The second trailer of Fast and Furious 8 (The Fate of the Furious) made me a little uncomfortable when they showed that car set piece in it. It reminded me of the kind of collateral damage thing we saw in the last portions of Furious 7. Luckily F Gary Gray hasn’t overdone the elements in order to push the envelope further and thus with all its logical practical limitations Fast and Furious 8 fits nicely in to its franchise by providing the kind of wholesome entertainment it has been giving.
Dom is spending his honeymoon with Letty in Cuba this time and an uninvited guest Cipher comes in to the picture. She had something that made Toretto work for her. A conflicted Toretto goes rogue and is now on the opposite team. The team’s operation to stop Dom and what exactly was the reason that made Dom do all these things are what Fast and Furious 8 showing us.
VIDEO REVIEW
The first scene in the film itself has a literally blazing car winning a race in reverse gear and that gives us an idea that this is the world of fast and furious. That scene manages to be entertaining and that is how almost all the scenes in this movie are. Over the top, breath taking stunts that kind of make you whistle and with the usual attitude dialogues from Dom, anger outburst from Hobbs and stupid stuff from Roman, the package is sort of complete (But you will always miss Brian). If they have tried to create villains with more of a physical power and domination in the last few parts, this time the villain is more on the psychological level. You will definitely have questions looking in to the logical aspect of Cipher’s power. But the purpose of the film is to entertain us by creating interesting conflicts and exciting twists in the tale. Dead people are coming back, enemies are becoming friends and all those changes in equation add to the likeability of the franchise.
Vin Diesel as Domenic Toretto has that much needed attitude. This time he has got some scenes which show the vulnerabilities of Dom and he was good in them. Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs has got scenes which are a bit funnier. Jason Statham is there in his usual style. Michelle Rodriguez was fine as Letty. The duo Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson offers ample fun. Charlize Theron has that intense look on her face to be the brutal Cipher.
F Gary Gray has managed to find the right balance of making F8 an enjoyable one. The franchise in its entirety was always questioned for being over the top, but it has always managed to surpass those criticisms by making those stunts look stunning. Here also we have that grand scale submarine sequence in the last quarter of the film which looks enormous. Even though it has all the hacking clichés, you get to see a lot of witty dialogues, surprise entries of characters and fair enough twist to make everything look appealing. The scenes featuring Jason Statham and that adorable little kid were really good. The visuals and cuts have managed to contain the stunts in a very elegant way. That auto drive set piece was a bit too much to digest.
So to sum up, Fast and furious 8 does entertain you eventually. The franchise has a format and certain elements which give it an identity and they have managed to add all that in to this movie as well. And yeah, there is a sweet small tribute to Brian.
Rating: 3/5
The franchise has a format and certain elements which give it an identity and they have managed to add all that in to this movie as well.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
