The amusing thing about going to see Gran Turismo – a movie about how video games can translate into real world skills – is that I was playing Jedi Survivor right before leaving the house. I suspect I’m not on the same career trajectory as the guy in this film… who apparently really did parlay his abilities at the game Gran Turismo into actual motorsports. 

Yes, the flick follows Jann Mardenborough as he Last Starfighters his skill at the PlayStation game Gran Turismo into a real chance to race for Nissan. I suspect certain facts, details, and timelines have been fudged. 

Curiously, this movie begins as another corporate biography. We’re told right from the start that Nissan is hosting this tournament in order to convince all the other Gran Turismo gamers to buy Nissans. It’s a pretty mercenary way to start the show… but it has the courtesy of fading into the background as the movie progresses. 

Unfortunately, the movie’s first half is a poorly edited wreck. I wasn’t remotely convinced of the Gran Turismo video game depictions and, once the real auto racing starts, the editing was a spastic and weird mess. I was constantly taken out of the picture by the most random of insert shots and the sloppy way the actual progress of the tournament and racers were filmed. It feels like the movie was edited to within inches of its life in an attempt to get the runtime down.

But then, out of nowhere, the movie gets good. It simply buckles down and decides to be a real movie about real people… it cuts out the chaotic editing and depicts its scenes and races in the way a sane person would. It finally humanizes its characters and gives real stakes to this wish fulfillment story. It even has genuinely emotional moments beyond the thrill of victory (and the agony of defeat). 

It’s just too bad it’s such a disorganized mess early on. It could have been among the best films of the year (within constraints of also being a bit too flashy and gaudy to come close to the top of such a list). But if you can forgive some messy filmmaking, you’ll eventually see Neill Blomkamp’s actual skill as a director come out.

Score: 88