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SPEED RACER - The Awesome Anti-American Anthem
Okay, so I kinda have to agree with Robert Kirkman about what a damn fine movie SPEED RACER is. It's way over the top, and super-CGI heavy, but one thing I'll grant the Watchowskis: whenever they tackle the visual side of things, it never looks like what anyone else is doing. This movie may seem, from the trailer alone, to be the epitome of brain-dead eye-candy in the shape of story cinema, but it is far from that in effect.
The story itself is classic, a coming-of-age tale with every well-loved cliche rolled into one. There's the overbearing lovable bear of a dad, the older sibling who failed before, the younger who now has to prove his mettle, the choice between the love of a thing and the corporate greed and abuse of a thing, adults that don't fight quite hard enough and youth that often acts upon overly-naive convictions, propelled by the belief that their go-get'em gumption will mass the masses to to 'em.
Admittedly, the "evil corporation" comes across as a somewhat empty villain, seeing as how this is the Watchowskis and a huge-budget studio flick. If corporations were truly okay with having their mentality exposed as anything more biting than cookie-cutter cartoon biblical style evil, then IDIOCRACY would have been treated better. Hmmm...come to think of it, SPEED RACER didn't exactly have the right backing and promotion necessary in these entertainment-saturated times to become a hit. It just kinda came and went. The moral? America, darling, you're the enemy. The rest of the world? The wide-eyed youth that believes spirit and passion can win him everything? That's what we kill. Daily. In our pursuit of greed and gadgets. I am not talking about our corporations. I'm talking about YOU. Our corporations may be THE corporation of the film, but we're Taejo, the driver that turns a blind eye to how the actions of his family and company do away with all sportsmanlike virtues, and even, ultimately, the sport itself. America, these movies aren't doing well. We don't like them. We ignore them. I wonder why? It's no mistake the villain was American (albeit with a British accent, which I suppose was the attempt at camouflage) and the semi-villain was Japanese.
SPEED RACER is a half kid's-movie, and reminded me greatly of the Hoskins/Hopper SUPER MARIO BROS. flick in tone, but its oh-so-much fun, and every actor, especially the child actors, are so INTO the movie and enjoying what they're doing, you can't help but be strung along. On the subject of the visuals, seriously, what other movie on earth looks like this:
Maybe ZARDOZ, a choice few Boorman and Ken Russell masterpieces, but that's about it.
The CGI is wondefully artful, like a sci-fi Willy Wonka, it actually stands reminiscent of TRON, mixed with of course the more modern slow-mo stuff a la THE MATRIX and 300. Yet the charming part is that the CGI is meant to look like CGI. They make it look hyper-real and fake, and beautifully so. Unlike such rainbow colored bowel movements as 300, wherein the CGI was meant to stun, and startle, and shake, no nuance or sense of actual love or craft apparent (just manipulation), SPEED RACER is the CGI equivalent of stop-motion CLASH OF THE TITANS type grandeur. It's wonderfully unreal, exquisitely so. It's awesome to watch because for all its excessive qualities, it's NEW. It's truly DIFFERENT and something we havent' yet seen before.
So check this one out. If you're a Yank, this movie is at its heart against everything you are and do currently, but it yearns for a spirit no capitalist culture has truly maintained as its grown into the global bloated beast it stands as today. It's headier than it thinks it is, is our Speed Racer. It's mind and swirling, sizzling, streaking matter. It's bloody awesome is what it is. --Dave B.
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