Cinematical

How about NOT making the film at all? Speedracer was an old niche cartoon series targeted for kids ...BACK IN THE LATE 60s. In other words, Speedracer is not contemporary to today's kids.

Reply

While I'm tired of voicing my minority opinion that I actually liked the film, I will say a couple criticizms: The movie didn't really know what their target audience was cuz it was too long and a lil dense for the kiddies. I would imagine it would be hard for a child to figure out who was out to get who in the story. It might've been good to have released this in March as well, seperating it from any other juggernauts. Ah well. I had fun with it. I didn't expect anything more than that so it delivered for me.

Reply

Sy is right. Not everything that was popular at one time makes sense to make a movie out of.

Reply

Should have used a Black Sabbath song. And hints of boobs (they didn't actually have to be in the movie, a trick often employed in trailers). And, of course Sprit giving the bird.

In other words, this should've been marketed for teenage guys. And should've been made (more) in mind for teenage guys.

CULT CLASSIC 2008

Reply

Not being in the middle of Iron Man and Indy IV. Had it been in 3D I would have gone to see it. It looked perfect for 3D, they missed the boat in that one.

That and the whole idea and look is just weird. Cool, but weird, which probably scares people off in the summer movie season when they're looking for something predictable.

Reply

I was disappointed by the film. I was entertained, but disappointed. As a fan of the cartoon, I have been watching this in developmental hell for years, and was looking forward to the movie. What I was treated to was something visually exciting, but long, boring, and a bit cliched on story. And if they were planning on a franchise, why reveal Racer X is Rex?! That didn't happen to later in the cartoon series and what part of the fun, the guessing.
As for whether this is a kids film or an adult film, I don't buy it. Pixar has been doing kid-friendly adult films for years. Their were several kids in the audience, and it seems the only reaction from them was during the Spritle and Chim-Chim scenes; coincidentally the scenes I could have done without. The race scenes were headache-inducing, which most critics have mentioned. I think poor reviews confirmed what a lot of people thought after seing the trailers, that this was going to be a mess of a beloved favorite. So people just stayed away. No go, Speed Racer, no go!

Reply

It should have bee it 3d. It would have at least drawn in the curious.
To be honest, a lot of people have less than fond memories of the tv show. I remember being particularly unimpressed with the animation when it came on as a kid and would join my siblings in an "Aaaww No. Speed Racer." chant every time (We also had a "no, Speed Racer" version of the theme song).

Reply

I actually really enjoyed the trailers and was planning on going to see the film last weekend (I'm a sucker for brightly colored eye candy), but the horrific reviews scared me into seeing Iron Man instead, which I hadn't seen yet (and was excellent). So I guess that means what would've helped in my case is if the movie had been better and thus garnered better reviews? :)

I still might go see Speed Racer this week, though.

Reply

I enjoyed the movie but I completely get that people wouldn't want to endure the visual assault. However, I don't think anything would have made it a legitimate hit besides making something more conventional with less visual data to absorb in short periods of time.

I think the big thing is that it LOOKS like that movie we've been dreading, the ultimate eye candy that's got the same quality of plot as Ass: The Movie. The one that we can say is, without a doubt, the death of good filmmaking... but that movie was already made last year by Michael Bay.

In no conceivable universe would a movie with a scene where a kid and a chimpanzee go on a Fear and Loathing-esque candy bender set to the guitar solo from Freebird ever be a hit. It was intended to be a sensory overload; either you're going to go with it or you won't.

I can't say it's ahead of its time or that it was released at the wrong time of the year. It's really just a $200 million cult film and I bet that, barring their careers being damaged as a result of the low grosses, the Wachowskis wouldn't want it any other way.

Reply

"Iron Man" not existing or not coming out the weekend before probably would have helped since it raised the bar so high for movies this summer. The fact that the movie looks like it's either made to kill epileptics or be shown in a rave probably doesn't help with mass appeal... and let's be honest, do very many young people have the slightest idea who Speed Racer is?

Reply

How about not making the movie look like a Sonic the Hedgehog game?

Reply

I just saw nothing in the trailers that made it appealing to me. It was trying too hard to be something it so obviously wasn't. The whole idea for the film was too dated, yet they somehow felt this could might be ignored if they added enough colour to distract the audience from the awfulness of the film. The whole thing instantly screamed 'rubbish' to me. And i'm not suprised it failed miserably.

Reply

I enjoyed the movie, I agree it could have been cut tighter, and it should have been advertised more towards teens as it's really not a kids movie at all.

Reply

I personally loved the film, but was quite bored throughout the first hour. I figured out later that it was because I was watching the film as the 21 year old female that I am. About an hour through the film, I suspended all logical thinking and just let my inner 5 year old child embrace the film.

It was badly made in that it requires adult thinking for the confusing plot, and yet a child-like embrace for the camp (and not to mention Spritle and Chim-Chim, with whom even my inner 5 year old was annoyed with). I love the film, but it will most certainly be a cult classic in which only a few will embrace and enjoy.

Reply

I am a big fan of the cartoon series. When I read the reviews, though, I stayed away from the movie.

My half-ass guess: Too much exposition. Look at Star Wars 1/4, it was all action with the dialogue serving as a bridge between action scenes. In the trailers and reviews of Speed Racer, the race scenes serves as bridges to scenes of exposition. Except for Stars Wars 1/4, and 2/5, the remaining films in the series suffer from the same problem.

The directors were/are the right choice. However, they should have used the movie, Grand Prix, as the source material. In essence, if they have retold the story of Grad Prix through the Speed Racer characters, then they have would have made a great movie.

The plot points in Grand Prix resonate with most race fans including NASCAR, and American open wheel and fit within the context and rules of the Speed Racer universe.

Reply