While video game adaptations have been plentiful in the past, we haven’t yet had a blockbuster where a player and their favorite game are at the heart of the story. Yet this is what Gran Turismofilm by Neill Blomkamp and Sony Pictures telling the true-to-life story of Jann Mardenborougha young English motorsport enthusiast whose life will change when he is selected for the first Nissan GT Academya competition aimed at recruiting the best players in Gran Turismo to make them real pilots. The feature film is therefore not an adaptation in the literal sense of the term, but rather a biopic about a player like no other, a e-sport amateur who wants to become a professional pilot.
An exhilarating biopic, where we were really invested in races with an obvious outcome.
Such a project may have advertising insert tunes paying for more than two hours, and sometimes it looks like it. The first scenes about the saga’s legacy or the passages around star developers sometimes feel like promotional cutscenes, and the words of praise about the franchise and its gameplay closer to a driving simulator than a classic video game recall the press releases of Polyphony Digital. The same goes for the pretty plans on the cars that smell like the check of Porsche Or Lamborghini to be entitled to a strong on-screen presence. But the picture of Nissan is not always very smooth either, carried by the marketing representative Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom) more interested in the success of the GT Academy than the well-being of his foals.
Next to Jack Salter (David Harbour), a former pilot converted into a strategist and demanding engineer, and Steve Mardenborough (Djimon Hounsou), a father as fearful for his son’s security as his professional future, he composes a trio of complementary father figures. Apart from a few mishaps in the overplay, these actors manage to lead the feature film successfully, but it is the main actor Archie Madekwe who impresses the most with his radiant good nature. On the other hand, the other recognizable figures are too numerous to be treated with care and offer a cast whose lack of nuance would almost have an endearing kitsch side. The competitors and the entourage of Jannincluding a friend who is only there for a bland, but still cute love affair, are indeed a band of good guys and bad guys almost cartoonishright down to the very clichéd names (hello Marcel Durand).
It doesn’t matter, what really matters is that we are swept away in our young player’s quest for success, faced with the harsh realities of motorsport. Well armed with his experience as a player, he will chain exploits and setbacks, for an exhilarating biopic, where we were really invested in races with an obvious outcome. The dramaturgy on and off the track being quite limited, the springs of tension are quickly redundant, but the scenario does not hesitate to confront more difficult subjects to diversify. The danger of death on the track or the elitism of a rich and nepotistic soar permanentlyeven if it means potentially scratching the smooth image of the discipline and its sponsors at the heart of the production, and touching the subject of a pilot’s guilt during an accident with a little clumsiness.
Speaking of smooth image, that’s what this visually offers. Gran Turismo. A thousand leagues from the other achievements of Neill Blomkamp in the worlds made of futuristic ghettos, this film wants to be stylish, clean and necessarily a little smooth. Gleaming cars, aerial camera shots, point of view from racing cars at full speed: it’s impressive, especially since it seems to use little or no computer graphics. The rendering looks like a lot of things we’ve seen in commercials, other feature films of the genre or even the video game, but let’s not be choosy, there is what it takes to vibrate during overruns and line crossings.
Moreover, if some plans are directly taken from the game for narrative questions, others are directly inspired by it, whether via angles reminiscent of the promotional cutscenes of the games, or direct reminders of its visual identity. There are indeed a lot of augmented reality overlays, visuals of deconstructed cars (with CGI not always on top), plans with a HUD or even a lane assist display. It sometimes seems forced to recall the origins of players from Jannbut also gives an identity to a film that really needed it.
And while there are plenty of scenes on and around the track, there are plenty of other things to savor, whether it’s the funny or amusing moments about the protagonist’s middle-class or even underprivileged youth, questions about social predestination and the will to follow one’s dreams at all costs, or even more surprising moments. Between quirky scenes using popular music appreciated by the characters, a romantic stay in Tokyo and a Marseillaise which resonates in a disturbing militaristic atmospherewe must admit that the film sometimes takes us where we did not expect it.
In any case, this Gran Turismo succeeds his bet: to resonate the passion for the automobile in gamers, circuit enthusiasts and even beyond. It’s hard not to be taken by the journey of this young and endearing Jann, over thrilling races that we would have liked to see even longer. A film about amateur e-sport, the passion for a discipline, a hero who goes beyond his limits and an industry fascinating by its spectacle, its problems and its dreamy international circuits, Gran Turismo has all the codes of easy and effective entertainment. Despite its classicism both in terms of the staging and the characters, actors not necessarily at their best and passages that border on advertising Nissan Or playstationits rhythm and its rare eccentricities are enough for a pleasant viewing, where we vibrated to the sounds of engines and victories.
Note : 3 out of 5 stars
Gran Turismo 7 is available from €48.99 on Amazon.co.uk.
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