The Fate of the Furious
- Apr 19, 2017
- 2 min read
In the 80's and 90's there were often jokes about how many action movies seemed to have endless sequels leading towards more and more absurd stories that would never end. It is however a series started in the early 00's that has in less than two decades reached 8 titles! The Furious saga is not alone in this distinction, it shares the title with Star Wars movies currently, but it is impressive to note that so many movies have been drawn from the original Fast and the Furious. While not all movies in the saga are coherent in their storytelling nor do they adhere to the laws oh physics, they do all manage to stay above 5.0 on IMDB and tend to be very successful financially.
The previous statements therefore make it difficult to grade The Fate of the Furious on the same scale as other movies outside the action genre. Vin Diesel talks about the importance of family: check. The Rock says something ridiculous and flexes his muscles: check. Jason Statham has an unbelievable action scene in which he takes down enemies much larger than him: check. A car races against something that it has no reason to race against: CHECK. So without a doubt you have filled the formula for what people love about the Fast and the Furious narrative. BUT does that make it a good movie?
Yes and no...
As I discussed in my review of Terminator Genisys, there is a target audience for action movies such as The Fate of the Furious that makes giving a balanced grade of the movie difficult. The Fate of the Furious is trash when compared to the likes of Inception, but Fate is decidedly much better than Genisys, which I was admittedly much too generous with when I graded. I am left again arguing that a movie, which I do not consider to be very good, is very enjoyable and therefore still merits a watching by those already interested in the action genre.
The Fate of the Furious effectively creates a mystery box surrounding why it is that Dom decided to work against his old team. That question is not answered in the trailers, which is a big step up from the "twist" of Genisys, and does have a meaningful payoff in the end. This plot is meaningful enough and makes sense within the context of the Fast and Furious saga. On top of that the action scenes are all top notch. The movie stays in 12th gear up until the very end and will keep you longing for the next explosion that moves the story forward. These two elements are well crafted and prove why as crazy as the movie is, it still draws in massive crowds.
With all of this taken into consideration the movie passes the test of decency. The question of ranking action movies with the same scale as other genres is one that will continue to perplex me, but based on my previous movie grades I feel confident giving The Fate of the Furious what I have decided to rank it.
7.7
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