Video -games films managed to earn a dubious reputation among the people, giving rise to the famous idea of the "curse" of such adaptations. This does not mean that there are no successful adaptations of games, but in the general list they seem to be an exception to the rules.
But even successful (or, at least good) paintings were most often evaluated by fans, while critics smashed them with all their might. So, original "resident Evil»2002 holds“ proud ”35% of critics (67% of the audience) on Rotten Tomatoes, and“Silent Hill»2006-33% (65% of the audience). Additional problems with film adaptations began in the 2000s, when the notorious Uwe Bolle burst into the “Game” from his ”Bladrain","Pack", Dungeon Siege and other "hits". Time passed, but the film adaptation did not enter the enthusiasm of originals and ordinary spectators.
The situation gradually began to change in recent years, when studios and authors began to take a more active participation in the development of films and series of games. On the screens you can still see terrible adaptations, but successful examples like "Sonic". In addition, the very idea of the "curse of the film adaptations" of the games has ceased to be relevant for many – even if the players have not adopted the latest films on Mortal Kombat And Uncharted, But they managed to perform at the box office more successfully more than 2010 ribbons.
One of the studios, which decided to engage in the film adaptations of the games, was PlayStation, for which a Sony unit called the PlayStation Productions was created several years ago. It was it that participated in the development of the adaptation of Uncharted and The Last of US, and now the turn. I got to the racing series Gran Turismo. By irony, this is already the second novelty of the studio in a year, in one form or another, associated with races – the other was the series Twisted Metal.
Gran Turismo turned out to be an interesting “beast”, since this series of realistic racing simulators does not come to mind among the first candidates for adaptation. Even the film on Need for Speed with Aaron Paul initially seemed to be a more meaningful idea, given the criminal plots in some parts. But in the case of GT, the result turned out to be much better than it could be expected from it.
Partially positive elements of the film are connected not so much with the general “presentation” as (suddenly) with a story based on real events. The creators understood that the compilation of scenes with races would not be enough for a full -fledged film, so they made them only part of the plot, where the Gran Turismo series itself plays the role of one of the key elements.
The picture tells of the young fan of the franchise Yanne (Archie Madekve), who pumped his skills so much that he got into the training program for riders, collected from GT masters. The creation of such an initiative belongs to the head of the Nissan marketing department Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom), who attracts to her as Golden Genie Casino a coach of engineer Jack Salter (David Harbor). And Yanna will have to not only rebuild her skills under the conditions of real races, but also resist professional athletes.
As you can see from the tie, the base of Gran Turismo consists of a classic sports drama of the “kid came to success”, which turns out to be very appropriate. Even if the viewer is poorly familiar with GT or cannot distinguish one model of the machine from another at all, the problems of the central character will be extremely clear to him. In addition, the main conditions here are literally explained by “on the fingers”, accompanying key points with thematic signatures or indicators.
The picture is extremely helped by the acting of David Harbor – it gives the necessary emotions of the story that cannot be called extremely original. There is both a family doubting in the hero and a bastard rich enemy on the highway (Archie Madekve). Among the actors, by the way, in a pair of episodes, he distinguished himself vividly and Jimon Honsu In the role of the father of the main character.
For the production of the film was responsible Neil Blomkamp About which, since the time of "district No. 9" jokes that he is making the same film ("Elysium","Chappie"). But from the previous tapes of the author, there were only small stylistic moments like a “pseudo -documental” manual shooting of some scenes.
Otherwise, Blomkamp takes the emphasis on completely other details, trying to “marry” the topic of Gran Turismo with the main story. And we are not talking about the emergence of physical publications GT or a special chair in the frame, but about the question of attitude to games and their impact on the world.
One of the ideas of the film is associated with the condescending perception of this media. Many still look at games as “second -rate art” compared to cinema or music. At first, no one at first understands the hero’s hobbies except his friends and Danny – although for the latter the tournament is still becoming a powerful marketing course. But when the family or coach Yanna see the result on the highway, their assessment changes-after all, the effect of the "stupid" game is realized into something specific and useful.
Scenes also work on this concept when the character mentally moves from the playing chair to the racing car – the “virtual” world literally helps his success in real. In this sense, the soundtrack plays its role, where the work of different performers suddenly mixed – from Kenny G to Black Sabbath.
Blomkamp tries to create visual references to the series, repeating individual frames, angles, fonts and sounds of originals. The film still does not hesitate to insert a gameplay from GT, which will also delight fans. In addition, the picture adheres to a landed (even melancholy) tone in the style of the games themselves – this is not "Furious»With cars flying in the air and crazy tricks. The drama is played here "in complete seriousness"
Some media called part of the mentioned elements like gaming accessories or Nissan's office “an advertising campaign” (some considered such a film). These moments can be perceived in such a vein, but only because of their "frontal" presentation, and even this applies only to the first scenes of the film. Say, the flow of compliments towards the original or the joy of the hero from the new steering wheel at first really looks exaggerated. On the other hand, it is quite strange to be indignant at the mention of PlayStation or Gran Turismo games in the film … by Gran Turismo.
The gap of opinions between critics and ordinary viewers in the event of this film continues the tradition of filming of video games, with the only difference being that the quality of the product itself increased. Now even the assessment of professional reviewers stopped at 65% at Rotten Tomatoes, while the audience even amounted to 98%.
Does the adaptation of Gran Turismo deserve such a high score is a big question, since the film still has a number of global minuses. Spectators have seen such a plot more than once, local dialogs also sound quite familiar (“you were the best” and so on), and the characters are not revealed too details. In addition, shooting races is unlikely to amaze the imagination of fans of the genre or sports programs (or the same “Grand Tour”) – installation in some episodes is also used too actively.
But let Gran Turismo turn out to be quite classic, ultimately it works – thanks to the director’s obvious interest in the topic, individual acting work and even the inspiring spirit of history. It is unlikely that the film will become the same loud hit as other recent adaptations, but in this general race he still showed himself very worthy.