For being one of the most relentlessly colorful pieces of visual cinema ever created, “Speed Racer” is a very black-and-white film in just about every way it could be. Plot-wise, there are very good guys, and very bad guys. Production-wise, everything in this movie either works very well or not at all. As a result, audience members will either love it or hate it, with little room left in between.

The first film directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski since “The Matrix Revolutions,” they bring back with them their thrilling visual flair, cinematic inventiveness, and wanton lack of directorial restraint. When the Brothers Wachowski decide they like something, the only time it gets a rest is when the credits begin to roll.

This movie is an amazing visual achievement. The insanely balletic, frenetic, physically impossible automobile racing that is the core of this film is amazing to behold. That combined with digitally enhanced colors, impossibly slick camera movements and editing that teeters between insanity and genius make this film a strange marvel that could not be viewed in reality or any preexisting cinema.

However, as far as the visuals go, the Wachowskis show all the cards in their hand in the first scene of the film. For the rest of the film, the repeating of similar visual tricks loses its “gee whiz” appeal, and by the end of the movie you may be begging for the checkered flag to fall.

Story-wise, there is not a whole lot to be seen here. Racecar-driving dynamo Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch, “Into the Wild”) is tempted to join a corrupt corporate racing team by fat-cat Royalton (Roger Allam, “V for Vendetta”). He fights against Royalton with the help of his parents (John Goodman and Susan Sarandon), his girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci), his little brother (Paulie Litt, “Hope and Faith”), and the family’s pet chimp. Also along for the ride are the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox, “Lost”), who may or may not be Speed’s long-thought-dead brother Rex, and Korean pop star Rain as a racer named Taejo, who is basically the Lando Calrissian to Hirsch’s Luke Skywalker and Allam’s Darth Vader.

While the story has little to offer beyond good versus evil and family values versus corporate greed, the actors generally perform admirably, and the character interaction is almost as thrilling as the racing.

Hirsch takes what could have been a boring dunderhead of a character, and turns him into a charismatic yet conflicted hero. Allam has little to work with as a generic bad guy, but infuses his character with the same snobbish venom that made his Prothero in “V for Vendetta” such a thrill.

John Goodman has his first standout live-action role since “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” eight years ago. He imbues Pops Racer with the loveable stubbornness and overwhelming sensitivity of a protective, loving father. If this movie has an emotional center, it is John Goodman.

Surprisingly, both Matthew Fox and Christina Ricci both thrill in their roles. Fox plays Racer X from somewhere in between Robocop and Inspector Gadget, and manages to portray a dramatic depth that he has yet to display in his previous work. Ricci is used unapologetically as eye candy in this film, but when she is given a chance to spread her arms and act side-by-side the other talent, she holds her own, and even surpasses Hirsch in the film’s quieter moments.

Overused much like the Pixy-Stix visuals and kung fu-on-wheels race choreography are Pauly Litt and Willy the Chimpanzee as Spritle Racer and Chim Chim, respectively. Each spends an equal amount of screen-time mugging for the camera, and prove useless to the film. In a movie this goofy, the slapstick comic relief of a kid and an ape seems completely unnecessary.

“Speed Racer” is not a thinking man’s film. It is technically impressive and boasts some fine acting, but is nonetheless better viewed from the perspective of a popcorn-munching elementary schooler than an intelligent, critical adult. Far closer to Spongebob than Shakespeare, viewers who can manage to turn their brains off and just ingest the visual spectacle will be thrilled.

3 stars out of 5

E-mail the author: defaultuser