Diesel’s character isn’t just the hero here, he’s the focus of nearly every feeling in the movie. The film is fundamentally about his emotions, and about everyone else’s emotions primarily as they relate to him. Tasha: If he isn’t the heart, who is? Fate o f t he Furious revolves around Dominic Toretto’s decisions, his big action moves, his angst over making those moves, and his emotional torment over the kidnapping of his ex and the baby he didn’t know he had. I liked Diesel in the original film, loved his return after he skipped the second entry (and most of the third), and overall appreciated the relationship his “outlaw with a heart of gold” shared with Paul Walker’s “cop with a lead foot.” But Fate of the Furious has me second-guessing Diesel’s significance within this series, and wondering if Walker quietly did the emotional heavy lifting for the duo. How do you feel about Vin Diesel taking over Paul Walker's place as the series’ s heart?Ĭhris: I fundamentally disagree with the notion that Vin Diesel is now the heart of this series.
Warning: Fate o f t he Furious spoilers ahead. In this edition of Question Club, we consider the series’s new and bigger look, and ask: has this gotten too fast or too furious for us yet?
It’s also meant as a new start for the series, a recentering after the death of original series star Paul Walker, and the kickoff of a trilogy that continues its characters’ mutation from criminals in a soap opera melodrama to globetrotting, government-sanctioned action-heroes in a soap opera melodrama.
The eighth movie in the series, The Fate o f t he Furious, is as big as the world stage, and as gloriously, unapologetically dumb as its creators could make it. How do you top a team of cars parachuting out of a plane in Furious 7? Apparently by hacking a quarter of the cars in Manhattan into a fleet, aggressive remote-controlled army. What started out as a comparatively low-key, low-stakes action drama has turned into “ the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but with cars.” The cast just keeps getting bigger, as the shoutouts and fan-service piles up, and the stunts have to get bigger as well. From timeline-warping leaps to outsized stunts to its habit of converting villains to anti-hero buddies, the series has unabashedly embraced an over-the-top aesthetic where no twist is too ridiculous, if it’s played straight enough.
A sequel was inevitable, but the series’s rapid expansion has been surprising, especially considering its unevenness and its gleeful, unabashed ridiculousness. This list takes a look at some of the blunders that the Fast & Furious movies have made over the years.Back in 2001, a moody, slick little $38 million action movie called The Fast a nd t he Furious became a big hit, racking up more than $200 million in box office returns worldwide. But, the Fast & Furious movies are filled with inconsistent cuts and driving maneuvers that defy the laws of physics and the rules of mechanics. Nevertheless, both car aficionados and cinephiles have been amused by some of the movies' less convincing scenes. Solid friendships, high-powered action sequences, and exotic bombshells are some of the staples in the franchise's toolbox. Although the Fast & Furious movies have slowly moved away from their street racing origins, the franchise has become known for a few recurring elements. Now, whether or not that means that the actual shooting will take place there remains to be seen. Earlier this year, Vin Diesel hinted that the upcoming movie will be set in Africa. Through a total of eight features (and one short), Fast & Furious has taken audiences across four continents, and the franchise's next installment, Fast & Furious 9, may be adding a fifth continent to that list. Its impressive box-office earnings drove studio heads to keep up the movie's momentum by expanding the concept into a multi-film franchise, and 17 years on, the Fast & Furious universe is still pumping out blockbusters and living life a quarter mile at a time. The first Fast and the Furious film cruised into cinemas as a street racing movie for niche audiences.