Movie Review: The Fate of the Furious (2017)

Summary: When a mysterious woman seduces Dom into the world of terrorism and a betrayal of those closest to him, the crew face trials that will test them as never before.

This is late but enjoy the review!

Pros:

Cast and Characters. These characters are beloved and have been for years. I’m not going to talk about all of them because they are mostly the same as they always are, but I’m going to talk about the ones who stood out the most to me.

• Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto. Of course we know and love Dom, he is a former criminal and professional street racer who has retired and settled down with his wife. He even starts the film off helping a family member, you know family, but he is quickly introduced to Cipher and forced to work against his team. Throughout the film, we see him play a villain and it’s just so confusing in the beginning because you demand to know why when Dom is obviously a family man. But as the film continues, we learn why he’s doing this. Vin Diesel isn’t the best of actors but he’s great in this role, if he’s not Riddick, he IS Dominic Toretto. He is silent, intimidating when he has to be but also a giant cuddly giant when he’s with Letty. He is under control (or at least tries to be) and always doing something ridiculous with his car and Diesel is great at it.

• Dwayne Johnson as Hobbs. Thank goodness for him in this film because he’s been great since he joined the franchise. He actually has a Maui like scene and it was so cute but also only in there because he was in Moana. He is a DSS agent who has been allied with Dom and the team. He ends up in jail after a job goes south where he has great lines, great action scenes and great interactions with Shaw. He almost takes over Dom’s place with him being gone, in being the leader, I mean, he’s different from the character of Dom but he serves as the surrogate leader while Dom is on the bad side.

• Michelle Rodriguez as Letty. Dom’s wife and a former professional street racer. I love her. She is a ride or die chick and I think she is a great partner for Dom, she deals with a lot here due to his betrayal. She doesn’t want to believe that he’s against them, with a ll his talk of family, she doesn’t want to believe that he’ll turn his back on them and she keeps fighting for that. She’s strong and Michelle Rodriguez plays that so well.

• Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw. He’s a rogue special forces assassin imprisoned by Hobbs and the DSS after his defeat in Los Angeles, who serves as an ally to help Dom’s team take down Cipher. He is hilarious. I never really seen much of his films but he’s a great addition to these, his banter with Hobbs alone made a lot of the quiet moments for me. His physical abilities are also quite impressive. He has a great scene on an airplane… You’re welcome.

The Villain. Charlize Theron plays Cipher, she is a Hacker who has managed to get something on Dom in order for him to work for her. I love Charlize Theron, she is a great actress and boy can she play a villain so well. Her look was great and I wanted to punch her in the face, so mission accomplished. I will talk a bit more about her later but overall, as a character, she was so… mean and ruthless and sometimes the faces she would make. It actually felt like she was way to good for this film lol.

 The Action/Car Awesomeness. These movies are never short on action and the things they do. I don’t think they topped the whole airplane thing and the tower jump in Furious 7. There are some great scenes though, where the others confront Dom, when they’re driving on the ice later in the film. It’s still great watching the things they are able to make cars do.

The Humor. Like always most of the humor comes down to Roman and Tej, which it’s still there and I love the relationship and banter they have. Tyrese and Ludacris have really good chemistry. But Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham have some good lines in the film as well. I thought the humor was well done for the most part, there were a few times when it got a little annoying, or Tyrese was being a bit dramatic but since that’s his character it didn’t bother me too much.

The Reason. Of course the trailers make you go “TELL ME NOW!” and when you finally find out what it is, at first it’s lame but then it’s like ohhhh wow. Okay, that’s legit and it ends up being something cute later on.

Cons:

The Reason. I think it’s kind of interesting because the timing doesn’t really add up to me in my mind. I mean, not for how “the reason” looks in this film. But ya know I don’t think continuity is that important to these films but that’s a big glaring one to me.

It’s Ridiculous. As they always are, sometimes it gets a bit too ridiculous that it makes a viewer roll their eyes. Also where you go ‘that doesn’t make sense’, sometimes the stuff that Dom and Hobbs do is so impossible for a human person to do… I mean, I think there’s an underlying answer… they’re mutants.

The Villain’s Reasons. So I like Cipher, she was cool but I don’t think I have any idea what she was trying to do. I mean, I get it, she’s upset etc. etc. but when she monologues, I was really trying to understand but I don’t think it really made complete sense. Reasons why she was using Dom made more sense than what she actually wanted to do.

Overall, I love these movies, they’re fun and ridiculous and you can really just get into it for the action and characters alone. I think that’s what makes these so great is the characters and the action. I still think it’s funny how the tone of the films changed, but I think they changed for the better. There is still some outrageous things that happen in the films, that hardly make sense and Cipher’s overall reasons were sketchy at best. But as always Fate of the Furious was super fun.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Have you seen The Fate of the Furious? If so, let me know your thoughts down below. Do you like these films? Which one is your favorite? Which one is the best?

Don’t forget to like and follow!