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Formula 1 @lemmy.world
Coelacanth @feddit.nu

F1 Movie discussion thread

Seeing as a lot of us seem to have watched it by now it might be fun to talk about our thoughts. I'll give a spoiler free review here and might go into more detail in the comments.

For me, the movie was almost exactly what I expected given the premise (Hollywood sports movie starring an aging Brad Pitt). But if you're an F1 fan you don't watch this for the story. Even then, there are some fanservice nods for us thrown in that I did smile at now and then, and even though the story takes a lot of liberties I was actually impressed at the amount of detail the movie goes into.

All that being said, you watch this for one reason alone: the shots of the racing. And they are spectacular. I wish they would linger a second or two longer instead of often jumping quickly between angles, but that's my only criticism. They look fucking amazing and it is worth the price of admission. And do yourself a favour and watch it in IMAX. Some of those shots are just breathtaking.

7 comments

  • I pretty much agree with you: I was blown away by the driving sequences (which are very reminiscent of 1966 Grand Prix), but god, the writing was terrible.

    I winced so many times at the inconsistencies regarding rules and strategy (which is baffling given Ruth Buscombe, Bernie Collins and Will Buxton are credited as consultants, as well as Lewis and Toto as Executive Producers!). The blatant cheating from Pitt's character is stupid, appalling and neither the driver and his team faced any consequences, it should have earned him at least a black flag.

    And the characters... they are all so shallow and their arcs are static until the penultimate race. In that aspect, Gran Turismo was a better driver movie.

  • The story was dumb. The relationship between Hayes and the technical director felt so forced and unnecessary.

    I appreciate all the little details they showed — the fan service as you mentioned.

    Visuals were stunning as expected.

  • Good stuff

    • From a technical perspective (cinematography, CGI) it looks pretty neat
    • Racing sequences are cool, and since they used a lot of real footage cars don't look like they're just CG models on rails
    • I liked the sound design overall
    • A couple references for F1 fans, but it's not overwhelming

    Not good stuff

    • Brad Pitt plays Brad Pitt
    • Story is duller than a hard tyre after 50 laps
    • Character development was abandoned as APXGP decided to shift focus to next year
    • Why is everything so shiny and glossy? Feels like I'm at Apple's HQ, maybe that's intentional?
    • Sonny Hayes needs to be tried in Hague. Sure, he isn't meant to be some paragon of virtue, but his bs should have been called out more.

    "It sets a precedent not only in F1, but also for all the young kids that are watching us, F1 drivers, drive and conduct ourselves. They've seen today how a 4 time world champion behaves." ~ Lewis after Seb rammed him in Baku 2017.

7 comments