No one messes with family
- Opie Akinsilo
- Apr 17, 2017
- 3 min read
Going into the eighth installment of Fast and Furious series, I can't say that I had high hopes. With the unfortunate lose of Paul Walker and his character Brian, I had some skepticism about what that meant for the franchise moving forward. For those like me you can let out a sigh of relief and set your mind at ease, The Fate of the Furious manages to deliver on what seems to be almost an impossible task of making the eighth installment of anything enjoyable and reminded me and everyone who had doubts why we loved the series in the first place.
Family has mostly always been the theme of the series and Fast 8 takes that and switches it up a bit in a way the breathe some new life into the concept. Are you willing to betray family and if so what does it take to break such a strong bond in the first place? The nice thing about Fast 8 is that while Dom has gone from leading the team to becoming its biggest antagonist, it provides a compelling reason for why he is doing it which takes a lot of the pressure off of the reasons why and turns our focus to the ensuing collision between all the players and what it might mean for the team who has relied so heavily on his leadership. I can't say that there weren't some moments where the family angle might have been taken kinda far or logic behind somethings seemed a little off but they weren't enough of them to spoil what were easily the funniest moments in the movie provided by Tryese and Ludacris whose Roman and Tej banter seemed to ease the movie along and lighten the movie allowing us not to take it to seriously.
Some of my favorites scenes where watching Charlize Theron as Cipher one of the more compelling villains in the franchise. As she drove a wedge between the team and push them to their limits at every turn, it was exciting and believable. She felt every bit as deadly and cunning as you'd expect from someone trying to hold the world hostage. Watching her exert her control over Dom makes you love to hate her and in my opinion is the direct result of a better performance from Diesel then I have seen in any of the other movies.
For the faithful fans there are a few nods to past characters and some fan favorites. With the brief references to the past movies and even and very brief explanation to Walker's Brian being absence from the group. All of these little hints were nice touch to carry on the tradition of family from F. Gary Gary. Another great touch was some of the directing choices made and the use of angles. Without completely overpowering the film with a completely new style, F. Gary Gary uses subtle angles and makes this film his own.
Fan will be thrilled and pleased with this latest installment while new comers may miss out on some of the those nods to previous films (providing even more incentive to watch the watch the other from the series). The Fate of the Furious is a fun thrill ride with enough jokes to make even the biggest skeptic a believer.
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