Faz's Fury

I took my daughter to see Speed Racer this weekend. I was pleasantly surprised! Not only at her extremely good behavior (she is 5!), but at the movie itself. If you are looking for a movie that follows the laws of reality, see something else. However, if you grew up watching Speed Racer, this is the movie for you! There is a TON of CG in it, and at points even a geek like me was like 'OK, cars cannot spin like that' and 'This looks more like a video game than a movie', but even so, once you re-enter that Speed Racer mindset from your youth, it all falls into place again. There are a lot of the old cartoon series Speed Racer gags in it, and many may miss them or think WTF?!? but again, those who watched Speed Racer every morning at 6:30am will appreciate them. The colors are very vibrant (OK, extremely vibrant compared to real life movies), and none of the characters overshadowed the others. They even fitted in the Japanese unrealistic 'motion blur' backgrounds at the appropriate times (and Speed even leaps from his car in the infamous Speed way for a cut scene, but the gag is not overused).

In short, this was one of the few movies that I have actually enjoyed in the past couple of years. Then again, what do you expect from the Wachowski brothers, the directors of the Matrix? There are some new camera shots in this movie that you will see over abused in future movies by others, just like bullet-time from the Matrix.

If you grew up on Speed and are a geek, you will probably like this movie, as long as you turn off your over analysis mind and just enjoy.