brilliantbrown

If you have issues with suspending disbelief, then skip Speed Racer. If you don’t have a sense of humor, then skip Speed Racer. If your inner child is all grown up, then skip Speed Racer.

This is a film that makes no apologies about what it is and what it isn’t. This is a film about racing, crashing and speed. This is a film for kids… and I recommend you see it.

It may not be marketed as such, but the Brothers Wachowski have for all intents and purposes created an incredibly awesome movie for the Nickelodeon generation. The color palette was designed with EVERY crayon in the box. The plot is relatively simple. Most of the characters are incredibly two dimensional at best and hilariously stereotypical at worst.

Now, I’ve criticized other films for simple plots; so why now am I choosing to ignore what appears to be a similar flaw in Speed Racer?

As I said earlier, this is an unapologetic film. It makes no pretense as to it’s level of seriousness. It’s pure fun and spectacle. There’s not much else, so if that’s not what you’re looking for, then skip Speed Racer.

Personally, I was hooked. That primary color palette and over-the-top action work together so well with the Wachowski’s trademark incredible action sequences to create an experience that had me literally grinning from ear to ear as I watched and at times even laughing out loud. When I say the action sequences were incredible, I mean they were IN-CRED-IBLE. There’s this amazing fight sequence that happens in the snow that is just visually beautiful. It falls somewhere between Sin City and the Matrix. It was insane.

The Wachowskis also pioneered what can only be called Car-Fu. So much of the action of Speed Racer takes place in the cars, so the major battles also take place in the cars. This means that they had to find a visually interesting way to present these battles. And thus Car-Fu was born. The vehicles spin, jump and ram each other as the drivers do battle using their vehicles not as weapons, but as extensions of their bodies. It’s like a combinations of Death Race 2000, Hong Kong Kung Fu and Wacky Races. It was EPIC. I was really just having a blast from the opening credits to the close.

But, perhaps I’m a little biased because I love cars so much that I think “the Fast and the Furious” series has artistic merit. Or maybe it’s because my inner child is the dominate aspect of my personality. Maybe that’s the case, but I don’t care. Speed Racer was an epic time and if you’ve gotten this far into my review, I’d recommend you see it.

Edit: I said when I posted the trailer that this was going to be a polarizing film. Either you’ll love it or hate it. And it seems that I’m right. I’ve spent some time reading other reviews and either they’re glowing with praise or filled with venom. The average score of 5/10 is indicative of this Pass or Fail kind of film.

In my opinion, a film that doesn’t try to please everyone is quite often the best kind of film. So my opinion stands in the face of the naysayers.