Their latest offering, however, comes in the form of Speed Racer, a high octane, rapid-fire children's film based on the cult 60s Japanese cartoon series, Mach Go Go Go –– of which the brothers were fans.

The film follows the exploits of a young racing driver, named Speed Racer, who is making a name for himself in a Scalextric-style futuristic racing world. But he soon uncovers a dirtier side to his world . . . one of corruption and greed which he must fight to survive in.

Speed Racer is a thousand miles from the Wachowski's ground-breaking action masterpiece –– The Matrix –– which showed the duo had a knack for delivering smart, exciting film-making with a story interesting enough to support the breathtaking, innovative visuals.

The saccharine-soaked images have been a major selling point in the build-up to its release, and it is certainly true that they are amazing to look at.

The film has an incredible polish to it, and credit goes to the special effects - shot almost in its entirety on green screen sets, with computers filling in the blanks.

This amazing vibrancy is obviously intended to recreate the vividness of a city like Tokyo to a child's eye, and while this is at first amazing to see it soon becomes more garish and annoying than innovative and exciting.

The plot also wears thin rapidly, and the repetitiveness of the admittedly stunning race sequences soon takes its toll.

Attempts to confront smart issues such as corruption, capitalism and greed fall on deaf ears as they are both underdeveloped and confusing –– often falling to the sidelines in favour of the action and consequently feeling much like they were tagged on as an afterthought.

Acting comes courtesy of Emile Hirsch, freshly acclaimed for his performance in Into The Wild –– and although he does well as the angst ridden, and aptly named, Speed Racer, it is a role that hardly stretches the boundaries of his abilities.

Support is unanimously appalling, even from the likes of John Goodman and Susan Sarandon as Racer's mum and dad. Luckily, however, attention is drawn away from them by the unspeakably irritating Paulie Litt as Racer's younger brother Spritle, who narrowly beats his best friend and partner in crime ChimChim –– played by a monkey in a hat –– to the 'Character You'd Most Like to See Die Horribly' award.

Overall, Speed Racer is too dependent on its fairground style visuals to get away with box office success, a woefully poor film and surely the nail in the coffin for the Wachowski brothers –– who have obviously not learnt the valuable lesson that better special effects do not necessarily make a better film.