Directed by: F. Gary Gray
Written by: Chris Morgan
Starring: Vin Diesel, Jason Statham, Dwayne Johnson
IMDb Link
I have some respect for the The Fast and the Furious series; that fact that it has managed to stay relevant and popular enough to produce now eight installments when it hasn't come directly from any source material or existing IP like the Transformers or Marvel movies is at least noteworthy. That said, with each new film, its becomes more and more apparent that there isn't going to be anything particularly new, and the familial overtones of the film start to be less endearing as they get more ridiculous.
"Dominic Toretto has gone rogue" - That's essentially what happens. For reasons that I won't spoil here, Dom (Diesel) betrays his crew and teams up with super duper hacker Cipher (Charlize Theron, positively oozing evil) to help her acquire EMPs, nuclear codes and all that world-ending stuff. The rest of the cast make their return (with the obvious exception of Paul Walker, R.I.P.) and work together to find Dom and stop Cipher.
The film is essentially another excuse to showcase excessive, merciless carnage; I'm fairly certain that the action scenes for these movies are written first, and the story is filled in afterwards, an idea that seems to be reflected in the film's villain. Cipher's motivations are some vague anti-governmental nonsense laced with somewhat contradictory philosophies about choice; her ultimate plan is essentially to use nukes to threaten people to stop using nukes, and is never explained in any detail. She's just there to be a villain who is written retroactively to have been involved as the master behind the plans of the previous two movie's villains; she has no development beyond that and doesn't do anything in the movie other than be evil and talk to Dom about ideology. She's not good, but Theron plays her well; like I said, her character is purely evil, and Theron makes that pour from every facet of her character. That said, there's every chance that she'll come back as a good guy in a future movie, given this film series' track record.
At least the average excuse for carnage results in a lot of entertaining and excessive chase scenes that try to outdo the previous films. Images of dozens of remote-controlled cars tearing through New York or a submarine surging after the crew while firing torpedoes are certainly memorable, and it allows for some stupidly hilarious moments that showcase the fact that these characters are invincible supermen/women; you may have seen The Rock pushing a torpedo off-course while skidding along the ice in the film's promotional material, but surprisingly that's probably the least of the many awesome and literally unbelievable feats that he pulls off in this movie. Ripping a concrete seat from a concrete wall and using it as a barbell, taking rubber bullets from a shotgun without even flinching, literally throwing a group of people in riot gear across a room, The Rock is unstoppable in this movie, and he does this while being extremely macho the whole time. He works wonderfully with Jason Statham (back this time as a good guy), who exudes the same manliness and badass attitude.
While I loved both The Rock and Jason Statham for their usual excessive action-star style, the thing that I appreciated most in the film overall was the scenes in which they were required to be nurturing. It's hilarious and sweet to see a larger-than-life figure like The Rock's Luke Hobbs take the time to coach his daughter's soccer team and be more invested in that than in world-saving, or to see Statham's gruff and tough Shaw have to take a break from shooting people every few seconds to make sure that a baby is happy. These guys are action heroes but have to turn all the absurd machismo off and soften for moment for the sake of the children. I adored these scenes, even if it was particularly mindless to have this by done by Statham's character, considering he was an antagonist in the last film.
Unfortunately, the action does take a noticeable dive in quality in its fight scenes; the film follows the same trend of shaky-cam and constant cutting that makes a lot of the fighting incomprehensible and uncomfortable to look at. This isn't always the case, but for every high-impact punch, grapple or throw their's a flurry of shots that leave you displeased and just wanting to get back to the car scenes where the action is at its strongest. I'd comment on the quality of the choreography, but I could barely see it while it was happening. The film's central conflict for Dom is also a little weak; it makes sense given his character, but it's way too serious for a film series that has spent the last three films avoiding taking itself seriously. It's hard to describe without giving it away, but when the rest of the film is fancy-free escapism, giving Dom actual stakes with possible results that will affect him emotionally is off-key with the rest of what's been happening in these films; named characters dying makes no sense in a series that prevents even its villains from being killed off.
The Verdict: A new movie, but mostly the same stuff. The Fate of the Furious continues the series' constant efforts to one-up itself, and for the most part succeeds, but gets a little tiresome between the car chase scenes with its somewhat shoddy fight camera work and almost soap opera-level family drama. It's worth the watch if you're up for some more mindless action and exuberant car porn, but there's not a lot here if you're looking for something with weight; even when the film tries to add weight to its events, it can't be taken seriously because of its invincible characters. Enjoy it for what it is; over-the-top action and massive machismo mixed with the usual bits and pieces about 'family'.
Rating: 6/10
Published April 13th, 2017
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