I'd only seen a handful of the original series, but I was intrigued enough by the teaser trailer to decide to take a chance on the decidedly mixed reviews. Saw it at the Natick IMAX theatre this past saturday.

Besides the comfortable seats, amazing sound system and six story screen, you only have to put up with one commercial before the limited previews. And on top of that, before the movie starts, an attendant will usually do a little comedy routine after the standard IMAX speech- there's one in particular I wish I could remember, it was something about the theatre not being held responsible for people throwing stuff at you if you forgot to turn off your cell phone. :D

When I arrived, there were already letting people in and I thought I was going to have trouble finding a seat. But when I walked in, the theatre was almost abandoned. As usual, it was just that everyone besides me forgot that just because you bought your tickets on-line, you still have to pick them at the theatre. There was a small stream of people that quickly turned into a huge rush in the last few minutes, and my showing was almost sold out.

The attendant asked how many people have been to the theatre before, then she asked how many people had been fans of Speed Racer for years. There were very few hands that were not in the air for that one.

Anyway, I thought the movie was excellent. The only thing I can compare it to in terms of pure cartoonish awesomeness is Grindhouse. The visuals, sound design and cinematography were quite stunning, and I loved the overall look and feel of the world- the costumes, the crazy car safety system, the tracks. Overall, there was only part I would have taken out the movie, that being the kid and annoying monkey side-kick wreaking havoc and doing air-guitar in the megacorp's factory. That seemed kind of out of place for me.

I find it a bit odd that many reviewers are complaining about an anti-capitalism tone to the movie. I didn't see that at all. The real subtext is that the villian trained on a Commordore-64 when he was young. The message is quite clear: C-64 users=Ebil! :p

Call me easily amused, but there's one part in particular that I thought was just hilarious. During a cross-country race of dubious legality, the announcer says that while there had been problems in the past, overall the vast majority of the racers are shining examples of good sportsmanship or something along those lines. The camera then zooms pasts most of the cars in X-ray vision mode, showing the most ludicrous cheats imaginable...tire shredders, machine guns, giant flails, et cetera.

The audience was just as responsive as they were for Iron Man, and there was applause at the end. I'm definitely seeing this again before it leaves the theatres, but I'm curious to see what other people here think. You may cue flaming of either the worst movie EVAR or my rambling post now. :)