2017 | Dir. F. Gary Gray | 136 Minutes
"Why live a quarter-mile at a time when you can live your whole life that way?"
Cunning cyber-terrorist Cipher blackmails former street racer and heroic outlaw Dominic Toretto, revealing that she has captured his estranged lover and infant son. Dom is forced to turn on his team when DSS Agent Luke Hobbs calls on them to steal an EMP device from a military facility in Berlin. Shaken by Dom’s betrayal, Hobbs and the Toretto Gang are aided once again by Mr. Nobody and a newly recruited Deckard Shaw who holds a personal vendetta against Cipher. With a new member of his family to protect, Dom forges an unexpected alliance to turn the tables on Cipher.
Directed by the talented and versatile F. Gary Gray, the eighth installment of The Fast and the Furious series begins with an over-the-top street race in Havana and culminates with a spectacular logic-defying vehicular battle between motor vehicles and a nuclear submarine, in essence compacting the evolution of the series into just over two entertaining hours. The picture is immensely fun but it doesn't quite top the thrills of its predecessors since Fast Five, its most inspired sequence featuring a deadly legion of driverless cars in swarming the streets of New York City and raining from a multi-story parking garage. The climactic submarine sequence is surprisingly rote, and even exhausting in its predictability. Conversely, the kinetic prison fight/chase/escape sequence featuring Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw and Dwayne Johnson's Hobbs early in the picture did not last nearly long enough, nor does the sequence with Statham’s Shaw taking out Cipher's thugs while simultaneously protecting and entertaining Dom's baby. Complementing the series' signature fantastically-elevated action, the dialogue is as delightfully cheesy as ever, with some great zingers delivered by Statham and Johnson.
Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, and Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges comfortably return to their signature roles, their performances consistent with their previous work for better or worse. Nathalie Emmanuel and Kurt Russell return from Furious 7, Russell's Mr. Nobody now joined by a bland and utterly forgettable field agent played by Scott Eastwood. Elsa Pataky also returns in a thankless tragic hostage role. Charlize Theron's Cipher is a captivating villain but disappointingly, her role is relegated to intense Bond-villain-esque speechifying, never participating in the action. The film also features brief cameos from Tego Calderón and Don Omar (last seen in Fast Five), the surprise return of Luke Evans (last seen comatose in Furious 7), and (incredibly) Dame Helen Mirren having the time of her life as the Shaw Matriarch.
The Fate of the Furious is a good time, delivering the action and humor fans of the series have come to expect. However, the emotional sincerity present in the series' best installments, ridiculous as they may be, doesn't seem to ring true in this sequel. Though immensely entertaining, the film is an unfortunate case study in the limits of spectacle for a picture that lacks genuine heart and substance.
FRAGMENTS
- The series' tradition of assigning unconventional titles to its sequels continues; marketing materials abbreviate the wordy title for this eighth installment in the series as F8
- In Japan, the title for this film is Wild Speed: Ice Break
SUPPLEMENTAL STUFF
- Podcast: How Did This Get Made? Episode #161: The Fate of the Furious
MCU CONNECTIONS
- Vin Diesel (Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3)
- Kurt Russell (Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)
- Charlize Theron (Clea in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness)
