Speed Racer's Visual FX Uncovered

Marco Trezzini writes "View exclusive interactive samples of the digital building blocks behind the Speed Racer movie in VRMag's in-depth interviews with award-winning Matrix visual FX guru John Gaeta, Dennis Martin, Lubo Hristov, and Jake Morrison. Including Virtual Reality panoramas of the movie locations, turn tables of the mach 5 and 6, and many making of videos unveiling the secrets of the visual effects. Link to 'Speed Racer uncovered' and to John Gaeta's interview." The first time I saw the trailer for this movie, my jaw hit the floor. Nobody makes live action "Cartoons" that look like this. I guess that makes me believe there is no way the movie can be good.

Comments

Why the Instant Dismissal?

[eldavojohn]

The first time I saw the trailer for this movie, my jaw hit the floor. Nobody makes live action "Cartoons" that look like this. I guess that makes me believe there is no way the movie can be good. "No way?" Why on earth do you say that? I mean, the odds are high we have the equivalent of Fantastic Four, Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow or a Matrix sequel. You know, movies that have great or novel special effects but little else. On the other hand, you could have something like Brazil, Blade Runner or 2001: A Space Odyssey. Movies that had different or strange special effects with more supporting features than just that.

I don't think that's exactly fair. There is some way the movie could be good. The original Matrix had neat (maybe not original) effects but it also had a very sound core science fiction theme along with a lot of great drama and situations. The dialog wasn't the best but I thought the story was very very strong. My 50+ year old aunt and uncle watched it when it came out and the one thing they remember from it is the story. Not the special effects or dialog or who was in it but the possibility of this Man Vs Machine universe.

I'll admit when I saw the Speed Racer trailer, my brain didn't comprehend anything that happened. I couldn't tell who was what, what I was looking at or even what kind of conflict the movie centered on. I was utterly stupefied. I'm not afraid of admitting that, it was just confusing and I've never seen or read any Speed Racer material so I have no precursor or knowledge of what the theme is.

If this movie is relying 100% on its stunning visual effects, it's going to be a summer blockbuster and nothing more. It isn't going to age well and might go down as being a standard to watch on the latest plasma screen until next summer when a better movie comes out. There is, however, still a very likely possibility that one or more elements comes through to save the movie. Whether it be the directing, the acting, the story or even the music.

Re:Why the Instant Dismissal?

[smittyoneeach]

Reverse psychology.
If they came out liking it, everyone would assert "Oh, they're a bunch of tools, the movie is teh l4m3".
I, for one, plan on going to see this flick and reverting to age 8 for an hour and a half, irrespective of whether the movie is so content-free as to qualify as a political speech.
Neener, neener, neener.

Re:Why the Instant Dismissal?

[cizoozic]

I've read or heard that the "scorching of the sky" was done with some kind of nanotechnology that disabled electronics and did not allow electromagnetic waves to pass through. Supposedly when the ship pierced the clouds in one of the movies it stalled because of this. I still like this humans as coprocessors idea much better though, because thermodynamically the whole human battery thing never made any sense to me. Sure we produce chemical(/electrical) and thermal energy, but we get that from our food and therefore from the sun. Anyway, you coppertops can believe what you want to believe.

Re:Go in with no expectations at all

[sexybomber]

Just order a large popcorn, maybe get a little intoxicated, and go watch the eye-candy.

(emphasis mine)

A little? Every time I see the trailer, I think to myself, I've got to go see that movie when I'm tripping balls. I just hope my eyeballs don't pop out of my head!

Re:Hollywood is dead to me

[Kierthos]

I refuse to consider anything I say about a cartoon that is 40 years old to be a spoiler. It's like talking about how King Kong dies at the end of the movie. It's been out a while. There's a time limit on this shit.

And really? A Thundercats movie? That's just fucking sad.

Re:Why I hate blockbusters and CGI-fests

[Colonel Korn]

The sad thing is that the expensive actors tend not to be any better than cheap actors. They make a lot of money because of silly factors like looks or previously held roles, not acting quality. This is especially horrid in animated movies, where "stars" doing voices are the focus of all the trailers, and then each celebrity essentially plays himself or herself. The talented voice actors (for instance, Billy West, who plays half of the characters in Futurama) come in to audition and get rejected, while the director will then coach the auto-hired celebrity based on the improvised performances seen by the talented but unknown actors.

Next time you see an ad for Crazy Animal Doing People Things starring Al Pacino as Every Character Al Panico Has Ever Played and Cameron Diaz as Generic Bimbo, just walk away.