Fast Month - The Fate of the Furious

F8? Fate? Pun title. Man, this franchise is old.

We arrive at what’s currently the final movie in this franchise, the Fate of the Furious. Released in 2017, the movie was successful, though not as successful as 7. You could that down to the publicity boost the last movie got from the death of Paul Walker, Universal was not expecting to replicate its success, though it still broke the $1bn mark, not bad for a franchise that barely broke even when it started.

It did dip slightly critically though, dropping to a 66% rotten tomatoes rating with an average 6.1/10 and 6.7/10 on IMDb.

So, is it worth the hype, here are my thoughts.

Dom and Letty are on their honeymoon when Dom is approached by a mysterious woman named Cipher. She’s been responsible for 2 teams attempting to steal the McGuffins in the last 2 movies. She wants Dom to work for her and has brought a deadly incentive.

I don’t go into the Fast and Furious franchise expecting Shakespeare when it comes to storytelling. It does have issues, from the retconned motivation, to the villain’s motive, to just how many cars can you hack like that?

With Dom, you get the prospect of him betraying the family, but it always rings a bit hollow because we know exactly why he’s doing it and are just waiting for the moment for him to double-cross them, which he puts visibly into motion (from the audience’s perspective) early enough on that the talk of Toretto being a traitor gets more and more grating as the movie goes on.

Also, I’m getting a bit tired of Roman’s shtick of being the comic relief of these movies. I dunno, Tej does provide the occasional bit as a straight man, but he’s again partnered with Ramsay as the both serve exactly the same purpose except one has tits.

Hobbs does get a bit more of an expanded role in this compared to the last one, and has his share of badass moments. But this is where the feud, nicknamed 'Candy-ass' hit full swing. Him in Vin Diesel share next to no screen-time and Hobbs is instead partnered up with… Shaw?

OK, time to talk about Deckard Shaw, making a return in this movie with somewhat of a redemption arc. He was gunning for the team and killed Han in the last movie, but he seems to have dropped all that and wants Cipher instead. Why? Because the script says so. He and Hobbs do have some great banter and there is one advantage to having Shaw on the team, we can deliver some of the most badass action scenes this franchise. Though again, he killed Han, why did Toretto trust him? His brother had a hand in Gisele’s death too, why the f*ck would he trust that family to rescue his own? Either way, I’m looking forward to a Hobbs/Shaw spin-off

Unfortunately, giving Letty back her memory hasn’t exactly done much for her character. She’s the one who believes in Dom even when others are losing hope. She loves him and isn’t ready to accept it. It’s a character role that could easily have been filled by Brian (and Mia) if it wasn’t for the death of David Walker. A bit more depth from our leading ladies would be appreciated is all.

Speaking of Brian, let’s meet his replacement, they call him Nobody Jr… and he’s a moron, moving on. The nobody organisation is still a thing, and Mr Nobody is about too, he’s charming but unremarkable and contributes little to the main plot other than getting Nobody Jr to lighten up a bit.

Cipher is probably one of the most intimidating villains in the Franchise, she’s much more personal and calculating but she’s also a diabolical threat. She threatens Dom using Elena, I’ve not really mentioned much about her so to recap, she was Hobbs' rookie partner in 5, and became Dom’s love interest before Letty came back. Turns out she had a kid, and Cipher is threatening both of them.

And she is genuine with that, when Dom almost gets stopped by Letty, she kills Elena in front of Dom. It was immensely gratifying to watch everything around her falling apart. Her motivation is… kinda stupid though. She escapes at the end, so I’ll be interested to see what she’s gonna do next. 

There are only 2 major action set-pieces in the movie, as opposed to the 3 in the last one, and they don’t top any of the major stunts, what they give you is absolute insanity instead. From Cipher controlling a fleet of vehicles to the team having to face off against an insurgency group and Cipher controlling a weaponised submarine on ice. Although, when did Roman get so good at shooting moving targets? They are gloriously stupid, but I love both of them and it feels better ingrained into the narrative than the McGuffin chase in the last movie.

In many ways, I like Fate of the Furious more than I did Furious 7. The story has its problems, but I feel it’s an improvement on the previous one and it maintains some really good action. The character work is less good (particularly with the sudden change with the Shaw brothers) and there are some weird tonal shifts in this one, so I can see why people didn’t quite take to it as well.

Rating 82/100