When Is a Toy Commercial not a Toy Commercial?

Movies based on products are just a thing now. While it would not have occurred to anyone in the 50s or 60s to try and make a movie based off Slinky or Silly Putty, in the age of IP, anything that has proved popular in one market is worth a shot as a feature film. This summer alone, we’ve seen movies based on Transformers, Barbie, and Haunted Mansion, not to mention films that lend themselves to toy sales like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (there are also business movies like Blackberry and Air).

In a few weeks, we’ll see the release of Gran Turismo. The marketing has worked to emphasize that although the film shares a title with a video game and the video game features prominently in the plot, this is not a straight adaptation like Uncharted or this year’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Instead, it’s about the story of real-life racer Jann Mardenborough, a British man who played so much of the Gran Turismo game, and played it so well, that he was able to parlay it into real racing.

While it helps that Mardenborough is a real guy and he has a compelling story, director Neill Blomkamp’s film isn’t interested in reality. It’s interested in selling a product. From the perspective of Sony (the studio distributing the film) and PlayStation Studios (the studio producing the film because it’s a PlayStation exclusive title), this is perfect synergy, because Sony owns PlayStation and what a great way to get people to buy not only Gran Turismo but also a PlayStation and a driving wheel and all the other accessories because you too could one day go pro and let Gran Turismo make all your dreams come true.

As a story, no one took a chance here. No one thought past the Gran Turismo branding and then slapping every sports movie cliche under the hood. It’s about an underdog who has the talent but not the opportunity, but here comes the opportunity, except he now has to up his game to prove himself, and his mentor figure (who used to be great but missed his shot, and now exists as both a guide and a cautionary tale) will push him but also come to respect his drive, and now he’s made it, but watch out because here comes a crisis of confidence, and now those closest to the underdog will confide in him, and now the underdog will come back stronger than ever, and now he’s a champion. Buy Gran Turismo.

So why does Gran Turismo feel so transparently like an ad when a film like Barbie is able to skate past that critique? I feel like the answer lies in how Barbie and films of its ilk (The LEGO Movie, Clue) use the product as a starting point rather than the totality of its purpose. Gran Turismo never questions its premise. The film argues that the game is awesome, racing is awesome, and if you play the game a lot, you can get good enough to be a racer (what’s fascinating here is that there feels like a missed opportunity to talk about when leisure becomes work).

Barbie, by comparison, in the film’s introduction obliterates the very marketing of Barbie dolls, questioning their purpose in modern America. From there, it goes deeper into notions of feminism vs. the patriarchy and what’s expected from men and women from the images they’re both sold. While I don’t feel like the film always achieves the scope of its ambitions, I also didn’t walk out at the end feeling like I was supposed to go buy a bunch of Barbies or Kens (though maybe an Allan, who seems like a good dude).

I can understand being a purist about cinema and recoiling at the notion of any corporate synergy. The thought of turning toys and games into feature films is a relatively recent notion, whereas cinema up until about the 80s only endeavored to adapt books and stage productions. It also feels a little gross to walk into a movie and have it treat you like a consumer rather than someone who simply wants to see a good story. Obviously, there’s a tightrope walk here as modern blockbusters endeavor to entertain while also pushing the ancillary revenue streams that come from merchandising (where the real money from the movie is made!).

But I also feel like culture has evolved to where it’s able to take unlikely ideas and spin them into compelling narratives. Phil Lord and Chris Miller made their names taking concepts that should have been awful—21 Jump Street and The LEGO Movie—and made two of the best movies of the 2010s. Turning a theme park ride into a film seemed like a dumb idea, but then we got Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Yes, there are plenty of awful adaptations out there, but there a lot of bad films regardless. To throw up a wall and say, “This can’t be used as inspiration for a movie because it’s based on a product” feels like an arbitrary line. If a movie based off Transformers or G.I. Joe isn’t your thing, that’s fine, but we have multiple examples of other products becoming worthwhile films when placed in the hands of talented storytellers.

Even though Barbie may be a child’s toy, we’re all adults here, and we know Hollywood is a business. I don’t mind that a Barbie movie will move Barbie merchandise, and lord knows I bought a lot of LEGO Movie sets back in 2014. And yet the trick of these films is that they were savvy enough to make the product exciting without feeling explicitly like they were about the product (Barbie is all about questioning the identity and existence of Barbie, and they never even say the word “LEGO” in The LEGO Movie). Even films that aren’t based on toys are still out to sell toys (e.g. the aforementioned Spider-Man and Ninja Turtles movies). Some may feel like this cheapens the movie, but I don’t think My Dinner with Andre would be considered a lesser film if there were My Dinner with Andre action figures.

A film becomes lesser when it feels indifferent to being a film. That’s the main problem with Gran Turismo. No one (save David Harbour bringing his A-game as the mentor figure) seemed to care about taking apart the idea and putting it back together in a way that felt unique. Instead, they were content with a run-of-the-mill racing movie that feels less exciting and unique than recent films like Ford v Ferrari and Rush. Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi may have prided himself on creating gaming’s most realistic racer, but as a movie, it couldn’t feel more artificial.