Vin Diesel and Paul walker return to put peddle to the metal and kick some ass with the aid of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Packed with action, violence and extreme situations, this movie really packs a punch and keeps the story flowing effectively. As we are all aware, the Fast and Furious franchise is a huge money maker with many dedicated fans (One being me). If you are not aware, this movie is still before Tokyo Drift and is the last one to prequel it story wise.
Talking of the story, its not extensive. O'Connor and Toretto are called upon by Hobbs to help chase down the tyrant; Owen Shaw. All because Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) miraculously appears after her apparent death. It's a very simple and linear story with a few twists within to vary it from the rest but it doesn't stop it from being very weak. Yet who really wants a deep and gritty, action drama flick with cars and the 'classy' broads? Exactly. The Fast franchise has their demographic precision engineered, which made it the $3 billion franchise it is today.
Jumping in head first, we are dropped into a race between an Import and some V8 Muscle through the winding landscape at high speed. Yet is it high speed? We follow them and notice the extreme use of the producers fast forward button which ruined the effects of speed and where way to blazay for something which prides itself on driving. The effects role throughout and really pull the movie down.Plymouth Road Runner Superbird into the crash barrier and flinging Don into the air to catch Letty and conveniently land on a beat up Merc was just way to much. Scenes like this smelt so bad of cheese, I could almost hear Wallace in the background screaming "Cheese Gromit!". The cheese ball visuals isn't the end of it. A few lines are placed in which grind on me (I also don't appreciate the destruction of a mint condition Mustang fastback. Let's have a moment to remember what it never got to achieve in this film).
Many other scenes were also edited similarly which gave a huge chunk of chase scenes a clunky and unprofessional feel. I'm no pro driver, but I'm well aware of what you can do and get away with. Crashing your $300,000
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| Can you smell what the rock is cooking? I can, it's a knuckle sandwich with a side order of STFU |
Speaking of lines, the actors are generally good. They play simple roles with little character depth until the end which we see Han (Sung Kang) after the loss of his women, Gisele. It got very little screen time but Han's rage was generally believable and gives us a little context of his suicidal drifting in Tokyo. In contrast, we have Letty, I genuinely think Rodriguez is a bit of a blunt tool when up against the rest and plays the same role across all movies and by now you would expect her to be the best at it, right? The movie has many fight scenes which are creative and fluid in execution, with brutal executions and general badassery. The variation in styles and a scene that juxtaposes Han and Roman to Riley was quite amusing and bits like this certainly made the whole cinema audience giggle or laugh out loud.
(MAJOR SPOILER) Soon after the credits star rolling, we meet Jason Statham in the credit timelapse to Han's explosive death after a drift went wrong. Jason play Ian Shaw. Owen Shaw's brother who I can only presume is seeking revenge for the death of his brother and is making a statement by killing Dom's closest friend. This confirms our next villain and that Jason Statham is appearing!
On the topic of villains, what is it with us Brits being the bad guys? The worst part about it, it even picks on a few of our social minorities. A black and polish immigrants and black youth are the key here. These groups already get crap from the racist public but don't ride on that and give the uneducated fools something to stand on. It may just be me looking to deep into it but it never is good
Overall, the movie is predominately for a certain group of people. Men. It's a movie that lacks emotional connection and is simply there for good fun and is great for a Friday night out or after a particularly boring policy exam you had an hour before the movie...
With lack of anything to critically analyse, the fun side of the movie is what I shall be giving a score for. The Fun Factor is 7/10, its outrageous use of cars and the creative minds of the writers (who I can only presume to have been high) really add that little bit of fun and the credit cameo by Jason was truly kick ass.
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