here he comes

I knew before I sat down in the theater earlier tonight that the new Wachowski brothers film Speed Racer was going to be a love-it-or-hate-it-affair for pretty much anyone who went to see it. I was prepared to hate it. I just could not tell from the pre-release buz or the trailer.

I was right. I noticed several people in the audience leaving before the picture was over.

On the other hand, (somewhat to my surprise) I liked it. A lot. I loved it.

Make no mistake about it, it's based on a cartoon, a rather simple cartoon, and if you're looking for intricacies of plot, rent Syriana instead. Speed Racer is eye candy, pure and simple, perhaps some of the most beautiful eye candy I've seen, and is an absolutely perfect adaptation of the source material to the big screen. This does for anime what Sin City did for a Frank Miller comic; it immerses you in another world entirely.

Of the reviews I've seen for the film, this one by Bill Gibron of PopMaters comes the closest to mirroring how I feel about the film:

"Candy colored dreams descend down physically impossible angles, shapes shifting across plains of apparent non-reality while simultaneously simulating real life. Cartoon icons come to life, reduced to clichéd contradictions in a classic tale of good vs. very, very evil. Family is the focus, but not to the detriment of all that effervescent eye candy, and modern technology never trumps the skills inherent in masterful moviemaking. This is what the Wachowski Brothers have created with their homage to the classic ‘60s anime series. Speed Racer is that kind of a thesaurus level triumph. One needs an extended vocabulary to work out the descriptions necessary to explain this amazing movie.

Ever since he was a small boy, young Speed Racer idolized his brother Rex. When tragedy takes him away, the lad is determined to follow in his footsteps. Speed has always had driving in his blood, and as he matures, he becomes one of the sport’s best. Unfortunately, racing is controlled by corrupt corporate conglomerates with connections to mobsters and other shady characters. When Speed wins an important contest, he is approached by the owner of Royalton Industries, who makes him a sizable offer to join his team. Naturally, family comes first, and Speed would never leave his home crew - Mom, Pops, mechanic Sparky, little brother Spritle, or pet monkey Chim-Chim. He also has a thing for gal pal Trixie. Naturally, rejecting Royalton causes a rift which threatens to bring down the entire Racer team.

Forget all the curmudgeonly criticism that argues for this movie’s optical overload capacity - Speed Racer is a modern masterpiece, no two ways about it. Andy and Larry Wachowski have succeeded in creating a living, breathing comic book, complete with nods to psychedelic pen and ink designs, four panel editing, and overflowing visual pizzazz. Anyone who can’t see the brilliant blockbuster fun the brothers are having with this material has spent one too many hours staring at gloomy independent dramas about siblings struggling to deal with their dysfunctionality. This is filmmaking as fireworks, directorial innovation that, while not as media morphing as The Matrix, stands as the highest level of celluloid creativity. From races that routinely flaunt the rules of realism to a story that stresses the noble over the nasty, Speed Racer soars to the highest levels of movie magic."

Definitely not for everyone, but I have not had this much pure fun at a movie in years (also, it's worth mentioning tha I also quite enjoy those gloomy independent dramas about siblings dealing with their dysfunctionality as well).