The Fate of the Furious
Directed by: F. Gary Gray
Written by: Chris Morgan
Starring: Vin Diesel, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges, Charlize Theron, Kristofer Hivju, Kurt Russell, Nathalie Emmanuel, Scott Eastwood, Elsa Pataky, Helen Mirren, Luke Evans
Action/Crime/Thriller - 136 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 12 Apr 2017
Written by: Chris Morgan
Starring: Vin Diesel, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges, Charlize Theron, Kristofer Hivju, Kurt Russell, Nathalie Emmanuel, Scott Eastwood, Elsa Pataky, Helen Mirren, Luke Evans
Action/Crime/Thriller - 136 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 12 Apr 2017
The Fate of the Furious is the eighth film in the hit-or-miss franchise but it is also the start of what Vin Diesel claims is the final trilogy. Since Diesel and even more-muscled Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson cannot even be put in the same room for press junkets and interviews right now, I can’t help but wonder how the next two installments may change course. A similar feeling emanates from the new movie. The Fast and the Furious franchise has been on an enjoyable and silly run since Fast Five resurrected the moribund and forgettable first four films. New characters, unbelievable stunts which made us laugh at their sheer audacity, and a steady state of cheeky villains kept the now built-in audience checking in. Unfortunately, The Fate of the Furious checks out of the fun house and it is not due to Paul Walker’s absence; it’s the irritating plot mechanism, the over-the-top villain, and the fact that I could tell The Rock was not in the room with the other actors even when his character allegedly was.
James Wan left his mark on the franchise with Furious 7 taking over from Justin Lin who helmed the previous four entries. F. Gary Gray of Friday and Straight Outta Compton fame takes over Fate and the atmosphere is noticeably heavier. Perhaps the new aura is because of the absurd plot of Dominic Toretto (Diesel, xXx: Return of Xander Cage) ditching the ‘family’ and going rogue to aid a super-hacker villain. The audience knows more than the characters this time around. Cipher (Charlize Theron, Kubo and the Two Strings), a dreadlocked, always-whispering, all-knowing gadget God, shows Dom some sort of threat on her cellphone and that’s all it takes. He double crosses the team and makes sure to neither wink at his wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez, Machete Kills) or throw a head nod at anyone who could immediately lower the volume in the room with a simple, “It’s ok, Dom is still on our side, but he’s up to something; he gave me the head nod.”
James Wan left his mark on the franchise with Furious 7 taking over from Justin Lin who helmed the previous four entries. F. Gary Gray of Friday and Straight Outta Compton fame takes over Fate and the atmosphere is noticeably heavier. Perhaps the new aura is because of the absurd plot of Dominic Toretto (Diesel, xXx: Return of Xander Cage) ditching the ‘family’ and going rogue to aid a super-hacker villain. The audience knows more than the characters this time around. Cipher (Charlize Theron, Kubo and the Two Strings), a dreadlocked, always-whispering, all-knowing gadget God, shows Dom some sort of threat on her cellphone and that’s all it takes. He double crosses the team and makes sure to neither wink at his wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez, Machete Kills) or throw a head nod at anyone who could immediately lower the volume in the room with a simple, “It’s ok, Dom is still on our side, but he’s up to something; he gave me the head nod.”
It’s annoying plot holes like that setting up the entire implausible ‘Is Dom a traitor’ plot line which sucks most of the fun out of Fate. But you’re not here for plot; you’re here for mind-blowing vehicular stunts! Well, there is nothing in Fate which rivals cars parachuting out the back of a C-17 or hopping from skyscraper to skyscraper above the Dubai horizon. There is a ho-hum race through Havana, a giant wrecking ball, hacked cars careening and falling all over Manhattan, and the Russian submarine which keeps crashing through the ice to try and physically squash our heroes. Yes, the submarine is a gutsy move, but it’s more ‘ha-ha’ than ‘ooohhh’.
The Fate of the Furious is the first Universal picture to film in Cuba since the embargo kicked off in 1963. The executives negotiated with the Raul Castro government and they take advantage of it to kick off the film. Aerial shots admire the old city and Chris Morgan’s script has Dom and Letty appreciate Cuban car culture where their 1950s automobiles now run on boat engines and anything else their adept mechanics can scrounge. As Dom so aptly mumbles, “You know it doesn’t matter what’s under the hood, it’s who’s behind the wheel.” Honestly, is there any difference between Dominic Toretto and Diesel’s other action hero mumbler XXX? Diesel plays them both as the same guy; perhaps Toretto talks slower and doesn’t smile as much.
As for who’s behind the wheel, well, just about everybody is back. There’s Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges as the tech guy, Nathalie Emmanuel (Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials) as Ramsey the hacker, Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell, Deepwater Horizon) is back for a handful of needless chatter, and, of course, Tyrese Gibson (Ride Along 2) as Roman. Tyrese has always been my least favorite Fast and Furious actor ever since he popped up in the second installment. He used to persistently yell, “I’m hungry” for every scenario. Now, Tyrese noticed how well Kevin Hart plays in theaters and he copies his schtick. Chris Morgan writes him Kevin Hart one-liners, he plays the doofus comic relief, and in a film stuffed full of questionable choices, Tyrese easily maintains his mantle of most superfluous. Other than Charlize Theron’s creepy and philosophizing villain character, the main newbie is Scott Eastwood (Suicide Squad) as a guy called Little Nobody, as he is Mr. Nobody’s protegé. I think Eastwood is the Paul Walker replacement. He’s learning the ropes as Walker did in the first film from 2001, he’s earnest and wants to impress and do well, and he straight up looks like Paul Walker.
The studio may bill The Fate of the Furious as the start of a trilogy, but it is pure sequel. Mr. Nobody yells at The Rock and Jason Statham, the bad guy from Furious 7, saying, “Like it or not, you two are working together!” That has cliché sequel oozing out of its pores. You mean the good guy and the former bad guy now have to get along to take down the seriously bad guy? That’s crazy! What it is is a soap opera for the NASCAR crowd. They are enjoying that The Fast and The Furious is turning into The Expendables. They want any and all action stars they can get and sprawling warehouses full of $2 million cars and sporty tanks. Chris Morgan inserts some contemporary paranoia about the vulnerability of cars being hacked into and what that may do to the upcoming autonomous-driving era society is on the verge of, but he employs the phenomenon for action points and Blues Brothers level vehicular mayhem instead of anything interesting. Yawn. Wake me up when they figure out how to make us smile and laugh along with absurdity again rather than pretending to wallow in the melodrama those of us who have seen all eight films will never believe these characters are capable of.
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