With their new movie, Speed Racer, the Wachowski Brother’s have succeeded in taking their technical wizardry to a new level by making one of the most intricately beautiful movies ever committed to film with dazzling colours and futuristic locales. Just about every film cell would make a wonderful wallpaper on your PC with its stunning blend of live actors and state of the art computer graphics. Unfortunately, while Speed Racer definitely looks immaculate in still shots, it fails miserably in providing even the most basic element of fun with its ham-fisted attempt at a plot that is inundated with a bizarre blend of childish platitudes and garish machine-gun style editing that does nothing but draw attention to itself at the expense of creating a unified world. This is MTV editing taken to the nth degree as no one at Warner Brothers has seemed to be able to reel the directing brothers back. With no constraints imposed on them they’ve taken their daring camera work learned on the Matrix Trilogy and let their imaginations run wild to disastrous results.

Based on the classic Speed Racer cartoon from the 60s, this new version more or less follows the original with a few extras thrown in. The film follows the exploits of Speed Racer (Emile Hirsh), a young teenager who has had a penchant for racing since he was a boy. Now of age he enters the lucrative racing circuit in an attempt to become the champion. Complicating matters is the fact that all of the other competitors are backed by mega corporations with wads of cash at their disposal while Speed races for a literal “mom and pop outfit” headed by his father (John Goodman) who so happens to be a brilliant auto engineer. As Speed’s reputation rises he is immediately courted by an obviously slimy billionaire, E.P. Royalton (Roger Allam) who, wants Speed to join his corporate team. Speed’s refusal sends Royalton into a rather hackneyed rage and he vows that Speed’s career is effectively over.

With a relatively simple setup it is a wonder how the overall movie feels disjointed and remarkably unfocused. Simply put, the Wachowski Brothers’ reliance on visual gimmickry and stylistic flair completely overwhelms the actors and the narrative heft they are attempting to portray. Somber scenes drag and are surprisingly devoid of emotion while even the action sequences largely fail to generate needed excitement nor tension.

If you have an actor or an action sequence planned it is always necessary to convince the audience of its plausibility. It doesn’t matter if you fantastical elements like laser beams or rocket launchers stuck to the side of the car as long as the audience buys in to the world that is presented to them. Take a humanistic example such as martial artist cum actor Jet Li. Unlike other “pretend” martial artists you know he knows his stuff and as a director this should influence you on how you create and block an action sequence using him. With an actor who is basically faking a preset amount of moves, chances are you are going to use many quick cuts, close ups, slow motion, or other visual tricks to basically hide the fact that your actor is a novice. Now, if you were filming Jet Li you’re going to hopefully do the opposite and draw your focus back to see his entire body. You’re going to let the camera run with longer takes and basically watch him do his work since there’s no point in chopping up the action into little pieces to give the audience the impression that he knows what he is doing since, well, he really does know his stuff.

With Speed Racer we’re talking about racing not hand to hand combat, although for some reason, the Wachowski Brothers have decided to showcase some martial arts anyways but the fundamentals are the same. Racetracks just merely exist with no rhyme or reason or even easy indicators to show their layout. The lack of visual cues means you are just presented with miles of track that seem to loop or wind with no sense of scale or purpose. Even during a rally style race that takes place mid film we’re shown environments that seem to have been constructed to meet the demands of being cool rather than having any real function.

Constant and endless quick cuts and some surprising odd angles make the action choppy with no sense of fluidity. Cars explode or go careening into obstacles with regular ease but there’s no weight with the audience as none of the drivers have any personality whatsoever. Not to mention no one actually dies. This being a kid’s film a horrific accident just results in someone ejecting or a parachute being deployed. This is an obvious oversight as all of Speed’s competitors are not fully fleshed out. Actually, they’re not even given any motivation whatsoever except the slimmest desire to just win at all costs.

To say the visual wizardry overshadows the cast is an understatement. Promising young actor Emile Hirsh is reduced to posturing and furrowing his eyebrows while even veteran stalwarts John Goodman and Susan Sarandon are pigeonholed into one-dimensional character studies. Villains are over the top but Roger Allam’s megalomaniac takes scenery chewing so far beyond the limit that you almost expect his eyeballs to pop their sockets or his character to suffer a heart attack with his sputtering tirades. Add in a completely humorless chimpanzee which, while is nod to the original cartoon, is so out of place that it makes you wonder if even kids will get a kick at his antics.

That brings to light just what exactly kids will make of this film. At 135 minutes the movie doesn’t exactly barrel along at light speed but rather starts and stops as the engine struggles to move the film forward. That is to say the overall pacing seems slow although the visuals are working on hyperdrive. It is rather odd that everything feels languid and without a real sense of purpose even though the action is over the top. The two-hour running time is bolstered with an off-tangent and completely extraneous side story centered on rival racer Taejo (Korean megastar Rain) whom Speed needs to aid. This effectively cuts the movie into two and throws the pace even more off kilter.

With visuals that seem to meld 60’s acid trips with 21st century graphics, the Wachowski brothers have created what should be a visual delight but instead the experience is literally dizzying. Throw in a vapid storyline and you have a recipe for nausea-induced headaches. I sincerely doubt this was the reaction the brothers had in mind when they agreed to tackle this project.

*1/2 out of ****

2008, USA, 135min
Directed by Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
Writing credits: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
Produced by Grant Hill, Joel Silver, Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
Executive producer: Bruce Berman, Michael Lambert, David Lane Seltzer
Original Music by Michael Giacchino
Cinematography by David Tattersall

Speed Racer: Emile Hirsch
Trixie: Christina Ricci
Pops Racer: John Goodman
Mom Racer: Susan Sarandon
Racer X: Matthew Fox
Rex Racer: Scott Porter
Spritle Racer: Paulie Litt
E. P. Arnold Royalton: Roger Allam
Jack 'Cannonball' Taylor: Ralph Herforth
Taejo Togokahn: Rain
Horuko Togokahn: Nan Yu