I haven’t really been excited about going to the movies lately.
By “lately,” I mean “last couple of years.”
And by “last couple of years,” I may actually mean, “a decade.”
Well, there was Serenity, but that was it.
That may change. The latest Speed Racer trailer has me pretty excited to watch the movie, for several reasons.
First is the look of the movie. It’s utilizing a lot of high quality CG which looks amazing in the trailer. The actors filmed primarily in front of a green screen, like 300, but the backgrounds and the overall “look” of the film already has me hooked. The fantastic racetracks, the cartoon look of the smoke, the speed lines, all of it point to visual direction that is updating and modernizing Speed Racer, while remaining true to the source. This could all change once the actual movie is released, but the trailer holds a bit of promise.
Second, the casting seems perfect. I remember watching the series on television, and just looking at the comparisons of the cast with the animated versions, I feel like they’re spot on. Christina Ricci as Trixie is genius. Emile Hirsch looks like Speed. John Goodman as Pops, Susan Sarandon as Mom are great choices. Even Matt Fox as Racer X. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that that monkey chimpanzee they got for Chim Chim is pretty close as well. I’m not saying that all primates look alike, but damn.
Third, I could watch Christina Ricci all day.
All in all, I would rate my excitement for the movie as, “cautiously optimistic.”
I’ve got a entirely different rating for Christina Ricci.
Thank you for not titling this post “I know, it’s the Wachowski brothers.” And yeah, Christina Ricci…