A lot of bad things have been said about Speed Racer. Complaints have been made that the characters are two-dimensional, that the narrative is pure bobbins and the script not much better. Whilst these accusations are true (it would be hard to pretend otherwise) they also represent a massive tide of criticism that seems to generally miss the point.
Speed Racer is a live action remake of a Japanese cartoon about a boy who races a car. It is aimed squarely at eight year olds who have ingested too much sugar and, on those terms, it is a 100% successful piece of entertainment. I doubt the target audience really care about nuance and character. They want cars, they want colours and they want fun – and that is exactly what they get for two hours.
Obviously I am not an eight-year old child, so what exactly does it have to offer me? Three things; colour, speed and sheer inventive energy (check out the opening day dreaming scenes). Speed Racer might not be film that requires much response from the viewer but who really needs to respond when you can just sit there and let it’s neon goodness wash over you. Put simply, this film is an utter joy to behold. The colours are fantastic, the racing is involving and I’ll be damned if you don’t feel like cheering come the end.
This is a film that, like The Wachowski Brothers’ last good one The Matrix, feels like something new. When you walk out of the cinema, you’ve had a fantastic time, you’ve seen a film that might not be a classic itself but makes you damn excited about what the future holds.
7/10 – although I imagine that this will drop to 2/10 once it hits the small screen.
