Who is the Audience for This Movie?

People who like colorful CGI fueled movies.

What I Liked About This Movie

If you look at a screen grab of Speed Racer you may think to yourself “wow that looks colorful” and after watching Speed Racer I can easily state that any images you have seen of it pale in comparison to the eye pleasing impact the visuals have when in motion. Everything is gloriously colorful to the point it is almost too colorful for your eyes to take in. The visuals during the races (most important aspect of movie) are in no way realistic but they are so insanely stylish that you will not care one bit about realism.

With some highly inventive editing the scenes not involving the races happen to also be continually visually pleasing. The use of layering characters/backgrounds to tween between scenes and to churn out large nuggets of the story was a welcome change from the typical movie techniques that are commonly used (Montages, Flashbacks…etc).

What Didn’t Work For Me

While in the process of making this movie why did they come to the decision that an embarrassingly kid friendly sub plot was needed? It is no wonder that theatrically Speed Racer flopped. Yes it is supposed to be a fun colorful movie but the addition of the recurring scenes involving Speed’s brother and their pet monkey throw off the entire tone of the movie. The overtly childish attempts at humor may make some kids laugh if you are an adult though you will most likely scoff or roll their eyes. For the most part this is a movie directed at the 18-25 crowd it is disappointing they felt the need to cater to really young children.

I was also hoping that Speed Racer would stay a continually fun jaunt throughout. The Directors must have thought otherwise because there are some weak dramatic elements added that could have been handled in a fun campy way instead of a serious tone. Considering the type of movie it wants to be (Entertaining Visual Romp) the dramatic elements were an unnecessary downer. A movie should play to its greatest strength as much as possible with its other elements kept to a minimum.

Should You Watch This Movie?

It’s a solid watch.

My Rating (Out of 13)

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