they do get close at times.
The style of the movie is where it rules - the bright colours, the cartoonish worlds, and the crazy CGI (both believeable and completely un-) makes it work, but the Wachowski brothers have also used some editing techniques to make the narrative well paced - blending current action with flashbacks/flashforwards in a way that's not confusing, and using the announcers "talking heads" to wipe from one perspective to another works very well and although I wouldn't necessarily say it's innovative, it certainly fits with the style of the movie.
So release your inner kid who always wanted to drive fast and loved the Speed Racer cartoon[1] and enjoy this spectacle for what it is.
8.5/10
[1] of which I remember not much more than the theme song