'Speed' for Seven Minutes.

You'll find at Yahoo! Movies a new clip of Speed Racer which features the first seven minutes of the new film hitting tomorrow (5/9). It's definitely a stylish movie, and it appeals to the geek in me with all of its sugary, neon, anime-based, CGI-powered confection, but I don't have enough excitement to go out and see it in place of, say, Iron Man, which I've sadly not seen yet (one out of the many millions who have). It looks too much like a migraine waiting to happen, as delicious of a migraine that would be, and I'll always opt for the superhero, even if he is a drunkard, over a chase-flick (it might give me diabetes). But it is rather unfortunate that it's turned out this way, since I had warmed up a bit to the trailer. (I initially thought it was a live-action Hot Wheels movie, then I saw the white helmet with the 'R' emblazoned on it, then I saw Emile Hirsch and I got confused again, then it started to make sense, then came the swirling red 'Speed Racer,' and some peace of mind.) But, then, I figure this might also be the case where the trailer gives essentially everything away, and all that's left to discover is the secret weapon which threatens to destroy Speed Racer, but which is overcome by the love Speed has for racing, his family and mankind.

It appears that I've captured the general consensus, though, as the film currently has a 37% rating from 20 reviews on Metacritic, and a 35% at Rotten Tomatoes currently counting 63 reviews, with the best comments being about its particularly crazy, kitschy anti-realistic style and the worst reviews ...saying the same thing. Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal: "This toxic admixture of computer-generated frenzy and live-action torpor succeeds in being, almost simultaneously, genuinely painful -- the esthetic equivalent of needles in eyeballs -- and weirdly benumbing, like eye candy laced with lidocaine." And Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune (who frequently headlines in place of Roger Ebert on his program while Ebert recovers from a botched surgery): "At its best, it's buoyant pop entertainment focused on three things: speed, racing and retina-splitting oceans of digitally captured color."

Based on its ill reception and its narrow appeal (male youths, and maybe youths in general - Susan Sarandon, John Goodman and Matthew Fox won't be pulling in much else), I reckon it'll be another big weekend for Iron Man (though if it loses, it won't be by much), which has shown it can attract women and older folks above 25. We'll see next week if The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which has a wider appeal and has a track record that's enormous globally, will be able to pose a greater threat.

IMAGE from: AICN.