The Fate of the Furious

What's the title?

Who directed it?

F. Gary Gray

When was it released?

2017

What’s it rated?

PG-13 for prolonged sequences of violence and destruction, suggestive content, and language

Would I recommend it?

It would depend. Do you like the Fast & Furious franchise already? If yes, then yes. I think it’s a good entry into the series. If you don’t like fast cars and FAMBLY*? Then no, you’re not going to find anything here to break the mold.

What's it about?(non-spoilers)

Dominic Toretto, the head of the franchise family, teams up with cyberterrorist Cipher under shady circumstances to betray his team. One very pissed off Hobbs wants to bring the hammer down on his former friend, while Letty remains confident that there must be more behind her husband’s actions than the team knows. Regardless of their individual motivations, the whole team comes together to track Dom and Cipher down.

What did you think? (spoilers)

Look, I like the Fast and Furious franchise. I know it’s ridiculous. It’s the cinematic equivalent of what plays in four-year-old boy’s minds when he plays with Hot Wheels coupled with gratuitous shots of bethonged lady bottoms. It’s patently absurd. But, they’re also pretty fun.

Like toddlers across the country, I like expensive cars driven recklessly. They’re colorful and the make those vroom noises. I’m not joking. I didn’t watch Top Gear because I was enamored by Jeremy Clarkson’s personality. I watched it for this.

Put that on mute and I will still watch the full eight minutes of that because that is pretty. And the cars in the F&F movies are pretty.

Also, the movies are competently made, regardless of the intellectual merit of their content. The films always seem to give respect to whatever location they occupy be it Brazil or Cuba or sunny LA, which is nice. The diversity of the cast is also refreshing and greatly appreciated. What’s more, the movies have a good heart. Yeah, much has been made about the overly hammered in theme of FAMBLY in this film. “We’re a FAMBLY. I’m doing this for FAMBLY. Never leave behind FAMBLY. FAMBLY FAMBLY FAMBLY.” But you know what? In a world where Superman is too angst-driven to bother to help people, I like a movie where car thief friends take turns saying grace over their weekly barbecues. That’s nice.

Moving on from looking at the F&F franchise as a whole and on to looking at Fate by itself, I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. It’s the most fun I’ve had with the movies since Fast Five, which is my favorite installment of the series. F7 received a lot of hype, but I found it underwhelming, whereas Fate didn’t get as great of reviews, but provided, for me, a more pleasant viewing experience.

THE GOOD

I appreciate how the film approaches Letty as a character. She’s tough and competent, attributes that are in no way diminished by her loyalty and compassion. Her ride-or-die faith in Dom is presented not as a result of neediness or willful blindness, but as an extension of her own confidence. She knows who she is, she knows the kind of man she’d love, and she knows that man is not capable of cold, calculated betrayal. Also, she gets to fight a dude. So often in tentpole properties, if there is a female fighter, the show provides a female baddie out of thin air for her to take down. Here Letty got to fight a goon, and, while it was a hard fight, she still comes out victorious. It was awesome.

I liked Roman’s dynamic with Little Nobody. The team member at the bottom of the pecking order gets to lash out at the new kid. I don’t have much more to say about the dynamic, but I thought it worth mentioning.

Having just seen Kurt Russell in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, I couldn’t help but be reminded once again of how great of an actor he is. Also, he seemed to be enjoying his time in the role. It’s nice to see old hats getting the job done and done effortlessly.

Speaking of legends, DAME HELEN MIRREN is in this movie. Do I need to say more? Her role is great, and her portrayal of that role is great. If she doesn’t show up in future installments I will be sad because, yes, please, more of this, thank you.

There are plans for of a spin-off series involving Hobbs and Deckard Shaw. I approve. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is the prison break of Hobbs and Deckard. People talk a lot about action scenes built out of character – that is one such scene. It’s over the top and crazy fun. The way Fate builds the dynamic between those two from there I thought was done economically and effectively. I’d love to see more of those two. Who is ever going to say no to more Dwayne Johnson, but Statham’s character in Fate may have been my favorite. Obviously, there is Helen Mirren, but Statham goes through a prolonged gun fight whilst carrying, soothing, and talking to a baby. It is one of the most delightful things I’ve seen in a long time (don’t judge me).

