"Speed Racer" (2008) - Movie Review

When will the final race happen? Is this going to be the final showdown? Will some body please tell me when will the film end? I was shouting in to my little brain which of course replied back laughing at the stupidity of talking to me. I have issues but “Speed Racer” has a lot more. Emile Hirsch after a magnetic performance in “Into the Wild” and The Wachowski Brothers after their enthralling “V for Vendetta” direct this film for kids which do not even appeal to them. This is two hours and fifteen minutes film and boy it has made me to hate the favourite colour of mine, red and other possible colours you could think of.

It is a famous anime adapted for screen and I am not an anime fan at all but if this is how it is going to be, then the feeling of escaping the disaster makes me proud. Not that it weighs less in creativity but it is an experience paining your eyes very soon. There was “Sin City” and “300” which materialized and depended on the green screen capabilities. Despite disliking “Sin City”, I liked its style of making and “300” perfected it. Here comes “Speed Racer” on those leagues and disobeys the laws of movie making; you got to have a substance in the dialogue and characters.

The city of this whole thing of racing freaks is never explained and no body has any other business apart from deepening into the freaky and dangerous gaming. In this unexplained city of pulpy visions of lights lives Racer family. Pops (John Goodman) a hardcore racing car motors mechanic has his DNA coded for the sport of racing. He has three kids with wide age difference between each other. One of course is Speed (Emile Hirsch) and when he was a kid (Nicholas Elia), he looked up to his elder brother Rex (Scott Porter) since he is a race freak too. Some unexplained racing politics makes him to depart against his father and why am I even trying to explain this?

Races happen and the fake CGI drives you mad. The essence of race films is the metal of sweat pouring its strength through the burnt tires over the rough road. And we see a glossy lipstick been shined upon the Mach 5 and other cars in “Speed Racer” it sweeps of the energy of mechanical touch. Hence the skill of driving vanishes and it becomes a kid playing with different buttons. What makes Speed or Rex who they are? Where is the skill?

Speaking of plot, it wore me down in its failed exercise of endurance. The film rated PG (Parental Guidance) and if the main stream audiences are kids, this does not work on those levels either. And for the love of the humanity, some one should stop two characters in this film to seriously eliminate their role. That will be the machinations infested industrial owner of the Royalton Motors, Royalton played by Roger Alam and the irritating kid brother of Speed, Spritle (Paulie Litt). Save the chimpanzee Chim Chim, the pet of that kid in the process (Wiki says two chimpanzees played out the role namely Kenzie and Willy). Oh, I forgot to mention the various announcers/commentators to shut up too.

There is adrenaline rush due to our frustration but not because of the race sequences. What is this place of wonderland and how does the daily life go on? We do not need to be lectured on it but minutely placed hints of existence in such a land would have had some form of understanding of these fanatic racers. This is neither thrilling nor creatively entertaining. This is a spectacle of CGI effort gone waste on a poor characterization and the opportune fiascos to care for any one in the film at all.