Monday, July 06, 2009

Speed Racer

It's that time again...Blog!!!!

This time I want to briefly talk about the relative commercial failure, Speed Racer, a 2008 Wachowski brothers film based on the popular Animé of the same name.

Well, actually I don't really want to talk about the story. This is not to say that the narrative and the performances are bad. Not at all. It's more the fact that this has to be, in my opinion, one of the most visually spectacular and arresting films I have ever seen.

I had the pleasure of watching Speed Racer on Blu-Ray and it was just amazing to see. The things that they do with the CGI...let's just say that the efforts in the new Star Wars trilogy fail in comparison.

And a fair comparison it is too. Both Speed Racer and Star Wars were mostly shot in a studio with the various backdrops created and rendered on a computer. However, the new Trilogy, despite looking great at the time, by general consensus, overused CGI. Moreover, Lucas even went as far as creating it's creatures this way which now, stick out like a soar thumb. They just tried too much. Speed Racer on the other hand isn't trying to attempt anything that would otherwise look in contrast to the overall theme of the picture (think of how obvious the green screen was in Star Wars).

Speed Racer is much different in realising it's world. This is pure manga madness! Think of the style of Sin City, the vibrancy of Lazy Town x10, the cartoon violence of Wacky Races or Twisted Metal and the speed of a Wipeout or F-Zero. That's Speed Racer in a nut shell.

The entire film is just a joy to behold, be it the numerous riveting action packed races that just ooze imagination in their set pieces or a simple drive through the lush neighbourhood the Racer family live in. Everything is just so bright, luminous and shiny.

This is psychedelic awesomeness at its best and you owe it to yourself to check it out.

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