FATE OF THE FURIOUS Review

UPDATE: After writing this I realised I'd been a muppet and called the franchise 'Fast and the Furious' throughout the review instead of 'Fast and Furious'. I even gave it an acronym (FatF). This further shows how relatively inexperienced I am with this film series. No, I'm not going to go through and change it so feel free to have a laugh at my mistake(s).

As someone who has only seen two Fast and the Furious (FatF) films and only remembers one of them, I thought I might take advantage of this lack of FatF experience and write a review that's also suitable for those who, for whatever reason, haven’t yet come into contact with the franchise. Maybe a bit of a niche market, if the recent box office figures are anything to go by, but it’s a market that exists I tell ya!

Okay, give me some background here: what’s the Fast and Furious franchise about?

I mean, I’m just going off what I’ve seen, but it seems to be a bunch of people lead by Vin Diesel, who go on various missions, be it heists of their own making or from being recruited by the government. Apparently it used to be more about street racing but there’s not a huge focus on that lately. Basically these guys are really good at driving cars and beating the snot out of people.

Anything else I should know?

These films have a huge thematic focus on family and how each of the characters in the main group forms this family. Vin Diesel’s character in particular really likes to talk about it and if you wanted to, there’s probably a decent drinking game to be made out of every time he says the word ‘family’. It is incredibly earnest and non-cynical, so there’s a chance you might feel like a jerk for playing that drinking game by the end of the film.

Also, it seems as though the franchise is fond of continually escalating its action set-pieces as it tries to up the craziness of each previous entry. Fast 5 had the film end with the main characters engaging in a car chase whilst dragging an enormous safe behind them. Two films later, Furious 7 has them jump cars out of airplanes as well as out of one building and then into the adjacent building. This is actually one of the most appealing aspects of these movies - not only because its interesting to see what they’ll pull next, but because they often pull it off in a way that isn’t cheap or barely coherent. Sure there’s high and low points, but action tends to be the thing this series has gotten right. See the following (admittedly crappy video quality) action scene from Furious 7 for reference:

Alright, well I like action so what is this new one about?

Fate of the Furious sees our Vin Diesel protagonist, Dom, turned against his friends and wife by hacker-villain ‘Cipher’, played by Charlize Theron. Under the recruitment of Mr. Nobody – an always entertaining Kurt Russell – Dom’s friends must tail him across the globe and stop whatever scheme Cipher is planning, all whilst driving the most screen-ready cars in film history. Jason Statham is along for the ride, too.

What if I consider myself especially hard to please when it comes to movies? How will this Furious Fate-y malarkey fare with me?

The über-grouchy amongst you will be thrilled to know that you will absolutely be able to critically ravage Fate of the Furious and walk out of the cinema smug in the knowledge that you just spent your own cash on a joyless 2 hour and 15 minutes. Why? Well über-grouchy people tend to like a degree of subtlety in their movies and Fate of the Furious is particularly oblivious on that front.

All the main players take extra care to explain their character motivation and philosophy in such painstakingly obvious detail that they might as well wear it plastered on their face in neon paint, whilst every other character might as well not have motivation beyond ‘likes to ride and trash very expensive vehicles’ for all its explained in this film. Dialogue is pretty on the nose too and if you like films to have a somewhat sensible grasp of the laws of physics then Fate of the Furious might irk you a little bit.

There is a lot to trash in Fate of the Furious if you’re really looking for it and, honestly, the first half of this film had me teetering on the edge of eye-rolling at numerous moments. Yet, Fate of the Furious won me over.

So, you liked it?

Yeah, I did.

Is this one of those films that’s good but only if you don’t really think about it?

I tend to think that if you need to shut your brain off to enjoy a film, then that film probably just isn’t very good. I’m not going to sit here, then, and tell you that you can only enjoy Fate of the Furious if you don’t think too hard about it. I like to think that I thought at least a decent amount about it and yet I still liked it.

The key thing is that Fate of the Furious works well enough to earn the ability to bypass your inner cynic. It has a sort of groove that it’s operating in – a groove that sits almost on the edge of being really dumb, but it has something that a lot of other movies don’t have.

Zombie cars?

You’ve been looking at the promotional material, haven’t you? Yes, it has zombie cars, but the thing I was talking about was heart. As I said earlier, FatF films have a big, fat, earnest emphasis on family and its this earnestness that makes the film so utterly charming. Despite initial impressions, the FatF films (or the ones I have seen, at least) don’t come across as cold or unfeeling. There’s a beating heart powering them and it would be crass to dismiss how important that is as to why I walked out of the cinema feeling largely positive.

