[motor]

Watched the movie yesterday and IMHO they've done a good job.

The inadequacies are quite possibly calculated decisions rather than errors from a lack of research or familiarity with the F1 environment, so I suppose they can be overlooked.

What I felt like a missed opportunity is - despite the fantastic racing shots - viewers could have been given better images of the F1 machines as well as the tools/activities involved.

For instance, especially while building up to the F1 paddock environment in general, or building up the momentum as the story goes into each race weekend.

There would have been literally hundreds of angles or shots which would have given one new perspectives on that environment and the machinery - which is otherwise impossible to find, say through normal TV viewing of F1 races.

This is something, among others, which (the late) Tony Scott would have done a great job at. Very few directors have that sort of eye for fast and complex machinery, so again, can't really complain.

[supermax]

Quite a few comments about the stunning visuals; has definitely piqued my interest.

Originally Posted by Bane214

A definite watch for anyone who has followed or watched F1 anytime. The race commentary is also customized for any F1 noob to understand some basics (eg., warm tyres provide better grip, pitstop importance etc.)

In terms of comparison to similar genre movies, I would rate it a level below Rush (which focused more on individual racing compared to this movie's team storyline)

I'm no fan of DTS, but I know how effective it's been in drawing new fans onboard. DTS got my wife interested in F1, something I never managed to do! From your description, I think it's firmly in the DTS mould, so it wouldn't surprise me in the least that it's not in the same league as Rush. The stunning visuals part that people are describing is something that interests me though.

Originally Posted by bullitt1

What a horrendous movie and a terrible way to introduce the sport to the uninformed. The whole movie rides on cheating and accidents. Cant imagine Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem were in the movie. Cant even compare to the likes of Rush and Ford.v.Ferrari.

Whether we like it or not, cheating has been an intrinsic part of the sport, right from the beginning. It's never been a gentlemen's sport; it's always been about the winner taking home everything. It's always been about designers and engineers poring over the rules to find ways to get creative, aka cheat, till they get exposed and the loophole gets closed. Others have been a lot less subtle. Whether it was running cars that were illegally underweight and then adding lead bits along with the fuel, to bring up the weight, using illegal traction control aids (and then claiming that they were merely active but not really used), figuring out ways to intercept the start lights signal before the lights actually turned, to give drivers an unfair advantage, ordering a team-mate to deliberately crash so that the other car could get an advantage... the list goes on and on and on. Why get flustered if the cheating side of the sport is displayed for all to see? Nobody is going to watch DTS or this movie, to get a full picture of the sport. This movie, like DTS, is like Taco Bell with respect to authentic Mexican cuisine! Don't expect it to be the real deal, or the complete deal, but a wacky reimplementation aimed to be fun.

Originally Posted by Dippy

The movie has been shot well, the camera work is brilliant. Some sequences are amazing to watch. The simulator stuff is also pretty cool.

But it all ends there.

I think the first part of your review is what I'm after! The cool visuals. Hope the movie has a good enough soundtrack, given it's Hans Zimmer, who's done the composing. I'm going to watch it to enjoy the visuals, and not have any expectations with regard to accuracy to real F1 racing.

Originally Posted by kiredd1005

A friend was invited by Sundaram Motors to watch the F1 movie at PVR Director's cut on Brigade Road.

The very best way to watch a movie, is to watch it for free. And if the inviters don't hang around, it's even better!

Originally Posted by Porschefire

The uninformed will either not watch the movie or just come in for the theatre experience, not to take a crash course on F1 rules and regulations.

While the plot is definitely weak and even funny at times, visually, this movie is miles ahead Rush and Ford.v.Ferrari, IMHO.

Bang on. Even Rush had its Hollywood moments, like drivers accelerating after an upshift, and there always being unlimited gears to shift up into, but since the story was real, that was half the magic right there. What I'm looking forward to, from this flick, is the visuals, and nothing else.

[ZenMaster]

Watched the Movie in PVR P[XL]. The movie is a visual masterpiece and is a must watch despite its obvious shortcomings (which will be apparent only to enthusiasts)

As someone who is aware of all the intrinsic details and regulations of F1, I took a concious decision to turn of my brain before going to the movie and therefore I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Despite all the inconsistencies, razor thin/borderline stupid plot and weird pacing of the story, one will not be able to take their eyes of the screen. That is the success of this movie.

Coming to its shortcomings, I think the makers missed the forest for the trees when it comes to story, pacing, character development and especially dialogues.

Seriously, the dialogues sound like it was either written by 12 year olds or generated by ChatGPT. They are a bit soulless. There is no proper character development. In each section of the movie, when we start connecting with a character, they immediately switch to something else and break that flow. Its just relentless, in a bad way.

Also have no clue why they chose such a weak plot, when F1 and motorsport as a while has so many awesome stories. They could just pick anyone. Heck they could just copy the story from CARS movie by PIXAR for all I care and it would actually fit the movie well. With a little bit more care for the story, this movie could easily hit every box and be labelled as one of the best movies to be ever made for auto enthusiasts and F1 fans.

That said, please do watch the movie. Its well worth the money and the time spent.

[Balamurugan]

Watched the movie in theatres last night and I must say it was really good.

The racing scenes are next level. You actually feel like you're inside the cockpit Brad Pitt fits the role well.

