Look out, Speed!
Went with Sparky (still no pun intended) to see Speed Racer this afternoon. I imagine anyone reading this who'd be interested in seeing it has done so already, so there's really not much to add, except that I agree with the prevailing (non-critical) opinion out there -- it was a lot of fun, had a lot of heart, and was easily the most kinetic movie I've ever seen.
I will say that I had been sitting on what I thought was a spoiler since the very first time I saw the trailer. The trailer shows the traditional Mach 5 (which still looks awesome, 30 years later), and a much more advanced-looking Mach 6. I assumed that at some point the Mach 5 would be stolen, destroyed, or both, leaving the Racer family to heroically construct the new-and-improved Mach 6 in time for the Big Race. I was a little disappointed that what I thought was a major plot point was given away so blatantly...and I was totally wrong. Oh, the Mach 6 does get built in the expected heroic construction montage scene, but the Mach 5 is just fine -- see, the Mach 6 is for track racing only, whereas the Mach 5 is evidently street-legal. That way, the movie gets the best of both worlds -- they get to use the traditional car in the sort of races that always showed up in the cartoon...inexplicably racing across deserts, up the sides of mountains, that sort of thing...while also showcasing the shiny new CGI car on the giant Hot Wheels tracks that official racers evidently use in this world. And on the side, they get to fulfill the childhood fantasy of every five-year-old who ever watched the cartoon -- getting picked up from school in the Mach 5. Very clever, Wachowski brothers.
Anyway, a perfectly enjoyable kids' movie, and I suspect they would have made a lot more money if they'd advertised it that way in the first place. Looks to me like Warners' marketing department not only dropped the ball, but punted the ball down a sewer after setting it on fire first.
I will say that I had been sitting on what I thought was a spoiler since the very first time I saw the trailer. The trailer shows the traditional Mach 5 (which still looks awesome, 30 years later), and a much more advanced-looking Mach 6. I assumed that at some point the Mach 5 would be stolen, destroyed, or both, leaving the Racer family to heroically construct the new-and-improved Mach 6 in time for the Big Race. I was a little disappointed that what I thought was a major plot point was given away so blatantly...and I was totally wrong. Oh, the Mach 6 does get built in the expected heroic construction montage scene, but the Mach 5 is just fine -- see, the Mach 6 is for track racing only, whereas the Mach 5 is evidently street-legal. That way, the movie gets the best of both worlds -- they get to use the traditional car in the sort of races that always showed up in the cartoon...inexplicably racing across deserts, up the sides of mountains, that sort of thing...while also showcasing the shiny new CGI car on the giant Hot Wheels tracks that official racers evidently use in this world. And on the side, they get to fulfill the childhood fantasy of every five-year-old who ever watched the cartoon -- getting picked up from school in the Mach 5. Very clever, Wachowski brothers.
Anyway, a perfectly enjoyable kids' movie, and I suspect they would have made a lot more money if they'd advertised it that way in the first place. Looks to me like Warners' marketing department not only dropped the ball, but punted the ball down a sewer after setting it on fire first.