“Dominic Toretto Just Went Rogue.”
Anyone who watches The Fast and the Furious movies looking for realism is sitting down to watch the wrong franchise. Even for action movies, these go outside the realm of believability. So when I tell you that The Fate of the Furious jumped the … submarine for me, that’s really saying something. Ironically, it was something far less spectacular than the climax that threw me out of the film.
The film opens in Cuba, where Dominic (Vin Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) are on their honeymoon. After an extended opening street race (got to remember our roots, after all), Dom is approached by a stranger. The woman is the terrorist known as Cipher (Charlize Theron) and she blackmails Dom into betraying his team and joining her. So, when they set out on a mission, teamed again with Hobbes (Dwayne Johnson), Dom takes something and disappears. What is Cipher holding over him? And which side is he really on?
So what scene went too far for me? It’s a scene in New York City involving terrorists taking over parked cars to cause havoc. Now, do I think that cars can be taken over by others? Yes. But that many? Remotely? So conveniently? Sorry, I just wasn’t buying it.
Which is ironic since I didn’t have nearly as big an issue with the climax, which really did involve racing a submarine and jumping over it at one point. Oh, and a team of bad guys who learned how to aim from storm troopers. Okay, so maybe I didn’t buy in after that. Or maybe they’ve just gone too far.
This is the first movie in the franchise since Paul Walker’s passing. The movie has a couple of nice nods to him and his character of Brian O’Conner. Jordana Brewster’s Mia doesn’t show up, which makes sense. She hasn’t had much of a presence in the last couple of films outside a few scenes with Brian.
I will give the actors credit. What is happening might be ridiculous, but they do their best to make it believable. I appreciate their efforts.
And the stunts are often fun as always. Unbelievable? Absolutely, but the team behind them does a good job of making the impossible look possible. It’s hard not to get caught up in the climax, especially.
The plot, which is just an excuse for the stunts, mostly holds together. It’s as believable as the rest of the franchise, anyway.
If you are a fan, you’ll find much to like here. Just turn off your brain or you’ll be nitpicking The Fate of the Furious.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for stopping by. In order to combat spam, I moderate most comments. I'll get to your comment as soon as I can.