Directed by Justin Lin
Written by Justin Lin, Daniel Casey, Alfredo Botello
“They fly a car into space!”, that was what a friend told me before I sat down to watch this film. Now films like these are in no ways bound by conventional laws of physics or rooted in any reality. With that being said, Vin Diesel and crew have managed to build a successful film franchise that has this central recurring theme of “family”. Their maybe a bit unconventional and definitely dysfunctional, but these films are watched mainly for the action and the laughs. Those two are always delivered, but I am looking at the story and how can it be improved.
Here comes the spoilers.
Cars of all types being driven fast and furious has been the calling card of this franchise, and Vin Diesel since the first film back in 2001 has grown this franchise and the cast has largely remained intact with the exception of the unfortunate passing of Paul Walker in 2013. In the past few films they have added major star power with Dwayne Johnson, Jason Staham, Charlize Theron, Kurt Russell, Helen Mirren, and John Cena. Some of these new characters really add some depth to the story-lines. This film pushes the family theme to the extreme with brother versus brother. Bit cliche, and Cena is significantly bigger than Diesel, but you already know the good guys will win every fight and every race.
The backstory of how these brothers parted ways over their father’s death is touching and shows how there are always two sides to every story perspective wise. The rest of the cast is all ride or die with Diesel and chase scenes and several explosions later we get perhaps the best reunion of The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) cast as mechanics working on a car with a jet engine attached to it. This foreshadows the car driving into space scene, but hey if you can suspend disbelief for the Dodge Charger swinging on a rope up to a cliffs edge then you can keep it going for the space scene. All ridiculousness aside, the plot and story for this film is quite solid and simple when you strip away the CGI and action. Honestly other than a complete rewrite or added scenes written there isn’t much that can be done to improve this film. Actually taking out the rope swing scene would probably be the only thing I would actually say to omit.
Overall the film does what you expect of this franchise. You laugh and watch as they do things with cars that just aren’t possible. There was a meme that I found quite fitting that they never once show them getting gas. I think that would be a funny scene to do in a future film is show how many fill ups they have to do. Till the next film in this blockbuster franchise, I will see how they continue to interpret the theme of family.
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