Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I was lucky enough to see Fate of the Furious at CinemaCon at the very first public screening of the movie surrounded by some of my favorite movie writers and a shit ton of theater owners. Now that we're at release I can finally write a bit about it. So, my Ain't It Cool family, let's ride.
Fate of the Furious is the Civil War of Fast and Furious movies, not just on screen, but off as well. Family members are turning on each other. Dom has gone rogue on screen, behind the camera Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel are feuding and in theater lobbies longtime F&F fans are fighting each other.
I don't understand why this goofy, silly, over-the-top fun movie is causing such a ruckus within its fanbase. It has everything that has made me enjoy this series since it realized that it was a fun James Bondian cheesefest with Fast Five.
The fun thing about this movie is that it's not about the mystery of why Dom turns away from his familial group... we find that out pretty quickly. It's about that group finding out more and more as pieces fall into place.
I went into this movie thinking that the reasons for Dom's turn was going to be silly as shit, but turns out it's one of the more grounded, realistic elements of this movie. Charlize Theron's baddie has him by the short hairs and the reason why is pretty legit.
Now, I don't think Dom's turn is what's getting some die hard F&Fs pissed off. I think it's simpler than that. If you've seen the trailer you know that Mr. Nobody suggests Hobbs and the rest of the Toretto extended family team up with Jason Statham's Deckard to bring Dom down and stop the global threat he's helping to bring about. Man oh man do people hate this development.
Deckard is one of the most reprehensible villains this series has created. He burned Han alive with no remorse. I get it. But you know who also sucked a lot? Magneto. It was still fun to see him team up with the X-Men when faced with a common enemy.
It's a staple of this kind of soap opera-y storytelling, but it's an unwelcome one for many. It was pretty easy for me to roll with it. I suppose if I can make it past the two movie Letty's back-from-the-dead-with-amnesia arc I can just about roll with anything this series throws at me as long as it stays fun and loaded to the brim with charm, which this installment for sure does.
That's what really keeps me coming back to this series. Not the big action (although that helps). Not the crazy car stunts. It's the light, fun tone that we get from these guys bouncing off one another. Fate of the Furious has more Kurt Russell and more Dwayne Johnson than the last one, which is a big plus, but it also has a really interesting villain.
Now, hacker bad guys are pretty low on the totem pole of action movie villains. For me, anyway. Nothing is more boring than a baddie who types real fast and stares at computer screens the whole movie. Didn't work in Die Hard, but it works here, largely because Charlize is milking her villainy for all its worth. She's also shown to be ruthless, cold and genius-level smart, which brings a little bit of a Lex Luthor/Superman or Blofeld/Bond complexity to a franchise that's more used to brawn hitting brawn, steel smashing against steel.
I wouldn't go so far as to call it a counterbalance to the testosterone that permeates the movie (and the franchise as a whole), but it's a nice different flavor.
In terms of scale, Fate of the Furious is bound and determined to one up the last film, which was crazy big, but also doesn't forget its roots. The film starts off in Cuba and begins with a street race for pink slips, just like the good ol' days. There's a couple character points being made with this race, points that aren't revealed right away either. It's not about the car, it's about the driver, which is shown over and over again in this series. The other point revolves around how Dom handles a local bully and it's one of the nicer moments in the film.
Then shit gets batshit crazy. Fighting on the ground, fighting with cars, fighting in the air, fighting on frozen lakes against a nuclear sub... Absolute bonkermania with Dwayne Johnson being his loveable self, Kurt Russell having a lot more to do this time around and the regular crew slipping comfortably back into their roles.
And yes, Statham rocks it, too. You're not supposed to be happy that he's lending a helping hand. Hobbs sure as hell ain't and that's what makes so much of the movie so entertaining. These guys hate each other and have to work together. At the start they're always one step away from breaking each others' faces, but little by little there comes a respect. Grudging at first, but it is earned.
Call bullshit all you want. You're not totally wrong, but I just find these two to be too much fun together to let Deckard's big change keep from enjoying what was up on the screen.
The bar a goofy action film has to pass for me is pretty simple: be fun, be exciting and have a little smarts hidden somewhere in there. Just because this movie is goofy and absurd and kinda dumb doesn't mean it isn't all those things in a smart way. There's a lot of really great character writing and interaction going on in this one.
Maybe you find that too low of a bar for your tastes. Cool, more power to you. I also like some really stupid comedies, too. Just how I'm wired. But you can't deny that this movie isn't oozing charm and charisma. Add to that some great production value, an A-list cast and solid, kinetic direction from F. Gary Gray and you have a worthy installment to one of the most entertaining franchises going right now.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter
