So let's address the elephant in the room: we know these are not intelligent movies. We know that Universal's venerable Fast franchise, since the second movie, has basically been geared towards audiences looking for brainless summer entertainment where people go into an air-conditioned theater, and watch 'splode-y things happen in a cliched action movie. But it's that self-awareness that allows this franchise to continue its success. Director Justin Lin and the cast know what these movies are and what the expectations are. So it ultimately becomes quite pleasantly surprising when things become more ambitious than what we expect.
And ambition is what we get. Yes we have a TON of random car race scenes set to whatever the most popular genre of top 40 music is nowadays. And yes we have some of the most ridiculous scenes you'll ever see in an action movie this year (let's say it involves 2 people being catapulted from standing on top of a car and a tank, and flying across a gap between 2 sides of a freeway). But in between, we also get a bit of drama, character development, and franchise story progression here and there. It's not Shakespeare, but if nothing else, we can tell the filmmakers are really really trying here.
The plot is, naturally, simple. Hobbs (The Rock) is tracking down an international thief named Shaw (Luke Evans) who is looking to steal some billion dollar microchip that will enable him to black out electronic devices all over the globe. But Hobbs needs "wolves to catch wolves" so he tracks down Dominic Turretto (Vin Diesel) and Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) and their team of merry men to drive fast cars and take down Shaw and his team, which are essentially doppelgangers of the good guys (as Tyreese's Roman Pierce so humorously points out halfway through the film). True, plots don't really matter in movies like this. But interestingly enough, the filmmakers have managed to tie this installment heavily into the previous films--which is not something I'd expect in such a franchise. Dom's whole motivation for doing this for Hobbs is an opportunity to save his one-true-love Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), resurrected from her supposed death in the 4th film. This ultimately allows for the movie to re-explore the main villain in the 4th movie, as well as previous scenes that happened in that film, ultimately even improving elements of that film. In fact, the film even also revisits Tokyo Drift (the third movie), in one of the subplots involving Han (Sung Kang) and Giselle (smokin' hot Gal Gadot), which culminates in a delicious tag scene involving...I've said too much.
But my point is, it takes a lot of planning and strategy to take events and characters that happened in previous movies and attempt to construct and tie them into elements of a popcorn movie, to make this popcorn movie a relevant entry in a franchise. And that's what director Justin Lin and writer Chris Morgan have done with both "Fast Five" and "Fast and Furious 6." If nothing else, they deserve credit for really trying here, when they could easily just coast along with simple explosions and CG car chase scenes. They've actually thought things out, and attempted to tie up lose ends and develop their characters--even minor ones, like Elena, Dom's cop-turned-girlfriend from Fast Five--between various installments of the franchise. And for someone like me, who expects very little from this franchise, that's pretty impressive and surprising.
The acting's not great. The dialogue is clunky. Vin Diesel snears and growls through lines that alternate between badass, or cheesy pick-up lines. Paul Walker's cardboard as ever as the bonde Keanu Reeves. But the supporting cast is pretty fun to watch overall. Dwayne Johnson--screw it, I'm going to continue calling him The Rock--The Rock is very entertaining as Hobbs, but he gets a little mushy here essentially becoming Dom's BFF, who's so full of respect for him. If nothing else though, The Rock puts a lot of charisma in most of his roles, and this is no exception, veering between comedic and tough through the full movie. Tyreese gets most of the laughs as goofy-idiot driver Roman Pierce. Ludacris gets some entertaining screentime as Dom's team's techie. And the newest additions, kickboxer Gina Carlo and British up-and-comer Luke Evans get some good moments as a hard-ass cop and a slimy menacing villain respectively.
But let's be honest, you're attending a Fast movie for the action--not the script or the acting. And it is ridiculous, bombastic, and bone-crunchingly fun in this. You have a ton of really great fights including 2 with Gina Carlo and Michelle Rodriguez, and a tag team battle with Vin Diesel and The Rock vs. Luke Evans and a big muscular version of Hobbs. There's about 4 crazy chase scenes (a Dom vs. Brian race; one scene involving Dom's team pursuing Shaw's team, with modified F1-racers with ramps; one scene with a tank; and one race between Letty and Dom). And one final ginormous set piece involving cars taking down a giant plane. It's all silly, over-the-top, and ridiculous and all defy the laws of physics. But hey, I failed physics, so who really cares as long as it's all fun, right? Just turn your brain off and enjoy the "ooohs" of audiences being entertained by the WWE-inspired fights.
But when it's not about the action sequences, we actually do have scenes of genuine sentimentality and character evolution--Brian is dealing with fatherhood, and guilt over being partially responsible for Letty's "death", Dom is dealing with the shocking return and determination behind rehabilitating Letty, Han and Gisselle are contemplating settling down, Letty's wondering who to trust and what she wants in a family--it's all pretty interesting that Chris Morgan is writing these characters, and considering their feelings and emotions and motivations. These are not the characters we saw in the first Fast movie, which is sort of fascinating, if you think about it. It's not usually just doing things for the sake of doing things--even if no character actually takes any pauses to consider their actions, and even if none of it is subtle. This is worlds better than, say, for example, the evolution of a character like Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates franchise, who has essentially remained the same in 4 movies. Is it perfect? No. But it's more than we should expect in this franchise.
There's a good chance that my high review for a movie like this is entirely dependent on lowered expectations. But perhaps that speaks more as a flaw in the skepticism most critics have in popcorn movies than it does the merits of the movie or the crew behind it themselves. I understand the Fast franchise is not to be taken seriously in the eyes of most serious moviegoers. But perhaps we need to give it more credit since the filmmakers actually attempt to care about the stories of these characters (if not the single stories of the films themselves). And that is one of the key points of storytelling is loving and respecting your characters enough to help them grow--even if the circumstances they grow under are shallow and superficial. But if you can manage to do that in addition to entertaining me with visually engaging action scenes, then more power to you. In short, is this franchise or this movie perfect? Absolutely not. But it's serviceable for sure, and (dare-I-say) welcome and enjoyable--moreso than most of the terrible, soulless movies directors like Michael Bay produce. And that's because this little engine called the Fast franchise, thinks it can and aspires to accomplish.
Overall Rating: B+
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