i'm a bit torn on this one.

everything i've seen suggests that the speed racer movie will be total eye candy—a real visual feast. and that's no surprise, considering it's the new film by the wachowski brothers, who gave us the matrix.

for example, see this io9 post about the stunning design work: there are some amazing screenshots. and the latest full-length trailer makes the movie look pretty exciting.

on the other hand, the original speed racer series was at times one of the cheesiest, campiest things ever shown on television. and the tv commercials for the movie make clear that it includes some of this cheese: the characters spritle and chim-chim feature prominently in some of the ads (fortunately, chim-chim doesn't appear at all in the latest trailer, so hopefully their role is small).

so what am i to do? i still haven't seen last year's transformers movie because i knew in advance that while the special effects would be mind-blowing, the movie itself would simply blow. after all, i've been burned before—i saw what dreams may come in the theatre.

so there's a possibility that speed racer will totally suck. furthermore, the design work and effects look so awesome that it might be worth seeing in the theatre even if it does. then again, it might not. in fact, if done properly, it could be great.

so i'm torn. i'm thinking i probably will see it in the theatres, though if it gets a lot of bad reviews that might dissuade me. but i don't know who i'll go see it with, since virago hasn't shown much interest. hell, if it comes to the theatre nearest me, maybe i'll go alone and walk there. it might be a movie about race car drivers, but there's no need to waste gas going to see it when we have near-record gas prices. ¶

I'm even more curious as to what Steven Spielberg will do to Ghost in the Shell...

http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/04/spielberg-to-ma.html ¶

i'm similarly torn on speed racer.

as for ghost in the shell, all i need to do is think about the ending of AI... ¶