Speed Racer: Better than you would expect

Saw Speed Racer with Drew (and my dad) the other day, and it was better than the media blowhards would have you expect. A pleasant surprise.

First and foremost, it looks frickin' fabulous. I don't know how those Wachowski boys did it, but the colors are nothing short of stunning, the CGI is brilliant, everything just POPS off the screen. You have never seen anything like it, I guarantee.

The action, also, is fantastic. The race scenes in the mountains and the desert especially will keep you on the edge of your seat. The massive, four-wheel-steering powerslides thru the turns do get a little tiresome, as do the mid-air spins and barrel-rolls (these are supposed to be race cars, not Wizzers or T-38s, or are they?), but that's pretty nit-picky. It's good fun.

The characters and acting? If you have to ask about those things, you are totally missing the point. Matthew Fox is good as Racer X, Goodman and Sarandon are perfectly serviceable as the cartoon parents, and everyone else does their job. Believe me, they are NOT what this movie is about.

This is yet another technical tour-de-force by the Wachowskis. Remember how you felt walking out of The Matrix for the first time? You had never seen anything like it before. I know, since then you've seen all that stuff a hundred times. Remember the first time you saw it? That's how you'll feel walking out of this one.

See it in digital. See it on a big screen. It's fun. Really fun.