Revisited - Speed Racer (2008)

Out of all the movies I have done so far on Revisited, this will probably be the most controversial of the bunch. Speed Racer is one of my guilty pleasures of all time and one I hold dear. I never watched the Speed Racer anime nor read the Manga, but when I watched the film, it blew me away. Now please put down your pitchforks and let me explain. In my opinion, the film was ahead of It's time and with maybe better CGI and some script tweaks, It could have become an all around good film, though at its current state a lot of people don't see it as even "ok". The film only grossed 93.9 million out of it's 120 million dollar budget with the critics hating it, but besides all that it grew a cult following little by little as time passed.

The film has it's problems, theres no doubt about that. The CGI is atrocious at times and the script along with the characters can be cheesy. However, there still a lot of good things about the film. Like I said before, Speed Racer was ahead of it's time especially with it's storytelling or more so it's character moments. Its very fast paced and beautiful at times with it's scene design, but the CGI has difficulty catching up to the way the directors wanted to portray their scenes and story. Though the CGI doesn't take away from my favorite part of the whole film, the character moments, especially the ones between Speed Racer and his brother or his father. The film makes you feel grief, regret, sadness, but also adrenaline, happiness, and pure nirvana with it's story telling. Hell, sometimes I just go on Youtube to watch the final race of the movie just to feel a jolt of rush, it's that good.

The film opens to Speed Racer, an 18-year-old whose life and love has always been automobile racing. His parents, Pops and Mom, run the independent Racer Motors, in which his brother Sparky and his pet monkey Chim Chim, his mechanic Spritle, and his girlfriend Trixie are also involved. As a child, Speed idolized his record-setting older brother, Rex Racer. When Rex and Pops had a falling out, Rex ran away to race for other companies and gained a reputation for being a dirty racer and disgraced his family. Rex was apparently killed while racing in the Casa Cristo 5000, a deadly cross-country racing rally. Now embarking on his own career, Speed is quickly sweeping the racing world with his skill behind the wheel of his brother's Mach 5 and his own T-180 car, the Mach 6, although he is primarily interested in the art of the race and the well-being of his family.

E.P. Arnold Royalton, owner of conglomerate Royalton Industries, offers Speed an astoundingly luxurious lifestyle in exchange for signing to race with him. Though tempted, Speed declines due to his father's distrust of power-hungry corporations. Angered, Royalton reveals that for many years, key races have been fixed by corporate interests, including himself, to gain profits. Royalton takes out his anger on Speed by having his drivers force Speed into a crash that destroys the Mach 6 and suing Racer Motors for intellectual property infringement. Speed gets an opportunity to retaliate through Inspector Detector, head of an intelligence agency's corporate crimes division. Racer Taejo Togokahn supposedly has evidence that could indict Royalton but will only offer it up if Speed and the mysterious masked Racer X agree to race on his team in the Casa Cristo 5000, which could also substantially raise the stock price of his family's racing business, blocking a Royalton-arranged buyout.

Speed agrees but keeps his decision secret from his family, and Detector's team makes several defensive modifications to the Mach 5 to assist Speed in the rally. After they drive together and work naturally as a team, Speed begins to suspect that Racer X is actually his brother Rex in disguise. His family discovers that he has entered the race and agree to support him, though Pops is disappointed with Speed for entering without permission. With the help of his family and Trixie, Speed defeats many brutal racers, who were bribed by fixer Cruncher Block to stop him, and overcomes seemingly insurmountable obstacles to win the race, while Detector's team arrests Block. However, Taejo's arrangement is revealed to be a sham, as he was only interested in increasing the value of his family's company to profit from Royalton's buyout. Enraged, Speed hits the track that he used to drive with his brother, and confronts Racer X with his suspicion that he is Rex. Racer X removes his mask, revealing an unfamiliar face, and tells Speed that Rex is indeed dead, but encourages Speed not to let what had transpired change his idea of racing.

Speed plans to leave to clear his mind but returns home where he is confronted by Pops. Pops does not prevent Speed from leaving as he is proud of Speed for his cause despite it being in vain, and acknowledges that it was his own stubbornness that drove his son Rex away. Taejo's sister Horuko arrives and gives him Taejo's rejected automatic invitation to the Grand Prix. The Racer family bands together and builds a new Mach 6 in 32 hours. Speed enters the Grand Prix against great odds; Royalton has placed a $1,000,000 bounty on his head that the other drivers are eager to collect, and he is pitted against future Hall of Fame driver Jack "Cannonball" Taylor. Speed overcomes a slow start to catch up with Taylor, who uses a cheating device called a spearhook to latch the Mach 6 to his own car. Speed uses his jump jacks to expose the device to video cameras, causing Taylor to crash. Speed wins the race, having successfully exposed Royalton's crimes. While Racer X watches, it is revealed in a flashback montage that he is indeed Rex, who had faked his death by detonating a bomb in his car in the caves and underwent plastic surgery to change his appearance as part of his plan to protect Speed and the sport of racing. He chooses not to reveal his identity to his family, declaring that he must live with his decision. The Racer family celebrates Speed's victory as Speed and Trixie kiss, and Royalton is sent to jail.

Speed Racer is one of those movies where you got to just watch it and take it like it is. Sometimes you have to quiet the little critic in you and just take the movie for the good things it does and movie does a lot right. However, it's held back by it's CGI which restricts it's storytelling. Still it has become one of my guilty movie pleasure alongside such movies like White House Down, The Three Musketeers, and some others. It's not a bad movie nor is it a great one which I'm self aware of. However, this movie deserves more respect and praise than what it got. It was a ahead of the curve with it's choreography of it's racing scenes, the pure adrenaline rush it gave when watching it or the small moments between characters that bring drama and raise the stakes to each race. The movie echoes the anime in small way, but one thing it doesn't differ from is it being full of heart. This has been Revisited, thanks for reading. Ricardo signing off.