As a F1 fan, I totally enjoyed it. It is not just for racing fans though, even my friend who doesn’t follow F1 liked it for the drama and visuals.

Totally worth watching on the big screen if you're a motorsport lover.

[t3rm1n80r]

I watched the movie last weekend in IMAX 2D. Here's a bit different take:

I think new followers of the sport or non-followers would find it thrilling, me not so much. Now I can understand the actual driver reactions after watching the movie during the premiere. There were few unrealistically depicted scenes due to which I couldn't get engrossed in it. Few notable ones were

• Hayes directly jumping from 24H endurance racing to F1 without proper physical training. F1 is a physically intense sport. The high G-forces takes out a lot from even the experienced drivers. You may watch Leclerc's POV video on youtube where he's heavily panting all the way through a few high G corners.

• Secondly, Hayes felt too cool/casual in his approach to getting back to F1 and winning with the team. I found the tension lacking and therefore couldn't root for him or the team. F1 followers would know how intense the team radios and post-race interviews usually are.

• Thirdly, a personal choice, I think the racing scenes could've done without the background score. No disrespect to Hams Zimmer and the team that worked on the sound design, but I'd prefer hearing the engines hit 15000 rpms instead. I can only imagine what it would sound like in a theater if this movie was made in an alternative universe with the V10 engines :P On a positive note, the visuals were stunning.

Overall a good movie for new fans of the sport. It's a max 6/10 for me.

[GTO]

Saw the movie last evening.

What's Good:

- A car movie!

- A car movie that's doing great business and should definitely pave the way for more automotive flicks. Tickets were impossible on the weekend. Even for a Thursday evening, I didn't get my choice of timing. All my favourite screens were sold out for the 7 - 8 PM starting time slots.

- The visuals are just fantastic. Beautiful cars through & through. Not just the Formula 1 cars, but even the G-Wagen, Baja etc.

- People are loving the movie. Bumped into my neighbour who was already watching it a 2nd time this week. Audience was 100% engaged in the theatre. It's a total masala movie aimed at the general audience.

What's Bad:

- Rubbish story. While the movie starts well, enthusiasts will soon get put off by the blatant cheating, and direct / indirect implications that it's one way to win in F1. I can't figure out how the F1 management allowed showcasing the sport in such poor light and when Brad Pitt is racing, he is either deliberately crashing himself or making others crash. In real life, he would get thrown out from F1 and banned for life.

You'll enjoy the cars & visuals, not much else. Watch it with very low expectations.

[H0RSEPOWER]

Watched the F1 movie today. I had high expectations as an F1 fan. Here are my takes on this movie:

1. Brad Pitt suddenly returning to F1 after decades and showing that kind of timing in the very first practice session itself! It’s simply not realistic considering the toughness in pinnacle of Motorsport.

2. No qualification races shown. All direct race days.

3. A team that is scoring points after the upgrade are consistently starting as the bottom two cars in all the races. Storyline might have shown some progress on the qualifying as well.

4. In today’s era, when a pit stop takes a little more than couple of seconds, a driver just waiting & arguing with the team principal during a pit stop in order to get his choice of soft compound is too much melodramatic!

5. The deliberate crashes in the second race by Brad Pitt would surely call for multiple race ban & penalties, which were not shown. Heck, the touch in the first corner in the first race also would ask for some time penalty, which was not shown.

Being a fan of F1, & big fan of Lewis Hamilton(he was one of the producers of this movie), did not expect these type of miss outs!
Those who are not much into F1, should enjoy it without the criticisms. But for any F1 fan, it’s more entertaining to watch an actual thrilling race weekend instead of this movie!
But still apart from these, in the end it was an entertaining movie for the car lovers with really good visuals & soundtrack. And if people can easily digest the logics in the Fast & the Furious movies, this can surely be enjoyed.

[bejoy]

Watched with my kids last Saturday. Agree with most of the sentiments here.

I didn't have high expectations but was pleasantly surprised with the making. Especially, Hans Zimmer has moved the movie to a different level with his signature background score.

[int3]

Watched the movie this Saturday.
Definitely eye catching. Engrosses you as long as you don’t allow your mind to consider rationality.
The plot is pretty weak, wish Joseph Kosinski spent as much time developing the plot as he did planning the visual treatment.
Overall a good way to spend 3 hes

[famousshoes]

Saw F1 the other day and this is what i felt -
The sound track by Hans Zimmer is Fantastic, making great use of silences.
Some parts of the screenplay and definitely the ending could have been more credible. Wish they had put in some more work and elevated this to the level of cinema, now it remains at mainstream popcorn pulp level, id give it a 6 on 10.
you get to see a lot of the drivers and team principals, verstappen, leclare, hamilton, perez, norris, toto, andrea etc etc
but the best cameo was Gunther Steiner who made it to a couple of shots!

Do remember
This is not a true representation of F1
Imagine F1 as if it were a well made mainstream bollywood gig minus the song and dance

Keep these things in mind when you go for the movie and enjoy your time watching this visual and aural spectacle on the big screen..

For the new converts and fans, here is the F1 schedule for 2025
https://racingnews365.com/formula-1-calendar-2025

A making of video of F1 for the camera geeks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaklCDha5-I

and a BTS interview with a very excited Brad Pitt who shows you some of the cars and camera rigs used while filming

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO1oPu9ByI8