Saturday, May 10, 2008

Go Speed Racer Go!

Sorry for the lack of updated lately, my personal schedule kind of worked against me the pact couple days. I had actually planned on reviewing Untraceable today, but was unable to finish it. I wasn't able to finish it because of the movie I'm reviewing today... So expect Untraceable tomorrow as well as, if plans go right, a Forbidden Kingdom review. But for now...


SPEED RACER

As speed racer just released today, I of course have no numbers for it. That will be updated Monday when the Box Office numbers come in as per usual. EDIT: Apologies for the lateness in getting to this. Speed racer had an opening weekend of $18,561,337, this is unfortunately low, but was predictable.

The movie is of course, if you didn't know, an adaptation of the 1960's Anime, which was one of the first Animes to come to America. It's about Speed Racer, a young man who is a natural at racing. When he hits it big he is pulled into realizing the corruption in the sport that has been his whole life. He decides to fight against it the only way he knows how, by winning...

It seems that Speed Racer was thoroughly thrashed by most Critics out there, and I can not understand why. The only reason I can think of is that most critics don't know the source material, that being the anime. The way the film portrays some of the campy almost tongue in cheek humor from the original show, while still maintaining an involving and well told story is just masterful.

The movie is also visually stunning. Every scene is just beautiful and vibrant, the world this movie creates just feels like a real world anime, and keeps amazing throughout as we see new and mind blowing effects and scenery throughout.

The only problem I can see is the uninitiated. This movie does tailor to fans and kids, and perhaps those who have never heard or seen Speed Racer might take the story and portrayal of the world as a bit kiddy and hard to swallow...

I suggest this to anyone who enjoys Speed Racer, the adaptation revolutionizes and modernizes the world, while still remaining amazingly true to the source material. It's also a great film for families, or people just looking for an amazing spectacle of visualization and action.

No comments: