Speed Racer (**1/2)

In The Matrix, the Wachowski Brothers demonstrated their ability to create a stylish special-effects thriller built around a smart sci-fi premise. They redeemed themselves for its lackluster pair of sequels with V for Vendetta, another parable of totalitarianism for which they wrote the screenplay. And, in this, they shoehorn their obsession with opposing great power into an adaptation of a semi-forgotten 1970s cartoon that makes a pitch toward a family audience. That pitch will probably strike hardest at teenage boys. The younger ones may be put off by the fairly complicated plot and some of the darker textures, which somewhat harken back to the Japanese origins of the cartoon. This adaptation animates everything except the actors. Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild) stars as Speed.

For those who missed Speed, or were born too late, he’s, well, a racer. In childhood flashback scenes, we see that his obsession with driving began at an early age and runs in the family. (“Mom” and “Pop” are played by Susan Sarandon and John Goodman.) He has a childhood sweetheart called Trixie (Christina Ricci), drives a car called the Mach 5, and has a mysterious friend/rival called Racer X. But the movie’s main storyline concerns Speed’s opposition to a giant corporation that seeks to control the sport for financial reasons.

Of course, technology, not the story, is the draw here. On that score, it’s a mixed bag. The Tokyo-insired meglaopolis where villain, Royalton, runs his megacorporation is suitably futuristic, but the race course was unimpressive. It makes perfect sense that the movie has a product tie-in with Hot Wheels—the speedways where the racers do their thing looks like nothing so much as digitally manipulated film of a Hot Wheels set-up, complete with loop-the-loops. The scenes give you neither the feel of racing nor even the feel of watching a race. It’s more like watching a video game. Nothwithstanding all of the psychedelic graphics and swirling colors that illustrate the crashes, it’s all very…cartoonish.

It’s not only the look of the movie, but yes, that story that make the big-screen Speed seem like only a little more than what it is, a retread. For all I know the Wachowskis could have dusted off a few of those 1970s scripts. Mom, Pop, brother, Trixie, and even Chim Chim, the family chimp, seem like the cast of a forgotten old sitcom. The humor runs along the lines of Trixie saying “Was that a ninja?” and Pops replying “More like a non-ja!” Okay, it’s not all that corny. Most of it is perfectly serviceable, and the centerpiece of the movie, a dangerous cross-continental race in which Royalton drivers try to take Speed out, is exciting. Hardly anyone will call the movie slow. But in a couple of months, hardly anyone will be calling it anything at all.

IMDB link

viewed 5/10/08 at Moorestown; reviewed 5/15–16/08