I am just going to come right out and say it, the real world sucks. I know what you are thinking, focus on the beauty of the world and ignore the ugliness. While that may be true, that is not what I’m talking about. The real world sucks because of gravity, physics, and all the other things that keep us from having fun. Imagine a world where you would jump over things with no problem or dive out of a speeding car with not even a tear in your shirt, that’s a world I want to live in. While that world will never exist for us, it does for one family.
In the world of the Fast and the Furious, there is not a problem a fast car can’t solve and sometimes-even death means nothing. Dom (Vin Diesel), or how I like to call him everyone’s favorite family man, can never enjoy being retired. This is a man that seems to have everything and always ends up in the best places on Earth. It seems though there is something he doesn’t have, and a mystery woman (Charlize Theron) seems to have that missing piece. Whatever that may be, it is enough to make Dom go rouge and turn his back on his family. Like a good family though they are not going to let Dom go without a fight, and together they chase him around the world to save him and the family they created.
Like in the movie itself I tried to use the word family as often as I could. Unlike the movie though I hope not to lose your attention when things are not going ‘boom’. Like the last six films, the action sequences are on par with anything else out there. These movies are loud and at times can be a fun ride. Which escalates when the filmmakers decided to throw out all the rules of reality and decided to speed past the limits. “The Fate of the Furious” leaves that rulebook at home as well as ignoring why things happen. With these movies you just take it as it comes, but don’t think about it if you want everything to make sense. Everything is the same here, put a bunch of charismatic actors around the robot-like Vin Diesel and throw in some good action pieces. In “Furious 7” you could feel the franchise change with the loss of Paul Walker, like the film lost part of its soul. With this installment they try and get that back with a new character played by Scott Eastwood. It works fine, and I am sure you will be seeing him more in the next seven installments of the franchise.
I will say it is hard to not to admire something that has embraced what it is, no matter what anyone thinks about it. While I feel that way, it is also easy not like this film, because for everything ‘wham-bam-thank-you-massive explosion’ moment there is twice as many lifeless ones that surround it. I really see no end to this series and look forward to the one they do in space. Until then I am left with a film that while at times is entertaining, certainly feels like it took its nitro-induced leap over the shark a long time ago.
