The Fate of the Furious
The franchise that just keeps going. It feels like a long time ago where the film series basic premise was about two guys drag racing each other. Now, we have international plots with grand scale car chases and destruction. While I prefer small scale narratives, I’m fine with global plot expansion especially since the film has a pretty decent cast to boot. This is the first film without the inclusion of Paul Walker (not counting Tokyo Drift). I initially thought they should have ended the films with his death but this film shows that there is still life in this franchise yet.
All seems to be going swell with the crew until Dominic Toretto is one day approached by a cyber-terrorist known for her criminal prowess (played by Charlize Theron). He is blackmailed to align himself with her while at the same time betraying the team he has worked with for so long. Its formulaic and somewhat predictable but I think the film still offers some fun moments with a cast that can play off each other well. With the addition of The Rock and Jason Statham into the mix its mildly entertaining to see the two bicker back and forth but have an unspoken respect for each other.
The action is large scale yet again. There are crazy action scenes taking place in New York and Russia. If you are a fan of a lot of car chasing, things going BOOM action, then this film is what you want to see. And that’s fine. None of these films are critically praised because they are incredibly dumb and solely exist for entertainment purposes. I do see though that the film has life to it and still has some gas (hehehe) to move forward. Its rare to see a franchise still be able to remain engaging despite being active for so long.
There is definitely an endgame in sight and I can see a gigantic coming together of everyone and everything in the tenth film (which is probably the last one). For now just sit back and enjoy the ride (another one!). Its mindless fun that offers decent action sequences and witty character interactions. No harm, no foul. I would like for the titles to not be so incredibly cringe-worthy, this one was awful.
7/10
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