I know that what a lot of people have in mind is that Speed Racer is pretty much for kids. The colors, the cars, the storyline, pretty much anything makes people feel like this movie is simply for the really young. To that, with a lot of respect,...
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I know that what a lot of people have in mind is that Speed Racer is pretty much for kids. The colors, the cars, the storyline, pretty much anything makes people feel like this movie is simply for the really young. To that, with a lot of respect, I must disagree. I’ve seen this film yesterday and I can tell you that Speed Racer is truly an incredible show for the eyes and the imagination. ‘Cause we all just need a little “boost�.

Speed Racer, a race driver with a lot of talent, tries to follow the step of his brother, Rex Racer, who died in a car crash. After having refused a contract for Royalton Industries, he will team up with a mysterious driver, called Racer X, to stop the corruption and business in the world of the WRL put in place by the boss of Royalton Industries. But they will not let them win so easily.

I must say that the movie didn’t really started greatly at all. Not just because it’s kinda slow, but also because it’s just too green-screen driven. What do I mean? Well they simply use the green screen way too much instead of true scenery. I know that the universe of Speed Racer is huge and I respect that (in fact, I like that that) but in the first hour, you don’t believe much of the movie since it’s so flashy. But when you’re finally into this world, this is where the film really picks up. The entire scenario only works when the audience becomes a little kid, but without destroying itself by having no sense per moment, which is always the major flaw with kid movies. The highlights here are the racing scenes, especially at the end, which are always incredibly rendered, incredibly crazy, and there are pretty much always crashes. Still, the normal scenes are not that bad. They are good, and they never really fall into that embarrassing side of the movie which Speed Racer was caught in at the start. And that’s better because if it was that, the movie would have been painful, childish as hell, and not good. But anyway the racing parts are awesome. Both the casting and acting in Speed Racer are… good. There are not groundbreaking, but it’s still acceptable after all. Emile Hirsch is a great choice for the main character since he appeared in numerous great movies since some time. John Goodman, Susan Sarandon and Roger Allan are also allright here, and finally the casting of Matthew Fox as Racer X is great. We don’t see his face a whole lot in this movie, and his acting is over-the-top (just like everything else), but he does a good here. The only big complain I have here is Spritle and his ape which are just annoying. I mean I know these were in the original series, but damn, maybe you can do a better job here. There’s also Christina Ricci which never really work at full throttle here, but there’s nothing to worry about here. After all, this is her first big release movie, so we can hope that it actually gets better with time, which it will certainly… maybe.

Just like I said earlier, this is totally driven by green screen and CGI since this is such a flashy universe. I think we must say that I don’t think we can do a big part of Speed Racer with real scenery and if we can, it will cost a whole bunch of money. Anyway, they only work when you finally believe in the universe. In fact, Speed Racer only, and I mean, only works when the audience find its child heart. I’m not a psy at all, but you certainly understand what I mean. To this moment, the movie wasn’t received very well, and I think it’s simply because they have to do their job of movie critic and they always have to point out the little flaws so they never take off at all. If you do, prepare yourself for one big hell of a trip.

The ending, or should I say the “final race�, was simply amazing, and was easily the best part of the movie. The stunts, the acting, the crashes, all of the things that have make Speed Racer a good entertaining film in the end. You just leave the theatre really satisfied of the ending, like if the entire film was great. Oh! And one last piece of advice: please. Leave the cinema at the moment the credits begin, because they are not great at all.

This is, again, another guilty pleasure. But here it’s not because the movie was bad, far from it. It’s just because Speed Racer is pretty much aimed to people that are ready to be a child for 2 hours. The movie was fun and thrilling for the last hour or so, and it’s simply amazing when you think about it that they have taken such colourful, energetic world and they have succeeded to keep it on track. But anyway, there were not much people at the screening, and that’s sad because I really enjoyed this movie a lot, whatever I know the real reasons or not.

Oh and by the way, my mom said that a parent and its kids actually walked out of the cinema because it was too violent. In fact, it not only has big explosions, but also little gunfights. Proof that it’s not that childish, ****