The current era of video game adaptations has delivered its share of hits and misses. One thing remains true: there are more than ever as Hollywood mines every IP it can. Gran Turismo, though, exists in a strange sort of limbo. It comes off as a blend of a fairly typical sports movie and an adaptation that can't help but draw attention to its source material. Unlike Uncharted or The Super Mario Bros. Movie, however, Gran Turismo plays more like a commercial for the game it's based on than an actual story.
That's not to say there isn't a story to tell, and it happens to be true to life. Gran Turismo dramatizes the racing career of Jann Mardenborough, a gamer who was so good at the games that he was given the chance to race in real life. Unfortunately, the nature of this tale means that Gran Turismo spends an inordinate amount of time trying to sell viewers on how great the racing sim series is. It does this instead of focusing on things a movie should include like fully developed characters and sensible storytelling.
As if to let the audience know exactly what this movie is based on, Gran Turismo opens with a montage explaining the game series and how great it is. While it's true that the Gran Turismo series has received plenty of accolades for its gameplay and fidelity, a feature film opening with what amounts to an advertisement isn't a great choice. In somewhat of a lateral move, Gran Turismo then focuses on Jann Mardenborough (played by Midsommar's Archie Madekwe) and his home life, which is rife with cliches. His dad (Djimon Hounsou, whose talent is mostly wasted in this fairly one-dimensional role) thinks he should be playing soccer instead of wasting his time on video games. His brother is the athlete, Jann should be more like him!
However, Jann has a real knack for racing, at least in simulated form, which lands him a spot at GT Academy. This training program for sim racers is engineered by Danny Moore (played by former Legolas Orlando Bloom) who is more concerned about how this will help Nissan's marketing than actually developing good racers. It's an odd choice to include a character whose sole motivation is profit-driven in a movie that includes two sequences whose sole purpose is to convince the audience that the Gran Turismo games are just really excellent racing simulators (to say nothing of all the other advertisements and product placement that worms its way into the film).
There's not much to be said about any of the other characters in Gran Turismo. There is ostensibly a villain in Josha Stradowski's Nicholas Capa, but beyond portraying him as a rich, aggressive, and arrogant jerk, there's not a lot of work put into making him a compelling antagonist. The same can be said for Jann's love interest Audrey (Maeve Courtier-Lilley). One might think that in 2023 writers would consider putting slightly more work into writing better female characters, but Gran Turismo scribes Jason Hall and Zach Baylin are more than happy to just let Audrey exist in order to serve Jann's story. Her presence is weakened further by the fact that she apparently already has a thing for Jann, so he doesn't even have to work that hard to win her over.
The sole exception to the dearth of character work is Stranger Things star David Harbour as former racer Jack Salter. Salter is tasked with preparing Jann for the real world, even though he thinks the whole idea of training sim drivers is ludicrous. Harbour has a talent for playing grizzled, reluctant mentor figures, and he brings that energy to a role that might be considered one-note in the hands of someone else. Harbour imbues Salter's scenes with a sense of nostalgia, and he brings genuine emotion to dialogue that could easily come across as rote.
Gran Turismo does have some shine to it, and that's not a reference to all the meticulously polished cars that so often dominate the screen. Director Neill Blomkamp (who broke through with District 9 and dabbled in cyberpunk with Elysium) makes up for some of the more workmanlike dialogue scenes with some pretty spectacular racing sequences. The camera flies through tracks and follows the racers in a way that makes their speed palpable. Inserts show the inner workings of the cars as they seem to defy the laws of physics and achieve unthinkable feats of driving. Blomkamp even manages to fit in some stylistic game flourishes with indicators showing Jann's position in each race (though these choices don't always hit, as in one sequence where Jann outruns a police car).
While Jann's story is true, it's hard not to feel some of the more overbaked sports movie clichés that work their way into the script. Jann is the underdog, nobody believes in him, but they should! He knows these cars inside and out, even if he's never actually been in one! He loses some, he wins some, and he fights his way up the ranks to show what he's made of. There are setbacks along the way (including one very tragic, true-to-life moment wedged into the middle of the story), but everyone wants to cheer Jann on (including his mom, played by former Spice Girl Geri Horner, whose appearance here is an easter egg for racing fans as she is married to Christian Horner of the Red Bull Racing Formula One team). Sports movies often fall back on their tropes, but that doesn't mean they can't be good. It's when they fully rely on those tropes without building anything else on them that they fall short, and that's where Gran Turismo lands most of the time.
Gran Turismo is not the worst video game adaptation of all time, but it barely feels like one anyway. Instead of having an existing story to adapt, like The Last of Us or even Sonic the Hedgehog, Gran Turismo instead uses a true story (one that is itself embellished, as Jann was not the first sim driver developed through GT Academy, nor was he the only successful one) to hawk its wares in the guise of an inspiring sports movie. Driving fans may get more out of this movie than the average audience member, but those looking for a compelling and memorable trip to the theater will probably want to hit the brakes.
Gran Turismo opens in theaters on August 25th.
Gran Turismo
Based on the video game franchise and the true story surrounding it, Gran Turismo is a film adaptation arriving in 2023 from PlayStation Productions. The story will center around a teenage Gran Turismo player whose consistent winning streak in the games put him through a series of Nissan competitions, where he eventually became a real-life professional driver.