What They Say:
Since Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian’s (Paul Walker) heist in Rio left them and their crew very rich people, they’ve scattered across the globe; however, they must still live as fugitives, unable to return home to their families. Meanwhile, Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) has been tracking a gang of lethally skilled mercenary drivers whose second-in-command is someone Dom knows. Unable to take them down himself, Hobbs asks Dom and his crew for help in exchange for full pardons for everyone.
The Review:
In a lot of ways, I continue to be surprised by this franchise of films. I had little interest in the first one and it left me finding it rather unmemorable. I had delved into the third installment, Tokyo Drift, simply because of my interest in Japan and having spent enough time watching drifting racing and reading about it through the world of Initial D, and just being curious to see how they’d handle the film. With subsequent films in the series taking place before Tokyo Drift, there’s just an odd sense to the franchise, but I really found myself surprisingly interested and enjoying the 2011 release of Fast and Furious 5, which brought some really big action scenes, some great choreography and a realm of over the top that was just a few steps over reality but tied in well enough that you could give it a pass. In a way, it was fun revisiting all of the big sequences in the opening credits here, sans Tokyo Drift of course, as it reminds you that the franchise has always played it being, manly and sexy. And there’s more than enough room for that in the film world.
Unfortunately, series scribe Chris Morgan, who has written four entries in the series so far, ends up with a work here that feels a bit too convoluted and complicated for its own good, which is owed to the general size of the cast at this point. The premise we get from the trailers is certainly simple enough in that after the events of the previous film, with everyone having walked away with a large sum of money, are enjoying their lives the best that they can while on the run, though most are just sort of being ignored for the time being. Brian and Mia are having their first child and we see some time advance on that with some very cute sequences about how he and Dom both try to nudge the kid towards cars of their own choice. Han and Gisele are enjoying their life on the run more than others as they roam the world, only to get into a bit of trouble along the way, while others are either doing Robin Hood like excursions and we hear of others going after banks and jobs elsewhere since not everyone returns.
While we’ve seen the gang going on their jobs in the past, this one presents them a new challenge. A former Special Air Services soldier named Owen Shaw has gone rogue and is orchestrating a number of jobs that they learn will give him the pieces of technology he needs that can be sold off for billions that would essentially blackout a city for a day or two, making it a ripe weapon of terror on many fronts. That has Hobbs on his case pretty intently, moving through political and diplomatic issues with all the grace of a bull in a china shop, along with a very talented partner named Riley, a tough woman with an impressive skill set. But because Shaw is using all sorts of fast specialty cars – a little Formula One style mixed into it to appeal overseas – he realizes that he has to try and draw in Dom and his group to help catch the bad guys. And they’re game, since the payoff for them with this is getting full pardons so they can live their lives cleanly once more. Albeit with a whole lot of cash on hand.
It’s all a straightforward setup and there’s fun in seeing how the gang have all spread out and have been living since, but also the easy way they all come back into the job, initially for the pardon aspect but also because of the revelation that Dom’s previous girlfriend, Letty, didn’t actually die like they all thought and is now instead working with Shaw. It’s the obvious wrinkle that draws the characters in and makes for an engaging subplot to the film itself because it does take time to answer the question of why she’s doing what she’s doing, and even for her to appear when you get down to it. That becomes the personal side to things, along with Brian and how he’s getting wound deeper into things because of how Shaw uses his girlfriend and infant child against him, so there’s more at stake this time around than just their individual lives or liberties and that does help to ramp up the intensity.
But I’ll admit, I don’t come to Fast and Furious movies for the stories. I do want the sexy women, the power of the machines themselves and the racing/action aspects. We get some decent things here in some really nice locales – it’s completely a franchise that can take advantage of a global story and use that to its advantage in its marketing – and that’s a solid drawn here, though it’s weaker in some ways that I can’t quite put my finger on. The film has some good action sequences throughout, but it’s the final two that are the big payday ones. The first one really feels like the end action sequence and that’s somewhat surprising in a way because the whole thing comes together like you expect the film to end soon as it wraps things up. With a chase sequence that eventually involves a military tank and then a very, very high bridge sequence that left me nether regions all tense watching it on the big screen, it gave me a lot of what I wanted – including that awfully insane and unbelievable jump sequence that brings it to a close. But the film goes further with the real final scene where the team goes after a plane trying to take off from an American military base that must have a runway the length of an entire country with the time it takes. While I liked the actual action itself, it was overly long and didn’t hit as tensely as it could, though it makes for some great moments and dramatic impact as various characters get lost along the way, something that the franchise needs to do at times to stay a bit fresh and provide challenges. But it is, in the end, the kind of stuff that’s really hard to suspend disbelief over and that drags it done. And I say that while thinking of the whole bank vault being driven around town sequence from the previous film.
In Summary:
What I do like about this franchise is that it does have a history behind it and they spend time throughout it here trying to touch upon it and close up some loose ends. The moments with Letty does that nicely, but Brian’s subplot by going to prison was just so pointless with how it came across. Dom of course drives the narrative and Vin Diesel of course can pull it off, especially when he gets to work with Dwayne Johnson and the cast as a whole. There was little here in terms of characters that I didn’t like and the way they all play off of each other is just a hell of a lot of fun. But I also love that they’re finally catching up to the Tokyo Drift side, making me want to rewatch that now, and the way they’re angling for the next installment due out in 2014 by attracting some solid talent to help drive that narrative. In the end, the lack of a strong opponent here is its greatest weakness and without one, it never feels like it truly comes together well.
Grade: C+
