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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: Speed Racer (2008)
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Mark Lensenmayer
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1605
From: Upper Arlington, OH
Registered: Sep 1999
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posted 05-27-2008 12:14 PM
Seen at AMC Easton AMC Imax (Theater 14) on Sunday, May 25 at 10:40 am. (Yes, we still go to the cheap shows!!)
quote:
"Let's Hear It For The Monkey" -- Gitarzan (Ray Stevens)
Actually, I thought the monkey was one of the BETTER parts of this movie!
This is one big mess. Hey, Brothers, want to make this movie a WHOLE lot better. Cut out that entire next-to-last race sequence...you know, the one where the good guys help win the race for the Asian guy. Just throw that away..junk it. Have Speed Racer get his Golden Ticket from a Wonka Bar and GET ON WITH IT!!
I have to agree with Evil Sam on one Point...it sure looked pretty on the mighty 50' Imax "Junior". Colors were bright and popped off the screen. Unfortunately, any time there was a fast horizontal move, the image couldn't keep up smoothly and there was a severe "jagged" effect...almost a double image.
What happened to the "Special Camera" the Brothers were using? In some interviews, actors in the film talked about a special camera the had guards around it to keep it secret. This camera kept everything front to back in the frame in perfect focus, much like a comic book. In a promotional trailer shown on TIVO, this effect is very obvious in some of the scenes. The effect was VERY VERY creepy. I didn't see any of this effect in the final version. Maybe they kept it just for the Japanese "Live Action Anime" version.
This movie is a giant, live-action comic book. I almost expected to see BOP, BANG, POW, like the old BATMAN show. Some of the dialog was just too silly. The film couldn't make up its mind whether it was for kids or adults. The children in the theatrer got VERY agitated in that slow section between the last two races.
Actors were almost not necessary here...they had to read their lines and stay out of the way of the effects.
Wife and I both gave this a C-. Not the worst we've ever seen, and certainly not the best. We were prepared for a "not so good" movie, and this picture perfectly delivered that!
This Imax MPX projector does not seem to have as steady an image as the GT model. When credits were shown on the GT unit they used to have at the local Marcus, the letters were absolutly rock solid, looking more like a slide than a moving image. On the MPX, there is a very distinct horizontal jitter.
My compliments to the AMC Easton Imax crew. I've been very critical of them before, especially about dirt level, and dirt sticking to the field flattener. This presentation was almost completely dirt-free. And they sure put out a bright, colorful image.
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Stu Jamieson
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 524
From: Buccan, Qld, Australia
Registered: Jan 2008
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posted 06-21-2008 07:20 PM
Ooh, all the pretty colours! The colour saturation is so intense it's almost enough to make one's eyes bleed! There's no doubt about it, Speed Racer looks like a cartoon come to life, indeed everything about this film is as garish as its colour palette, from it's neon-bright CGI to Susan Sarandon's faux mega rack which is almost but not quite as convincing as that sported by Ms. Lara Croft.
The film runs solely on primitive emotions consisting of all the tawdry clichés such as love, hate, greed, jealousy etc and the histrionics are never allowed to mix - a strict quota of one emotion per character at any one time applies. Subtlety is not in this films vocabulary but this is a kids movie so it can be excused for keeping it's themes simple and its characters firmly black or white (or rather a gaudy red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo or violet as is more likely the case here.)
But as a kiddies movie it also frequently strays from the mark. Writer/directors, Andy and Larry Wachowski, spend far too much time mapping out the detail of a corporate subplot involving white collar crime and company takeovers, a narrative which is completely incongruous with its target audience. The film also periodically yawns with gratuitous sentimentality which will drive its young viewers towards more interesting endeavours such as searching for that lost lolly under their seat.
Speed Racer, however, comes alive with its high octane race sequences which will no doubt segue seamlessly with inevitable video game tie-ins. As spectacular as its CGI is, though, it's also very unrealistic. The cars look like bars of soap sliding around a bath tub. There's no sensation of friction; the vehicles don't even look like they're attempting to be real cars with tyres pulling traction on real roads. Although it's somewhat fitting that a cheap cartoon would spawn correspondingly cheap CGI, the albeit exhilarating race sequences consequently miss the opportunity to be truly awesome.
It's ultimately a vacuous experience, the dialogue is predominantly daft and its running time is about one race too long, but for all that there's still enough entertainment value in its spectacularly staged race sequences to maintain sufficient interest and to deem it unworthy of the "megaflop" mantle it has been burdened with.
6.5 out of 10
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