So I just watched Speed Racer. I did not believe Bob when he told me it was good. Although I loathed the first 10 minutes. The movie was so much better than The Phantom Menace. All the action scenes in Speed Racer may be a bit too stylized for my tastes, however the race scenes contained action that is easy to follow when watching it the first time. Contrast that with the pod racing scene from Phantom Menace, which after I watched it more than 10 times, I still don’t follow and have no idea what the action is or is supposed to be.
Speed racer really is true to the cartoon in look and feel of all characters, which makes it very exciting. The story is more interesting and complex than Phantom Menace and instead of stupid love scenes it has cootie patrol led by Spritle and Chim Chim. There are many twists and turns that are consistent with the cartoon, yet surprising and not too far fetched.-ie believable. There are some glaring inconsistencies like John Goodman be portrayed as being much smaller than he is in real life and mom racer having a child every 10 years, but that is made up for by being an easy to follow movie with a good plot.
