I knew going in that the visuals were going to be the main draw to this movie, and after sitting through it I'm not entirely sure who the film is geared towards. Kids? OK, they'll like the video game-like car chases and the colors and especially the monkey, but they SURE AS HELL are not going to want to sit through the inane and sleep inducing dialog that is all over this movie, I could barely stand it myself. They will have never heard of the old Japanese cartoon this was based from. They're not going to want to hear how corrupt the racing industry is, or about the Racer family history, or want to see the sappy romantic scenes they want action. And you know what, they're right.
Is this for adults? Hmm, they say the word "ass" a few times, there's some martial arts fights sprinkled in, the filmmakers assume that some of us have heard of the old cartoon, though this movie really has nothing to do with it aside from the character names and the theme music at the end, and I guess we should be impressed by all the flashy computer graphics.
But man, was this thing a chore to sit through. It throws all these driving sequences at us right at the get in it's attempt to introduce Speed Racer to us, but I got a freakin headache from it. Then it got really slow and talky and I was damn near asleep. I was real close to walking out of a free screening, but I made myself sit through it. At this point, I didn't care about the characters, got bored with the driving shots, and was looking at my watch. There were points were even the visuals were very low-res looking as if it was rushed.
I know some of you Matrix nerds will automatically give this a high score because it's the Wachowski's, but so what? This is not a good movie. An expensive one, yes. A sometimes impressive looking one, yes? An entertaining one? No.
Is this for adults? Hmm, they say the word "ass" a few times, there's some martial arts fights sprinkled in, the filmmakers assume that some of us have heard of the old cartoon, though this movie really has nothing to do with it aside from the character names and the theme music at the end, and I guess we should be impressed by all the flashy computer graphics.
But man, was this thing a chore to sit through. It throws all these driving sequences at us right at the get in it's attempt to introduce Speed Racer to us, but I got a freakin headache from it. Then it got really slow and talky and I was damn near asleep. I was real close to walking out of a free screening, but I made myself sit through it. At this point, I didn't care about the characters, got bored with the driving shots, and was looking at my watch. There were points were even the visuals were very low-res looking as if it was rushed.
I know some of you Matrix nerds will automatically give this a high score because it's the Wachowski's, but so what? This is not a good movie. An expensive one, yes. A sometimes impressive looking one, yes? An entertaining one? No.