Visually, there's no denying that the Wachowski's were on to something. The movie was a smorgasbord of colors. In fact, I think they might have even invented some new colors for it. But I've seen critics review this movie who figured out one reason it didn't do so well at the box office. The Wachowskis do experimental films on a big budget. They aren't going to make back the money that they spend on the film. I also don't know that people really gave it a chance. They automatically assumed since it was a live-action anime series it'd be bad. Heck, I thought so too. Especially as a Speed Racer fan. But really they pulled it off. It was rather true to the series. Cheesy? Yeah. But so was the original series. My biggest disappointment was the fact that they only wore the original costumes for a short period of time. And that they added the Mach 6. But I think the cast was fantastic, they all did a great job. Especially John Goodman as Pops Racer. He is Pops. And I loved the homages to the original series including the reference to the original opening and the voice actors cameos.
The other big mistake? It was a bit long. Especially for children. I'm not even sure who they were targeting in the movie. I'm almost lead to believe that Speed Racer was on the edge between adults who liked the series and kids. Which could be another mistake on their part.
But all and all, I definitely recommend it to people. I've had several friends who watched it and loved it. But like me, they all enjoy anime. So that might be a big factor in it. For the flaws it has, I feel like the movie itself manages to redeem itself and I hope they can find the money to make a sequel.