Fate of the Furious doesn't mess with success

Charlize Theron and Vin Diesel in The Fate of the Furious. Image courtesy Universal Pictures.

My adoration for much of the Fast and the Furious franchise entries is hypocritical given my overarching loathing for movies similar to Fast and the Furious. This franchise commits all the sins I rant and rail against committed by other franchises. They big and bloated movies with empty plots and little going for them aside from spectacle and frequent speeches about family. Some of this will be an attempt to explain why I love a series of movies with little connection to reality, because all of those reasons explain my joy of the most recent entry in the series, the fairly awesome The Fate of the Furious.

There isn't anything overly different with Fate of the Furious compared with the rest of the franchise, the exception being the absences of Jordana Brewster and the late Paul Walker. The rest of the main cast is back (Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, Dwayne Johnson) along with a few additions from the last film (Kurt Russell, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jason Statham) and two new players (villain Charlize Theron and agent Scott Eastwood). Ridiculous heists are pulled in locales across the world; the word “family” is referenced ad nauseam; Johnson and Statham drop a few quips; beautiful cars get totaled; beautiful people get ogled; and a whole host of other similar shenanigans ensue. It’s the same as every film in this franchise since Fast Five, the one where the series shifted toward the globetrotting model it currently follows to enormous box office returns and at least two more entries in this series through 2021.

Looking at this film and the rest of the series critically little of it really holds up. The plots are thin and lack general logic. The movies always run on the long side despite the thin plots, with the less engaging entries losing steam in between the grandiose action sequences (a problem that plagues Fate of the Furious). Diesel, the face and de facto heart of the franchise, continues his tradition of not putting that much effort into his performance as Dominic Toretto. The amount of time the camera spends on certain female body parts remains a little disconcerting. And the films are generally hesitant to try to engage viewers in too many intellectual challenges.

Yet I still leave the theater pumped after watching these ludicrous movies. For all the flaws the series has, the positives have outweighed the negatives as a whole since Fast Five. Diesel's acting remains an issue, but he's surrounded by enough personality from the likes of Rodriguez, Johnson, Russell, Statham, Gibson, Russell and Ludacris to make his inherent lack of emotional range sort of work in his favor. Adding in Theron as the Fate of the Furious’ big bad is a boon as well; her iciness and scenery nibbling make her an unpredictable and surprisingly vicious femme fatale. Movies like this don't necessarily need great acting to work; a surplus of personality is often just as effective.

Besides, the real selling point for this franchise and Fate of the Furious is the spectacle. There's a simple level of joy to be taken solely from watching Vin Diesel race someone while driving backwards in a car that's on fire, or watching the main cast somehow avoid a freaking submarine while driving on ice covered water in Russia. There's the sequence where Theron makes it rain with cars, a helicopter getting taken out by an EMP, Johnson using his arm to divert a torpedo, and a pretty solid prison riot highlighted by stompings put on by Johnson and Statham. Just writing those things down is ridiculous enough, but the fact the film commits to these feats with a level of normality is fascinating in its own right. Whatever reaction the characters have to all of this insanity is a few steps below how it should play out in real life.

But this series is based in fantasy, a point the various directors who have come and gone have generally agreed upon. Anything can happen in the Fast and the Furious universe, and the only thing the filmmakers can do from one film to the next is stretch what anything means. It's fun to watch them get more and more creative without quite hitting the point of desperation. And while Fate of the Furious never hits the level of absurdity that makes Fast Five and Furious 7 so entertaining, it's still a damn fun film.

Review: Four out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG-13

Run time: 136 minutes

Genre: Action

Ask Away

Target audience: Folks who've lined up to watch the last seven movies.

Take the whole family?: This one gets a little bloodier than some of the previous ones, so stick within a year or two of the PG-13 rating.

Theater or Netflix?: Theater is good, but maybe avoid the IMAX if it isn’t a matinee.

What do they do about Paul Walker?: Even though the actor died before the release of Furious 7, his character Brian is referenced in this one as being alive but retired, just as he was at the end of the previous film. It was kind of nice to see the filmmakers avoid overly inserting Walker (sadly at the expense of Jordana Brewster), but a scene at the end makes for a strange coda given the circumstances.

Watch this as well?: Fast Five remains the glorious, bonkers highlight of this franchise. I'm also a very enthusiastic fan of Furious 7 even with the reduced Dwayne Johnson presence; adding in Kurt Russell and Jason Statham proved to be nice touches.