A feelgood, old-fashioned blockbuster
Summary
F1 may feel familiar in terms of story, but it looks and sounds amazing with compelling performances from the entire cast. The ending takes too long to get where it needs to and I’m not sure how often I would rewatch it but this is definitely worth seeing in IMAX as it’s a welcome shot of adrenaline.
Plot: A Formula One driver comes out of retirement to mentor and team up with a younger driver.
Review: I don’t know why I’m reviewing this movie on this site as it isn’t an action movie, but racing is kinda action, right? *Arnie voice* WRONG!
Anyway, I was talking with my dad the other day about F1 and how I had an idea of how the entire story would go. For the most part I was right as the film does follow familiar tropes and is at times predictable, but car movies usually are as there’s only so much you can really do.
Directed by Top Gun: Maverick’s Joseph Kosinski, F1 may not have much we haven’t seen before in terms of plot, but it was still hugely entertaining and felt like an old-fashioned blockbuster that we got in the 90’s; it’s even produced by Jerry Bruckheimer!
At 2 and half hours it is long, but for the most part it’s well paced with solid performances from the entire cast; Brad Pitt’s past his best driver Sonny Hayes is a mostly likeable underdog, however, his character is still a bit of a dick at times which feels believable. He doesn’t get on well with the hot-headed younger driver Joshua Pearce (a star making turn from Damson Idris) so the two butt heads throughout, but can they work out their differences in the end?
The racing scenes are some of the best ever committed to screen and mixed with Hans Zimmer’s incredible score and some upbeat songs there is a real energy to keep the adrenaline pumping. We saw the film on IMAX and the sound was so immersive that it felt like we were in the driver’s seat, especially the commentators who sounded like they were right next to us in the theatre.
During the awesome climax in Abu Dhabi, you could hear a pin drop, and it seemed like our audience was really into it.
I’m not a big F1 guy, so there were likely cameos and references that went over my head, so I think if you are a fan you could add (or maybe subtract) half a star. We saw the movie with my cousin Pete who is a massive F1 fan and he loved the film.
I did find there were too many endings and you probably could have cut a few minutes just to wrap things up quicker as it felt unnecessary.
Overall, F1 is the kind of feelgood blockbuster we don’t see much of these days, but maybe people are done with the tired dark and gritty movies and are looking for a little optimism again. The performances here are first rate and the music is fantastic; there are some incredible racing scenes to get the blood pumping too making this a fun ride.