Speed Racer (3 Stars)

Based on the classic manga/cartoon series, Speed Racer always wanted to race, and now he’s living his dream. In his Mach 5, he races his way through perilous race tracks to defend the honor of his family, defeat evil conglomerates and an organized crime syndicate, and to win. He is assisted by fellow racers Racer X, Trixie and Taejo Togokahn and supported by the rest of his family.

This movie has problems, which it pains me to say, because it was a very ambitious and elaborate attempt at reenacting an old cartoon series, and trying not to update it in any way. So as psychedelic and high-tech as it is, the film still feels old fashioned, in the speech patterns of the characters, the gender roles of the characters, and the technology. This is a stylistic choice, and I don’t think this is a problem per se. However, the film has some major plot problems, including orphans, (which is to say, payoffs in the story line without any set-up – Trixie’s sudden mad driving skills is an example of this), a plot which is generally incomprehensible and doesn’t really make sense, also the plot moves rather slowly, and the on-the-nose dialogue leaves a lot to be desired, and the film simply has too many extraneous characters. I realize the little fat kid and the monkey were kept not only for the sake of completion and authenticity, but also as comic relief, but really, they come off as more embarrassing and stupid than funny. The whole film is silly, and unfortunately, not always in a funny way. And somehow, everybody knows kung-fu, which is fine, again, because it is with the realization that the film is silly, and the choreography is good.

The visuals are also great – they’re actually quite surreal, though there’s a caveat – this film comes dangerously close to epileptic seizure territory. I jokingly faked one next to my sister while we were in the theater. Yeah, I’m jerk. 3 stars