The “Fast and Furious” universe has been the worst victim of Hollywood franchising the world has ever seen. The latest installment, “The Fate of the Furious,” is debatably the worst yet. What started as humble street racing films with a slight crime drama element has monstrously evolved into what is basically an “Avengers” movie.
With Kurt Russell in the Nick Fury role, assembling the team and dictating the missions, with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Captain America, the rest of the cast fills the remaining roles with their unique skillsets to assist in saving the world. Yes, that’s right. A bunch of people with fast cars are called upon to save the world.
What makes this whole idea worse is that this is the second time the U.S. government has had to recruit them to save the world. Sure, if the government had to sub-contract street racers to save the world from terrorists once that would be one thing… But twice? The Navy Seals, Marine Corps and Army Special Forces must have all been busy on other missions.
When super-hacker Cipher (Charlize Theron, “Mad Max: Fury Road”) blackmails Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel, “xXx: Return of Xander Cage”) into betraying his team, he is forced to help her steal weapons and other instruments of mass destruction. Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson, “Moana”), Letty (Michelle Rodriguez, “The Assignment”), Roman (Tyrese Gibson, “Star”) and Tej (Ludacris, “Furious 7”) come together with the help of Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell, “Deepwater Horizon”) to face their former friend and save the world.
Most big Hollywood movies are far-fetched, but at least there are certain elements to help ground them to reality. “The Fate of the Furious” offers absolutely zero logic in every category of the film.
Yes, there are some entertaining moments in this film, and yes, some scenes could even go as far as being called “cool”, but even the best moments of this film are riddled with absolute nonsense. Everyone knows Johnson is a large man, but would he be able to bounce rubber bullets off his body? Would he be able to throw three grown men across a room simultaneously? Would he be able to punch metal walls and leave massive dents behind? Highly doubtful.
The strongest of all of the “Fast and Furious” films are installments four through six. There was a perfect blend of action, drama and the implementation of the cars. What really cemented this was that the action is somewhat believable. They are stealing bank vaults, not taking down terrorists. “Furious 7” and “The Fate of the Furious” have thrown this approach right into the garbage and adopted the superhero formula.
The dialogue in this film is absolutely reprehensible too. One-liners are something to be used sparingly and they usually have some sort of humor or wittiness to them. “The Fate of the Furious” is filled with corny, cringe-worthy dialogue that could have been better written by a seventh grader.
Hearing Vin Diesel grumble his way through another mission as Dom Toretto was as torturous as waterboarding. The fact that they have multiple films in the works to continue the franchise proves, once again, that Hollywood is solely here to make a profit.
