Entering its 8 th installment, franchise doesn't seem to run out of gas at all. I was thinking that the franchise will slow down a little in post-Paul Walker era; but, apparently, the word 'slow' doesn't exist in this saga's vocabulary. In Fast and Furious 8, dubbed as The Fate of the Furious (stylized as The F8 of the Furious), Dominic Toretto et al instantly deliver us the most excessively over-the-top CAR-nage in this franchise since the beginning.
Remember that final 15 minutes of ? That's a beautiful finale that glued this franchise to family-fueled action bravura. It's no longer some films about street race or carjack; it's becomes a massive, worldwide slugfest. Since then, this franchise's principle has become: more is never enough.
F8 brings back familiar faces when a mysterious woman (Charlize Theron) blackmails Toretto (Vin Diesel) and forces him to go rogue. To confront the one and only Toretto, his on-and-off squad - currently consisting of Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Tej (Ludacris), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) - with Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) are teaming up with nemesis, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham).
As if there's no brake in its own, F8 very quickly. The further it goes; it only gets louder, more exuberant, more brutal and more devastating as it plays with over-the-top action bonanza and wreaks havoc in every place during its globetrotting venture. From Cuban street to Berlin's secret facility to car-flooding New York and culminates on tip of iceberg, literally, F8 keeps showing you a series of inventive, science-defying set pieces, which might keep injecting you with fun and adrenaline.
Extravagant and rapid action sequences in F8 are distributed almost in every corner; lucky for you, they are all eye-pleasing. From wrecking ball sequence in Berlin (literally), raining car (yes, cars are raining down from the sky), car-flood, to submarine pursuit, you've literally never seen this before. In handling those scenes, Fast and Furious new director F. Gary Gray really is having fun with those scenes; he has keen eyes for big trouble, although, he often neglects small details for bigger execution.
The ensemble of cast is always big. Some characters keep coming and going; but, when we think it couldn't get bigger again, F8 gives us more the way Expendables has assembled us a band of actioners before. Bigger casts only mean a little or uneven focus, and by far, Fast and Furious does not bother taking that into immediate concern. We won't have compelling family drama as in Paul Walker era now; the 'family drama' isn't quite living up to the story, although we always know that the drama isn't the thing Fast and Furious franchise attempt to cope up. At least, in F8, we might hear more banter - now with newly established bromance between Johnson's Hobbs and Statham's Deckard as well as mentor-protege relationship between Kurt Russell's Mr. Nobody and Scott Eastwood's Little Nobody.
Trust me, if you're up to inventive, over-the-top, science-defying CAR-nage with loud banters and loud engine roaring, then The Fate of the Furious is for you. If not, at least, you know now what money can superfluously do to a franchise. This 8th installment isn't as dramatic as the seventh, but it definitely has lots of fun ride.
The Fate of the Furious (2017)
Action, Crime Directed by:
