Franchises, franchises, franchises! Is Hollywood out of original ideas for films these days? We've all seen a plethora of franchises and reboots to last a lifetime. Although I do get fed up with franchises in general, "The Fate of the Furious" or 'F8' as its affectionately called, had to be made since the passing of one of its major stars, Paul Walker as Brian. Certainly time will tell if this film makes or breaks this franchise depending on the fan base.
Now that Dom (Vin Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) are on their honeymoon and Brian and Mia have retired from the game--the rest of the crew including Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej Parker (Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges), and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) has been exonerated, the globetrotting team has found a semblance of a normal life. But when a mysterious woman, Cipher (Charlize Theron) black mails and subsequently seduces Dom into a world of crime, he can't seem to escape and betrays those closet to him. Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) once again recruit the team to bring down Cipher and her plans and also end up inadvertently, but reluctantly recruiting Deckard (Jason Statham) as well. All will face trials that will test them as never before. From the shores of Cuba and the streets of New York to the icy plains off the arctic Barents Sea, the elite force will crisscross the globe to stop an anarchist from unleashing chaos on the world's stage... and to bring home the man who made them a family.
Others to round out the cast are Luke Evans as Owens, Kristopher Hivju as Rhodes, Cipher's henchman, Scott Eastwood as Little Nobody, Elsa Pataky as Elena, Patrick St. Esprit as DS Allan, and Janmarco Santiago as Fernando.
This was intensely directed by F. Gary Gray ("Friday" '95, "Set It Off" '96, "The Negotiator" '98, "A Man Apart" '03, "The Italian Job" '03, "Be Cool" '05, "Law Abiding Citizen" '09, "Straight Outta Compton" '15) plus TV and shorts. This genre is definitely within Gray's comfort zone, whereas he simply captured the right emotion from his actors: the coolness, but ruthlessness of Cipher, the serious, but somewhat comedic quality of Hobbs, Dom's cool, but passionate persona. even Mr. Nobody's comic, but dead seriousness is spot on. It was equally well written by Chris Morgan ("Cellular" '04, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" '06, "Wanted" '08, "Connected" '08, "Fast & Furious" '09, "Fast Five" '11, "Fast & Furious 6" '13, "47 Ronin" '13, "Furious 7" '15) based on characters created by Gary Scott Thompson. Surely this script has the same feel as its predecessors since they have the same writer, however with this film, focusing more on Dom and the situation he's in was smart in it taking the audiences minds off Brian. It had some all too lengthy areas that were not needed, but all in all, this was about the best one could do to save this franchise from going into obscurity. It was slick, tightly written, and cohesive, but with Morgan penning this story, how could it be bad? As with any film of this type, the true stars in this were that of the stunt coordinators, Spiro Razatos and Jack Gill. The stunts were absolutely amazing. How do those guys do that?
As stated prior, this film will either make or break this franchise, depending on its fan base, because, at the end of the day, will those fans love this enough to not only spread the word, but go see it themselves? This doesn't have to many surprises, but, hey--this is the 'Fast & Furious' franchise, and as long as the fans' heroes are there, who needs surprises? Grab the popcorn and enjoy this in 2D, IMAX or 4DX!
Out of 4 Stars: 3 Rated: PG-13 136mins.
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