SPEED RACER

Flashy to a fault

By HARRY VAUGHN

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In a purely visual sense, Speed Racer, with its bright and blinding cartoon colors, is a visceral and awe-inspiring feast for the eyes. The all-encompassing blue screen universe that mirrors the anime show on which the film is based, is a delectable combination of sugary CGI imagery and live-action performances. Andy and Larry Wachowski, the directors behind the Matrix trilogy, have, within five minutes of the film's astonishing opening sequence, blown Robert Rodriguez and his stilted, stale Spy Kids and Sin City efforts out of the water. Speed Racer is based in an entirely artificial world that, for once, pulls audiences into its shiny, technological setting instead of keeping us at arm's length. Time and space, reality and pastiche are indiscernible in practically every frame of the movie's exhausting 135-minute running time. There are moments, usually while the star driver, Speed (Emile Hirsch) is racing full throttle through flashy and elaborate racetracks, that take on a majestic, almost surreal quality. The overall effect of its style feels at once kitschy and strangely beautiful.

The Wachowski brothers clearly invested an outrageous amount of time and energy into Speed Racer's groundbreaking visual palette. So much so that they seem to have completely forgotten to concoct a remotely engaging storyline with characters interesting enough to stand up against the film's aesthetics.

The plot, if you can even call it that, involves Speed and his super square family members fighting against conglomerates trying to commodify Speed's talent by turning him into a soulless sponsor for their racing products ... or something. It's rather difficult to follow any of Speed Racer's fragmented plot developments because the dialogue is so dull and self-important, it hardly ever warrants a morsel of our attention. Even worse is having to watch experienced actors like John Goodman and Susan Sarandon spew out cardboard lines like, "Car racing is an art!" while trying to maintain a sense of dignity and purpose.

The Wachowski brothers have made a beautiful shell of a film that is as confident and striking in its visual tone as it is vacant of any sense of warmth or believability.

--AMC Loews Boston Common, Regal Fenway Stadium, AMC Chestnut Hill, Fresh Pond, Showcase Cinemas Revere