Speed Racer: The IMAX Experience

Shiny.

Shiny, shiny, shiny, and yet again shiny. Is there an object or person in this film not shellacked within an inch of its/his/her life? Wait, I know the answer to that. When I mentally compile a list of "Things I'd like to see 40 feet high", the phrase "John Goodman's Pores" does not appear in the top 10. Or the top 375. (Christina Ricci's legs, however, hover at about number 12.)

I have the benefit of being able to write about this film after having seen the box office returns. It appears that this little-$100-million-film-that-could was outdrawn by a rather threadbare-looking Cameron Diaz/Ashton Kutcher comedy with a plot ripped from a threadbare-looking Kate Hudson/Matthew McConaughey comedy. The film barely escapes deserving this fate, but I do feel it's better than the pummeling it's been given by the press would lead you to believe.

Complaints about lack of plot abound. I won't dignify them with a response. This is a film based on a Japanese cartoon about car racing. This is not a Wachowski Brothers remake of "Ugetsu". This movie should have cars. Lots of cars. They should go fast. Very fast. The rest is filler, and the less of that the better. The plot, such as it is, concerns Speed Racer and his confrontation with the seamy, money-grubbing side of futuristic auto racing. Luckily for the viewer, he decides to play out his moral quandary by participating in a number of impressive but not particularly meditative car races. *Spoilers ahead* Good triumphs and evil is vanquished. *Spoilers end here.*

The film has a lot going for it. The cast, while underused and made subservient to drifting reactor-powered racecars, is mostly solid. Emile Hirsch makes all that he can out of his few scenes which require real acting ability and looks pretty good under a helmet. Susan Sarandon and John Goodman could do these roles in their sleep, but they acquit themselves well considering the wardrobe (her) and facial hair (him) choices forced on them by their characters. Christina Ricci, that love child of Louise Brooks and an anime character, has been down this path before and remains plucky and watchable in her 30th retread of the spunky can-do female lead. Supporting roles are mostly filled well, with the exception of Matthew Fox as Racer X. When scowling and frowning are beyond your range and you seem unconvincing as someone whose eyes we don't see until three-quarters of the way into the movie, you might want to consider some acting lessons. Or maybe some more acting lessons.

This is not to say there aren't problems. The film is too long. It suffers from many Charlie-and the-Chocolate-Factory-type scenes that seem designed just to show off a set or a particular digital effect. One climactic car race would have been quite enough and saved the audience another 30 minutes of viewing time. The race scenes are sometimes chaotically shot, violating the 180-degree rule or obscuring a crucial piece of information with a bit of flying debris. A problem particular to IMAX viewings is that, surprisingly, many of the digital effects show their seams when shown on a larger screen. Backgrounds look plastic and unconvincing, or a ragged edge of pixels shows around some shiny object or another. The Wachowskis don't seem to have the same affection for the material that we saw in their earlier projects, even the misbegotten ones. There's a certain love that drives the creation of worlds so complete and closed as we saw in "The Matrix", and "Speed Racer" feels strangely tossed-off in comparison. Of course, that certain love also spawned the most infamous use of dreadlocks in film since Jar Jar Binks, so perhaps we have blessings to count here instead that we are not watching a fourth "Matrix" film.

See this film if you have children. See it on an IMAX if you would like a candy-colored, empty-calorie way to pass an afternoon (or if you happen to have some pot you've been waiting to use up).

Otherwise, may I recommend: "The Fast and the Furious" (if you haven't seen it), "The Fast and the Furious" a second time (if you have), "Death Proof", "Thunder Road"