My first JavaFX script

I just wrote my first JavaFX script. This script is actually a little benchmark I run when first looking at a new language. Is it rigorous and scientific ? Not at all. It is a very modest benchmark that gives me a feel for the language speed. It includes a bunch of operations typical of the kind of code that I write (string manipulations, collection manipulations, etc...). The code is not optimized to any degree and might actually run faster (or slower) if I was to use more idiomatic style. I also use a number of Java class. I think this is needed because this is also representative of what actual code will look like.
So what is the result ? Turns out that in this benchmark JavaFX is only 2 times slower than Java (511 milliseconds in one tests compared to 272 using Java). If you compare that to other JVM languages that is actually quite good. Groovy for example runs this particular benchmark in about 2600 millis (about 5 times slower than JavaFX). Of course JavaFX is a statically typed language so I was hoping I would get that kind of performance. I suspect that this will improve with subsequent versions. Scala for example runs the benchmark in about the same time as Java.
Of course speed is not the only criteria for language selection. Groovy for example being a dynamic language has a lot of characteristics that make it really appealing. However, in my case for the kind of applications I work on I cannot run 10 times slower than Java. If I can write only a small portion of an application using a language then this language becomes much less interesting. With the kind of speed that JavaFX is giving me I know I can write most of my code using it. That makes it really appealing. Now if JavaFX graphic rendering can get fast enough and with its already compeling UI capability it becomes a clear winner in my book.