Speed Racer: Slower Down, Speed

There is a simple problem with Speed Racer. It tries to do too much with every little part, in its attempts, it keeps you from enjoying the good parts. Good kung-fo is ruined by wiggling camera-work trying to add to the excitement, real-life action doesn't seem important when just seconds ago the characters were moving like cartoons with digital animation.

Speed Racer, taken in icon and name from the early Anime of scrolling frame to create the look of moving scenery, features the Racer family. They are Mom and Pops Racer (Susan Sarandon and John Goodman), Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch), his kid brother Sprottle and pet monkey Chim-Chim run Racer Motors all by themselves and their friend Sprocket. In addition, there's Speed's girlfriend, Trixie (Christini Ricci).

Speed is an A.D.D. kid who grows up to his dreams of doing one thing: racing to fulfill his lost brother's shoes. After initial success, he is offered a lucrative deal from Royalton Industries. After Speed turns down the offer, Royalton's founder (Roger Allam) reveals all the races are fixed for the sake of obtaining the greatest profit between companies and assures Speed he will never even finish a race if he goes against Royalton's wishes. In order to save racing and his family, he wll have to team up with the mysterious Racer X (Vantage Point's Matthew Fox) to help expose Royalton and his plans by winning the fixed races.

The storyline is nothing wrong, it's the whe way it is presented. The races go faster and have too much spinning for you to know when the cars are in control or not. The races are too faster where the colors blur. Every aspect of the scene isn't colored, its highlighted beyond belief. The light shines. There can't be a sky in background without it being the brightest shade of blue and the clouds (all shaped the same, like in the cartoon) being as bright as the sun. There would be some symbolism in the masked Racer X, the purple around everything around evil Royalton, the glorified rainbows of the tracks Speed wins and the harsh ice and sand on those he is in peril, except all of it is overdone in later scenes. There isn't a scene where the directors don't make light, color, and shadows prominent and distracting from what's worth seeing... oh, wait, there's probably nothing worth seeing!

The idea is trapped in video game atmosphere, pulling off car-jumping and weapons that would be fun for those playing but as a watcher, it's dull. Transformers was easier to understand and keep up with the action, and it used an everyman teen of Shia LaBeouf to keep the movie relatable, but I don't know what Speed is doing until after it is done.

The biggest proflem is the movie switches gears too much. There is suppose to real-life, three stooge humor, but then we're expected to laugh when the next gag is real-life charactrers blending cartoon movements. The kid crashes without a scratch, but then punches thrown are bruising. Ninja's sneaking into a room are creepy, then a punchline, they are fended off with decent kung-fu (which I can't get a good look at due to shifted camera-work), then Hanna-Barbera-style Flintstone wrestling. The inconsistency takes away from the good parts.

There are a few admirable parts. Goodman is able to add emotions. Shouting out "That's my boy!" comes off as a proud statement instead of a punchline. There's embarrassment and understanding anger in each scene. It is dampened by the lousy script preventing anyone from playing off of him. Ricci can make looking with the eyes and simple moves of the eyebrows as the only real-life action capable of blending with the cartoon and greenscreen. Fox gives off an effective voice of Racer X, which makes me interested in the mystery. Fox's masked character doesn't let him play with his eyes or expression, so he makes the most out of his voice, be it need to be chilling, cold, or mysterious.

Is it entertaining? No. It would make a better video-game. Cool moves, great graphics, and a sense of adventures, but it is only fun if you are playing it. Speed isn't relatable to enough for us to know what he's doing so we're lost at the cool parts.

Is it for everyone? Most. Anyone, even the kids can go to it, and espically the little ones would have fun. But it's too shallow, and those looking for some depth to the adventure will be greatly disappointed.

Is it memorable? No. Going way to far with greenscreen is nothing new. It was done wrong with the Star Wars prequels and done right with 300. This will not be anything noted in the progress of visual FX.

My suggestion: For adventure, watch Prince Caspian next week. For action, I strongly suggest Iron Man which was released last week. For a good combination, look out for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to come out May 22th.

You can find the Iron Man review here: http://redtiereview.blogspot.com/2008/05/iron-man-superhero-with-heart-of.html.