For their latest appropriation, The Wachowski Brothers have attempted to replicate the candilicious sense of J-Pop as only a Western, green-screen-happy directing duo can. Courtesy of AOL, here is the first trailer for their Speed Racer, technically the first movie from them as directors since The Matrix trilogy, and it looks like the boys might be trying too hard. From the blurred-background pans to the shot of Spritle and Chim-Chim in the trunk, this looks like a perfect live-action take on the classic anime series. But it also looks like a wannabe cartoon, and with so much CGI, it’s difficult to take seriously.

Nonetheless, my eyeballs are begging for me to take them to see this the first chance I get.

Now that we’ve seen what the Wachowskis are doing with their Speed Racer blockbuster (due in theaters in May), its interesting to think about the Brothers’ work in terms of their perspective. Certainly with this new movie they are presenting a very Japanese style as seen through their Western point-of-view. Before Speed Racer, they gave us V for Vendetta (credited director-wise to James McTeigue), an adaptation of a comic book with a very British story and subject matter. Then there’s the Wachowski’s first film, Bound, which was the best lesbian movie possible coming from two geeky men.

Personally, I think they were only successful with The Matrix, and maybe that has something to do with the fact that with it they weren’t appropriating someone else’s culture. Even with the two sequels, they failed, possibly because The Matrix by that point belonged to fanboys. It’s like they were appropriating their own movie, via that culture that was then attached to it. But even then, the original Matrix was basically Philip K. Dick, Lewis Carroll, cyberpunk and a lot of other things thrown together and delivered via the Wachowski’s perspective.

Does any of this make sense? I’m having difficulties wrapping my brain around it myself, so I apologize if I’m being confusing. I guess all I’m saying is that I’m not sure we’ve ever seen gotten a sense of who the Wachowskis are, from their movies, despite the possibility that the duo can be accepted as auteur filmmakers. I think it gives a new aspect of the theory to think about, even if Godard was already the king of such pop-filtered identification before the Wachowskis were even born.