Obviously, we all know that Dominic Toretto did not stab his FAMBLY in the back for no reason, but I was curious what the blackmail would be. What could be so bad that he would turn his back on FAMBLY? Cipher holding his ex-Elena and their, previously unknown, baby boy is a dang good one. Maybe I should have seen it coming when Letty and Dom had that baby talk back in Havana, but I was genuinely shocked with the reveal of Dom’s son. So kudos, well done.

THE NOT AS GOOD

Speaking of Elena, I mentioned that Fast Five was my favorite F&F movie. Elena may not play a BIG part of that feeling for me, but she does play a part. I like Elena a lot. She’s good at her law enforcement career; she’s kind, has integrity, is totally cool when Letty re-enters Dom’s life. Also, she’s played by Elsa Pataky, aka Chris Hemsworth’s wife (a piece of trivia of which I was not aware until my viewing buddy pointed it out). Given their interaction in both Five and F7, I shipped Elena with Hobbs. Also, I’m against fridging (the murdering of a female character to further a male character’s emotional stakes) on principal. Needless to say, I was annoyed when Elena got fridged.

That said, it wasn’t the worst fridging I’ve seen. As my viewing buddy mentioned several times, the film kind of backed itself into a corner and the only in-character action Cipher had at that point of the film was to have Elena “handled”. But I was still annoyed. ALSO, how was Cipher able to kidnap Elena and her partner (who totally is into her) Hobbs NOT NOTICE? HOW IS THAT IN CHARACTER FOR HOBBS, MOVIE? (Like I said, annoyed.)

The presence of Baby Brian (yes that’s what Dom christens his son as, which is sweet and completely in line with the ethos of the franchise) also begs the question about the timeline of these films. My viewing buddy and I were wracking our heads trying to figure out when exactly Elena had time to get pregnant and have Baby Brian. (Again, how did federal agent Hobbs not notice his partner/crush was PREGNANT? EXPLAIN YOURSELF, MOVIE. Moving on.) Maybe if I went back and marathoned these movies I could come up with a timeline, but that is too much work. A big part of the appeal of these movies is that I get to turn my brain off. These movies should not ask any effort of me. That is not the arrangement.

This isn’t really bad, but it certainly doesn’t belong in the good section. The movie does explain the absence of Brian and Mia from the action. It’s not a great explanation if you think too hard, but like I said, these are not thinking movies.

Cipher is a HORRIBLE human being. Which, she’s the villain, so she’s supposed to be loathsome. And loathe her I did, so kudos to Charlize Theron for doing her job. Still, I was so longing for her to be “handled” by the end of the film. She wasn’t, which means she’ll be back, and I’m sure she’ll do a great job at being the human embodiment of cockroach feces once again. I just hope the next time she shows up she’s sporting some other haircut besides those god-awful dreadlocks because those were painful.

It comes with the territory in F&F movies, but I will never not be annoyed at the purely gratuitous ogling of women’s behinds in these movies. For movies that do well at imagining their female characters as complex human beings, is it too much to ask that their female extras are extended the same courtesy? Just because they don’t have speaking roles doesn’t mean they should automatically be relegated to serving as objects for the male gaze. Be better, F&F. Be better.

Now, as I’ve said, I liked this movie. I had fun. It is a popcorn movie. However, when I turned to my viewing buddy as the credits rolled, smiling and saying what a good time I thought the movie was, he grimaced. “Yeah,” he said. “I just don’t remember them being that violent.” He was right. The movie never lingers on the after effects, but there are at least good three moments where the baddies are dispatched in fairly gruesome ways. The violence doesn’t have the visceral impact of films such as John Wick but nor does it have the sanitized rock-‘em sock-‘em feel of superhero movies (well at least MCU movies). Maybe next time there could be more chase scenes and fewer fight scenes, more fast, less furious.

Either way, I’ll be there for the next movie and the next until Universal decides to stop milking this particular cash cow.

*I thought I read this FAMBLY joke in an article by Birth.Movies.Death, but I have since been unable to locate the article. So either I imagined reading that article or I stink at internet research. Either are entirely possible.

Images: iMDB; GIPHY

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