Now this was a fantastic visually stunning movie that is truly faithful to the anime. The Wachowski Brothers really made a fine achievement next to "The Matrix" and "V For Vendetta", too bad it did bad at the box-office.
Speed Racer (2008) deserved more respect.
I was expecting to dislike the film based on the trailer, but when I saw the film I thought all the elements gelled very well to produce a heartfelt story within a bright cartoony universe.
Interestingly, the villain in both Iron Man and Speed Racer is the big bad corporation, personified an evil executive at the head of the company.
In Iron Man, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) is a brilliant scientist/engineer/playboy who inherited his daddy's weapons manufacturing mega-corporation. After escaping from terrorist kidnappers who forced him to build weapons of mass destruction, Stark decides to turn his company away from producing weapons. Nobel intentions indeed. If I were a determined chief executive seriously wanting to turn the company around, the first thing I would do is hide in my multi-million dollar basement designing a suit of high tech battle armor. Huh? I wonder hallucinogen Tony Stark is taking there.
Meanwhile, his number two executive decides Stark has finally gone too crazy (I don't blame him, Stark DOES seem crazy) and decides it is time for him head the company. Like any good number two executive, he decides the best option is to kill Stark. I guess the number two is also taking hallucinogens, because he too creates his own high tech battle armor and both executives slug it out metal-o-metal like two, erm.., metal cavemen.
Speed Racer's story revolves around a boy (Emile Hirsch), his family, and his dream to become a professional racer. The only problem is, he discovers that the world of racing, and every single race result is tightly controlled by automobile conglomerates who only care about how race results affect their company revenue. If he discovers that if he does not race for his would-be sponsor Royalton Industries, then he won't even be able to race at all. "What can I do? I only know how to race", ponders Speed Racer who is blocked at the driveway.
I won't go into details as to how Speed solves his problem and bring down the evil Royalton Industries, save to say that it is a story about sticking to his dreams, believing in himself and having strong family values. If this type of story appeals to you, then ignore the badly done psychedelic trailer and do give Speed Racer the movie a chance. The movie itself may just surprise you.
Now this was a fantastic visually stunning movie that is truly faithful to the anime. The Wachowski Brothers really made a fine achievement next to "The Matrix" and "V For Vendetta", too bad it did bad at the box-office.
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