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.
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.
suspension of disbelief