John C. Wright ([info]johncwright) wrote,
@ 2008-05-11 16:52:00
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Go, Speed Racer, Go!

I am so easy to please, it is embarrassing. You would think a man of high-flown literary pretensions such as myself would insist on films with a deeper meaning, touching the sublime. Nope. All I need are Ninjas, explosions, car-weapons, explosions,  fight-scenes, explosions, splendor and spectacle, action, explosions, and a comedy relief monkey, and I am happy as a clam. Throw in Christiana Ricci and John Goodman, and I am sold, bought, and paid for.

SPEED RACER is not a movie meant to explore man's deeper meaning in life. It is a movie where the mysterious masked racing vigilante, Racer X, attacks a group of cigar-chomping gangland thugs in their heavily armed and armored eighteen-wheeler with his supersonic rocket-car.

If I recall correctly (and someone correct me if I do not, please) in the book NOVA by Delany, one conceit was that any spaceman who looked into the heart of an exploding Nova-O sun while retreated from the fiery shockwave at faster than the speed of light would have his optic nerve overloaded, and his brain dazzled with the immense overabundance of light and color. Well, SPEED RACER is about as close to the Nova-Divers of Delany as we are likely to find soon in real life.

The visuals are simply amazing. The flashbacks are intercut into current action with disorienting seamlessness, and you have to (sort of) pay attention to tell what is happening when. The plot is simple: innocent Farmboy Luke Racer is tempted by the Evil Emperor to join the Dark Side --- no, no, wait that is another movie, isn't it? Anyone, bad industrialist tries to corrupt Speed, and so Speed has to win two or three deadly races to restore honor to the sport.

And then there are the triple-backflipping ninja-Viking deathcars, covered with spikes, that try to mug Our Hero with their hidden weapons systems. And there are ninjas. And a monkey.

What do you want, Shakespeare?

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to wait and see this on a small screen: it would have absolutely no point unless you are sitting close enough to the giant screen to suffer from epileptic visual overload.

 


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[info]stigandnasty919
2008-05-12 12:47 pm UTC (link)
I don't think the Speed Racer TV-show was ever shown in the UK, so the movie won't have the same nostalgia factor over here. But somehow a movie with triple-backflipping ninja-deathcars, ninjas and a monkey sounds inviting.

Now if only there were Harryhausen-style animated skeletons it would be just about perfect.

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[info]wyrdwood
2008-05-12 03:02 pm UTC (link)
I don't understand why most reviewers hate this movie. It's almost as if they're being paid by a shady industrialist to disparage Speed Racer... hey!

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[info]chrisw10
2008-05-12 04:29 pm UTC (link)
I had previously decided to skip this film. Partly because the visuals are so seizure-inducing. X_X

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[info]arhyalon
2008-05-12 06:02 pm UTC (link)
The visuals certainly are the most dazzling yet to come out on this planet..but even without them, it was a sweet story about a boy and his car. John loved it. I loved it. The kids loved it. What more can you ask?

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[info]niallmor
2008-05-13 08:36 am UTC (link)
With all due respect to Mr. and Mrs. Bloghost, I am hopelessly prejudiced against this movie by my memories of the thoroughly godawful cartoon on which it is based--crude animation, ridiculous plots, dreadful overdubs. The expression "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" comes to mind.

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[info]johncwright
2008-05-13 05:10 pm UTC (link)
Rest assured friend, this is not a silk purse. But it was fun, filled with color and action, and family-friendly. Why, there is even a scene where Mom Racer makes peanut butter sandwiches for the racing team.

There are a lot of cynical modern films where "everything is a shade of gray" and everyone is a bad guy. Call me paranoid, but I regard such cultural influences as deliberate, malign and poisonous, and the folk who spread that world view as the enemies of mankind. This was a refreshing change.

Besides, my five-year-old liked it.

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Speed Racer Movie
[info]niallmor
2008-05-13 07:38 pm UTC (link)
Why, there is even a scene where Mom Racer makes peanut butter sandwiches for the racing team.

There are a lot of cynical modern films where "everything is a shade of gray" and everyone is a bad guy. Call me paranoid, but I regard such cultural influences as deliberate, malign and poisonous, and the folk who spread that world view as the enemies of mankind. This was a refreshing change.


I don't call you paranoid at all. I think you are exactly right. I too despise this kind of cynicism and relativism. However, without actually seeing the film, I can't help wondering if the scene with Mom Racer making peanut butter sandwiches is delivered with a wink and a nod, the film makers' way of saying, "Look at her making sandwiches! How domestic! How bourgeois! How 1950s! But we know better, don't we, enlightened, liberated folks that we are."

Even if I'm wrong, and even if there's no ironic subtext, and it is a truly a refreshing change from postmodern cynicism, I still ain't gonna go see it. :)

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Re: Speed Racer Movie
[info]johncwright
2008-05-17 06:29 pm UTC (link)
Don't bother to see it. But you are wrong about the peanut butter and jelly sandwich scene. Here what is really happening in that scene:

Speed Racer is about to enter the Grand Prix, and his famous car is undergoing repairs with only 36 hours left before the race starts. Speed's rival and arch-enemy, Royalton of Royalton Motors, who has fixed the outcome of the race, is also preparing his company's special car for the race. Speed has the family business and the family garage. Royalton has an industrial plant and a corps of workers. The scenes showing the contrast are intercut. Here is Royalton's giant robotic factory; there is Pops Racer in the garage with a welding torch; here is ranks of workers streaming into the factory yard; there is 'Sparky' Pops Racer's one underpaid hand; here is Royalton at a meeting of the board, and waitresses pass out hors d'oeuvre--- there is the Racer family in a garage, working way past midnight, and Mom is passing out peanut butter sandwiches. Then she dons a mask and helps with the welding.

So, no, it was completely cute, entirely pro-family, no wink, no nod, and if there was any cynicism in the movie, I could not detect it, and I am oversensitive to theses things. Now, the movie makers may have had bitter darkness in their hearts, but I cannot read hearts.

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[info]saintjoi
2008-05-16 01:05 am UTC (link)
And then there are the triple-backflipping ninja-Viking deathcars, covered with spikes, that try to mug Our Hero with their hidden weapons systems. And there are ninjas. And a monkey.


Originally, I wasn't going to see the film, due to bad reviews. But after this, I'm sold. Ninja-Viking deathcars, woohoo!

Then later in the summer, there's Prince Caspian, Indiana Jones, and Wall-E. It is a good summer.

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