#29
A lot of people thought Fate of the Furious was going to be the moment the series jumped the shark … or the submarine in this case. If that is the case, then everything after this entry would be the pinnacle of absurdity. That is a bold statement considering where this series has gone before and the ridiculous stunts pulled off to one up the prior one. Let’s go over what I consider to be the craziest stunt (or stunts) I remember from each movie:
- Cars driving under 18 wheelers
- Car jumping over another car using a draw bridge as a ramp
- Cars drifting through a city block full of people
- Cars going through a makeshift tunnel with multiple misleading splits at top speed
- Two cars pulling a bank vault through town
- Cars vs tank / cars vs plane
- Cars parachuting / car jumping between buildings with no brakes / cars vs drone
- Hundreds of remote controlled cars / cars vs submarine
So maybe the thought process to avoid jumping the shark is to jump it multiple times … and then start doing flips over it … while the shark is on fire. Sure this all started out with a simple and plausible premise but it has slowly earned the ability to do the above action scenes bit by bit.
So how would I rate it? I would give it 6 “submarine jumps” out of 10. Out of the 8 movies, I think it would place 5th overall – for a complete breakdown check out my breakdown of the series.
FOR THE UNINITIATED
This movie starts out with Dom (Vin Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) on their second honeymoon in Cuba. Dom intervenes the only way he knows how when his cousin’s car is being taken for money owed – a street race. Shortly afterwards he runs into who we later discover is Cipher (Charlize Theron) – the most dangerous hacker in the world. She shows him something on a phone and essentially owns him from that point … or else.
Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock) is tasked in an off the books operation to take back an E.M.P. and risk being blacklisted if caught. He recruits the usual team and all goes according to plan. That is until Dom turns on them, steals the E.M.P , and leaves Hobbs to be arrested. Hobbs is given the opportunity to confess and team us with Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) and his new apprentice Little Nobody (Scott Eastwood). Of course Hobbs is innocent, even though he is guilty, so he goes into an Ultra Max prison … which happens to house Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham).
Mr. Nobody and Little Nobody break both Hobbs and Deckard out to assist the team in bringing down Dom and Cipher.
THE BEST
There were a few standout scenes (one of which I won’t mention to avoid spoilers), but the best would easily be the time inside the prison. The back and forth between Hobbs and Deckard is perfect, there is no other word to describe it. Eventually there is an issue that leads to a riot. Deckard is doing his best to escape during a riot and Hobbs is doing his best to catch Deckard. We get to see the pure physicality of The Rock and the athleticism of Jason Statham. Both of their characters get exaggerated (like everything else as the movies advance), but the jail fight scene alone is worth the price of admission.
THE WORST
The inconsistencies are HORRIBLE and just laughable that are convenient enough to progress the plot. Without going into much detail and ruining most of the movie, there are several scenes that forget everything that happened just seconds ago to either save on budget or help advance the plot.
For instance there is a scene (in the trailers) where Cipher takes control of almost every car in a multi-block radius to attack and trap a convoy. Several of the cars didn’t have any sort of autodrive function, so it would have made more sense to only include newer cars that had those abilities. So they were able to control every car … except the ones being attacked. Shortly afterwards, the good guys confront Dom and Cipher informs him that he is on his own even though she needs what he just stole. In fact, the ability to control other cars never comes up again.
OVERALL
Fate of the Furious is a thoroughly enjoyable movie, just deeply flawed. I just finished rewatching and reviewing Fast Five and stated that it helped get the series back on track. After Paul Walker’s untimely death, it came out that he wanted the series to get back to its street racing roots. Then Vin Diesel (who is also a producer) was quoted saying “Furious 7 was for Paul and Furious 8 was from Paul” … so it would be safe to assume there would be more street racing. Sadly there was only one real race and most of the memorable scenes weren’t even in cars. They also relied a lot more on comedy than the others, which seems to be another departure.
With that said, Fate of the Furious was still a fun movie and one worth checking out in theatres. This movie was definitely the most fun in a theatre I have had in a while. The action and laughs were non-stop … so stop what you are doing and go see it!
RECOMMENDATION
I struggled to think of a movie that would be a good fit to go along with Fate of the Furious. There are ensemble cast action movies like The Expendables or ensemble car heist movies like The Italian Job … but why not find a common thread? Jason Statham has it all, so let’s go back to the role that put him on the map: The Transporter. It has some amazing driving, fighting, and still holds up after several years. If you haven’t seen it, treat yourself and enjoy a fantastic movie.
Should Anyone Watch 