Movie Review: Speed Racer May 14, 2008
Posted by Dan in Uncategorized.Tags: Movies
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So I saw Speed Racer over the weekend and I have to admit it was better than I thought it was gonna be. As usual I’ll keep this review spoiler free mainly because there’s not really much of a plot to spoil in this one. Don’t get me wrong I was a HUGE fan of the anime growing up (except for Spritle, I @#$!ing HATE Spritle! And Chim-chim isn’t much better) but I wasn’t sure how well it would work on the big screen.
If you’ve seen an episode of the show then you know the basic premise of the movie, Speed comes from a family of racers and race car designers. When he was younger his older brother Rex “died” in a race after getting into a fight with Pops Racer. Pops has reservations about letting Speed race at first but it wouldn’t be much of a show/movie if he didn’t. The movie is basically the same thing except a lot flashier and more colorful. The majority of the movie was filmed in front of a green screen so they are able to do all kinds of spiffy effects and visuals that they wouldn’t be able to do with real cars and the tracks could only exist in some F/X guys imagination.
My biggest problem with the movie is there are times when it seems like they do things with the effects not because it’s necessary but because they can do it and in the final race there are parts where it’s a little hard to follow exactly what’s going on but I do have to say overall I did like the movie. Yes Spritle and Chim-chim are in it but they are toned down from the annoying little @#$!s that were in the anime so they are at least semi-tolerable. On a scale of 1-5 I’d give it a 3, enjoyable but it’s not gonna win any awards.
I’m definetly planning on seeing this, just seems like the kind of movie that would be better on the big screen.
And because the Wachowski brothers directed it I figured there would be a lot of F/X that seemed like they did it because they could, I felt the same way about the later matrix movies.
I’d definitely recommend seeing it on the big screen. It’s bright and flashy and theres so much going on at points that it’s nice to be able to see it all right there instead of on a cramped TV screen.
The Wachowski bros certainly put a lot of effort into making Speed Racer… the movie overall looked and felt like a cross between anime, a kaleidoscope, that Flintstones movie, a video game and the Dukes of Hazard
You know that’s actually a pretty good description of the movie too!
I’d like to think a Royal Rainbow threw up on it. XD I should mosey down to see it anyway.
Like I said, if your bored and have an afternoon to kill it’s worth watching. It’s definitely a very colorful movie.
I think it was worth one good viewing on the big screen, and I’ll be honest, I was mostly just in it for Christina Ricci (aka the most beautiful thing to ever walk this earth), but it was a fun ride though. I came into not having never watched the cartoon so I knew nothing about the storyline or characters. All I knew was that I wanted that Spritle kid to die a slow and painful death by the time thing was over. I could have done without him altogether. I wouldn’t say it was a great movie, but I would definitely recommend checking it out at least once.
Remember the part with the nija’s uncle dan lol