The Fate of the Furious Review

The Fate of the Furious is the eighth entry in The Fast and the Furious franchise. After the events of the last film the team is taking some time off until Dom (Vin Diesel) is approached by Cipher (Charlize Theron), a top notch hacker and forced into work under her. She has something that's very important to Dom and this sets in motion a surprising betrayal to his crew. The movie then follows both sides of the action as Dom is sent out to fetch important and dangerous items across the world. Enlisted by Nobody, the squad tracks and then hunts Dom down. It's an interesting sequence of chase scenes and well shot car battles that are epic.

The start of the story was rather cheesy being somewhat poorly done, but it picks up well for what was a solid second half of the film. Some of the stunts were a bit ridiculous, yet fun at the same time which worked well for the movie. The action was shot in a great style keeping scenes long enough with fair cuts between to give various shots on any particular scene. The best of the fight scenes in close combat were during a jail break and while on an airplane. The car scenes that really stood out for me was one during New York City as the scene was creative and later when the team was being attacked by a submarine.

The film was actually really well shot with some great cinematography. Not only was the action smooth, there were some fancy scenes thrown in as well. This made the movie a pleasure to view as well, with a story that somewhat matched it. The acting was somewhat cheesy as with the story when everyone would get intensely emotional.

I was however blown away by Theron's character finding her crazy, creepy and immensely unsettling in the role as the villain. The bad guys went particularly dark in this one and that was a pleasant surprise as I certainly wasn't expecting it. There was also an incredible scene with Deckard (Jason Statham) towards the end that was full of action and some comedy.

The Conclusion

The Fate of the Furious was definitely surprising as I enjoyed it much more than I had initially thought I would. The series has changed considerably during the start, but the core aspect of fast cars in insane scenarios is still here. The plot was decent and while the start was somewhat bad, the film did pick up considerably.

There's lots of fan service for those that have enjoyed the previous entries and I'm sure they will once again like this one. They have quite the ensemble with their cast and the growing core crew works well together for an exciting group of drivers. The Fate of the Furious had some fantastic cinematography, exciting action scenes and many adrenaline filled racing moments.

The Fate of the Furious Review at Theater with Standard Viewing
Screening Provided by NBC Universal

Rating Overall: 7.0