Speed Racer Action adventure
Watching Speed Racer, which is filled with overblown special effects and silly dialogue, is like being trapped in a video game for two hours.
Japanese anime Mach GoGoGo, from which the movie is adapted, has been popular for more than four decades. The movie should, therefore, be the most exciting thing to happen to the franchise in 40 years.
However, the excessive racing scenes, paper-thin characterisation and messy story-telling make you wonder what directors the Wachowski brothers were thinking.
One of the most inexcusable flaws is the awkward juxtaposition of cartoon images and reality. Close-ups of real people jerkily switching to cartoon images feel awkward. The unnecessary reliance on comic-style techniques - images moving across the screen like comic strips and hammed-up facial expressions - will repel all but hardcore anime fans. The repetition of supposedly exciting racing scenes is mind-numbing - 30 minutes into the film, you won't care who wins, as long as it ends. Retaining all the major characters from the original, the plot is too simple to be taken seriously. Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) comes from a family of car fans. Racing tycoon Royalton (Roger Allam) wants to expand his empire and offers Speed a lucrative contract.
But he threatens to destroy Speed and his family if he turns down the offer, and a battle between good and evil ensues.