From the trailers, I was really sure that this movie was going to be overly serious, trying to make this material fit into themes that it wasn't really intended to. That's what I get for trusting trailers.
This movie, while being reverent to the source material, didn't take itself so seriously that it couldn't have fun with those aspects of the old series that were, indeed, less than serious.
I really enjoyed it, even though I didn't particularly want to go (we went as part of my daughter's birthday present). Just curious if anyone else went to see this.
Saw it with my son yesterday. I'm afraid I hated it. Perhaps it would have been better had I been a fan of the cartoon from back when, but I don't remember the cartoon at all (and yes, I'm the right age).
They didn't seem to make any effort to have the movie make sense to people who weren't already familiar with the material.
That, and most of the racing sequences seemed designed to sell the inevitable console game.
I took my sons to see with only modest expectations. I knew my boys would like it but even though I was a diehard fan as a boy, I wasn't sure I would care for it. The cartoon hadn't aged well in my eyes.
It was a pretty good popcorn flick. Total eye candy and adrenaline for boys 6-12. It was true to the source material while being tongue-in-cheek in several parts.
(Not much involves real-world physics, but then neither did the cartoon.)
Certainly on par in the special effects dept with say Star Wars I-III and my eldest responded with the same level of enthusiasm.
My wife, who HATED the cartoon, thought it was a cute kids movie, even though they pushed the limit on the PG rating.
My wife and I took our two sons to see it on Sunday. The five year old is into cars and airplanes and is the one who really NEEDED to see it; the seven year old, who is more into dinosaurs and dragons, wasn't hugely excited about the prospect, but liked from the commercials that there would be a girlfriend who knows kung fu, and a chimp.
It was pretty hugely successful. Our five year old finished the movie with both hands raised over his head in triumph (spoiler? =) ). Pretty fun, some truly ridiculous ass-kicking, and I think the people who said, "All the jokes fell flat! And the dialog was terrible!" were rather missing the actual comedy.
When I hear complaints about a movie that features ninja assassins and Viking automobile racers, I say to myself, "That man is a Red, that man is a Communist." You never hear a real American talk like that!
It's no Iron Man (which is a problem, seeing as how another movie out right now is), but it is a nice summer spectacle. Not to damn with faint praise, but it was one hell of a lot better than Transformers.
All I want to know is if anyone spoke their dialogue really quickly in long breathless chains.
IDON'TKNOWABOUTLONGBREATHLESSCHAINSBUTSOMEOFITWASVERYLONGANDALITTLEEXAGGERA TEDBUTNOTTOOOVERTHETOPANDINTHEENDEVERYONELAUGHEDANDHADAGOODTIMEHAHAHA.
I frakkin' loved it. I went with my best friend and her boyfriend early Friday morning and wound up cheering my head off at the end. I just wished I was 8 years old so it could blow my mind more.
I think the people that have seen it and think it's crap are really missing the point. It's an excellent kids flick and a great way to start out the summer.
Emile Hirsch is great, Ricci is great, and even Dr. Jack does ok. I mean, he's Racer X. How cool is that?
