A few points on this film.

The races are fun. That's what we wanted most of all, and the eccentric Wachowski style hit the spot. It's very hard to adapt source material not at all designed for a live action film with a balance of respect to the source material and creativity. For the races, this worked stupendously.

The rest of the time, the visuals are some of the weakest elements, feeling at least as cringy as the worst of the Spy Kids franchise. With the rest of the film's positives though, I'm happy to overlook it, even if I have to cringe at times from the effects.

One of those other strengths is the film is the family drama. I could see someone calling it cliche and predictable, but honestly it just works incredibly well for me and has a lot of heart. This is not a movie I would expect to make my eyes water a bit, but it happens multiple times throughout. It's truly a heartfelt film.

But additionally, one of my favorite themes in anything is the idea that you shouldn't love anything as a means to and end (as the villains do with racing), but you should love things for their beauty in themselves. Like Goku in Dragon Ball Z with fighting, Speed learns to love the race and the car as beautiful ends in themselves. This theme drives the film beautifully and once again connects to a deep humanity similar to the family dynamics. It's always a good pairing when you have a character who learns to love something for it's own beauty in a film, combined with a beautiful film (with aforementioned exceptions).

While I have to make a conscious effort to ignore the cringy parts, overall this film leaves me with very positive feelings. If they toned down the "Spy Kids" vibe I think it could have been an 8.