So you’re saying it’s good because it means well? Sounds like a pretty lame argument.

Well then it’s a good job the film is, by and large, super functional. Unlike some films that fumble around with character and plot motivation, Fate of the Furious at least has the decency to clearly signpost and highlight what most of its characters want and where they stand. Is it often on the nose? Sure, but its hard to deny that it’s effective.

On top of that, you’ve got the action. Whilst I preferred Furious 7’s larger emphasis on clarity, Fate of the Furious still largely delivers with some fun action set-pieces. There are moments throughout the film where I wished they’d maybe pull the camera back a bit and I admittedly wasn’t taken by the submarine finale, which is a bit too fragrant with the way it stretches suspension of disbelief to be wholly effective. But it’s all undeniably punchy and the inventiveness on display is enough to keep you interested.

Plus, as mentioned earlier, there’s Zombie cars.

Yes, there are zombie cars: cars that get hacked and piloted through New York. It’s fun; though it’s a shame the main characters aren’t really involved in it (the main group is chilling in a garage at that part of the movie) as that could of really been something bizarre.

That’s great and all, but how are the people?

There’s a surprisingly large amount of them, to be honest and you’ll probably walk out with favourites and ones you don’t really care for. The side characters (the two hackers and Roman) didn’t do a whole lot for me as there didn’t seem to be a lot to them and the hackers were largely dull. But the rest I quite liked.

Vin Diesel’s character, Dom, gets slack for being a bit of a boring character. He kind of is, but Vin Diesel is still really likeable – enough to carry the moments where he’s forced into fighting against the team.

Michelle Rodriguez feels a bit wasted in this entry as Dom’s wife, but she’s still Michelle Rodriguez and in the moments where she actually gets used, she delivers.

Dwayne Johnson is probably one of the most charismatic and likeable actors in Hollywood and this film doesn’t change that, so let’s move on.

Then there’s Jason Statham as returning villain-turned-teammate Deckard Shaw. He played a pretty nasty bad guy in the previous films, but watch just this film and he’s feels a bit like a really competent version of his character from ‘Spy’. He seems pretty divisive to long-term fans, but Statham himself is good.

On the whole, everyone turns in a good performance and the ensemble is charming enough to carry the movie.

And isn’t Charlize Theron the bad guy?

Yep. Her character isn’t desperately great and her motivation often gets hand-waved away with philosophically-sounding diatribes that isn’t desperately effective. But Theron herself is just terrific: intense and committed to the point where her performance keeps the character from falling completely flat. Just don’t expect Cipher to enter the villain hall of fame, is what I’m telling you.

I’m not gonna lie, it sounds like you’re almost a little half-hearted about this one.

Not quite half-hearted but not entirely enthusiastic. There’s some interesting stuff in the movie but it’s not quite executed as well as some other entries in the franchise. Whilst I get that these films aren’t exactly character-studies, the simplicity of some of their behaviour kind of belies the drama of Dom’s betrayal. Dom works against his own wife, yet there’s only really a couple of scenes that really play on this. Those scenes work well, but it’s sort of undermined by how easily everyone welcomes back Dom at the end of the film. Then again, this is a film where Jason Statham’s character is allowed to be part of the group, despite the fact he killed a group member in the last film. This franchise is a little strange.

So, maybe start with another film in the franchise?

Honestly, I'd say if you don’t like this one then it's unlikely that any of the others will win you over.

That's not hugely convincing.

I think I’ve undersold just how much fun these films are. Fate of the Furious might not be as refined an action film as, say, the Mission Impossible series, but it is a fun time and if you saw it with a bunch of friends, you’ll probably have a blast. Look, if you’re really not sure about Fate of the Furious but still want to give one of these films a go, then check out either Fast 5 or Furious 7 – those are a bit more well-rounded.

Despite its issues, Fate of the Furious is functional enough as a movie to earn your investment. There is enough here for the movie to work to the extent that it comes down to whether you’re into its particular groove. Maybe you can’t get over the lack of subtlety or on-the-nose dialogue. That’s fair enough. But once you start taking notice of Fate of the Furious’ strengths, you might be surprised at how fun the ride can be.

★★★

Really, after all that, you only gave it three stars?

Hey, I said this one wasn’t my favourite okay?

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