A New Tone, A New Beginning.
Rating: 3.5/5 Stars.
Just as Vin Diesel mentioned on Jimmy Kimmel Live that Fast 8 will be set in New York, new indications were given that Fast 7 marks the beginning of a new trilogy; and frankly, they really thought this one through. After getting the chronology of the movies right in Fast 6 with Tokyo Drift finally making sense, the writers seemed to plan for the future and the planning has worked out pretty well for them, except for the untimely death of Paul Walker. But otherwise, this 7th instalment kind of breathes in a new life to the franchise. A franchise which was earlier stuck to high speed car racing moving to high speed heists has now moved on to cavalry and guns, yet incorporating the earlier two. Even though from a personal point of view I feel the movie has drifted away from scintillating car chases to mad car stunts, its amazing how it continues to amaze us with what all can be done with just a bunch of super expensive and high speed cars.
If robbing a police station at the heart of Rio or bringing down one of the biggest aircrafts wasn't enough, welcome to a whole new set of adventures which will leave your jaw dropped and eyes stuck to the screen asking you, what the hell just happened? Some very well orchestrated stunts throughout the movie keeping in check the motto of the movie with a bunch of other anomalies which are by far unbelievable and rather impractical, but I guess that is how the franchise works now, just like another Rajni film. Despite the brilliant choreography of the stunts and thrills, the lack of realism again killed off a lot of scenes of the film though expectedly it served up as the perfect entertainment package for any movie goer, probably what the franchise has been looking for since sometime now.
The story is centered around the family of Dominic Toretto who were living in peace after their exploits in London helping the cops take down the rogue Owen Shaw. A simple plot where the big bad brother of Owen Shaw shows up to take his brother's revenge on Toretto's crew in the form of Deckerd Shaw played by none other than Jason Statham. Don't get me wrong when I say Deckerd is just a big bad brother out for revenge. He doesn't just want revenge, he wants to finish off Dom's entire crew which he successfully started off in the prior film credits by killing Han. With the family losing one of their own, the crew sets out to find Deckerd before he finds them only to face a lot more troubles on the way which they skim through with the skin of their teeth as usual.
Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster were as good as always with nothing new among them with the exception of bad dialogues. The movie really lacked good punchlines. The punchlines used really didnt have any punch in them leaving unsatisfactory remarks in crucial scenes.
Michelle Rodriguez had a bit of tinkering with her character as she was trying to come back from the amnesia caused to her and she did a really good job showing all the emotions flowing through her during a completely unrelated plot.
Jason Statham was a great choice to be Owen's elder brother. His character has been described as a ghost and despite whatever the audience speaks of him hardly being there in the film, his characteristic of being a ghost was showcased excellently. The way they have molded the character is beautiful. His entrance itself gave the chills and he really was a one man army who was almost impossible to take down. It almost seems inevitable that he might reprise his role in the next two sequels though nothing is confirmed just yet.
Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson continue to add the big fun elements to the film. The latter still gets the best dialogues positioned at the perfect intervals. They've made his character the real Joker who is good at what he does and continues to give a burst of laughter to the audience.
Kurt Russell, Nathalie Emmanuel, Ali Fazal and Djimon Hounsou were the new additions to the film with the first two set to turn up in further instalments. Kurt Russell adds more mojo to the cop side of the team with Nathalie adding a more geekish character to the family. Fazal's accent was funny and nice, a small yet vital role for him. The new elements continue continue to make the franchise stronger and better.
The cinematography and editing of the movie were marvellous. The amount of hard work the camera men would have put in this film has clearly paid off. The shooting and editing of the movie has really been phenomenal and hats off to the entire filming crew because it is really amazing on how they have spent so much money, time and man power on trying to cover those aerial shots and all kinds of shots with perfection. The use of CGI has again been great in the film and its use in the end has been optimum. A great gesture at the end of the film, something which Paul Walker deserved. The end of the film which retired the character of Paul didn't just retire him but it really gave us a glimpse of how this franchise has become into one big family. The end monologue of Vin Diesel just sounded so real. With all of them being together for 5 to 6 films now, it is amazing how they've gone through Walker's demise together and given this tribute to him. That end scene in the film where Walker and Diesel's car go to two different paths just gives you chills and makes you cry. A beautiful ending.
The movie lacked good dialogues as I've mentioned earlier. They had the stunts, they had the entertainment, there were chills and thrills, there were emotions involved and there was a lot of combat and fight involved with some great music to aid all of this but the lack of good punch lines didn't really work out for the movie makers. Also, the story was a little weak in my opinion. About the combat scenes, the fight between the Rock and Statham was out of this world. It was great to see those two heavyweights fight and that battle was much better than Diesel against Statham in the end which had a lot of scope for improvement. But overall, the film was highly entertaining, wonderful scenes and chases and a very smart use of cars I would say. This is one movie everyone would enjoy though it is advisable to watch its predecessors before watching this one, Fast 6 and Tokyo Drift especially.
"This time it ain't just about being Fast."
- Kothi
Rating: 3.5/5 Stars.
Just as Vin Diesel mentioned on Jimmy Kimmel Live that Fast 8 will be set in New York, new indications were given that Fast 7 marks the beginning of a new trilogy; and frankly, they really thought this one through. After getting the chronology of the movies right in Fast 6 with Tokyo Drift finally making sense, the writers seemed to plan for the future and the planning has worked out pretty well for them, except for the untimely death of Paul Walker. But otherwise, this 7th instalment kind of breathes in a new life to the franchise. A franchise which was earlier stuck to high speed car racing moving to high speed heists has now moved on to cavalry and guns, yet incorporating the earlier two. Even though from a personal point of view I feel the movie has drifted away from scintillating car chases to mad car stunts, its amazing how it continues to amaze us with what all can be done with just a bunch of super expensive and high speed cars.
If robbing a police station at the heart of Rio or bringing down one of the biggest aircrafts wasn't enough, welcome to a whole new set of adventures which will leave your jaw dropped and eyes stuck to the screen asking you, what the hell just happened? Some very well orchestrated stunts throughout the movie keeping in check the motto of the movie with a bunch of other anomalies which are by far unbelievable and rather impractical, but I guess that is how the franchise works now, just like another Rajni film. Despite the brilliant choreography of the stunts and thrills, the lack of realism again killed off a lot of scenes of the film though expectedly it served up as the perfect entertainment package for any movie goer, probably what the franchise has been looking for since sometime now.
The story is centered around the family of Dominic Toretto who were living in peace after their exploits in London helping the cops take down the rogue Owen Shaw. A simple plot where the big bad brother of Owen Shaw shows up to take his brother's revenge on Toretto's crew in the form of Deckerd Shaw played by none other than Jason Statham. Don't get me wrong when I say Deckerd is just a big bad brother out for revenge. He doesn't just want revenge, he wants to finish off Dom's entire crew which he successfully started off in the prior film credits by killing Han. With the family losing one of their own, the crew sets out to find Deckerd before he finds them only to face a lot more troubles on the way which they skim through with the skin of their teeth as usual.
Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster were as good as always with nothing new among them with the exception of bad dialogues. The movie really lacked good punchlines. The punchlines used really didnt have any punch in them leaving unsatisfactory remarks in crucial scenes.
Michelle Rodriguez had a bit of tinkering with her character as she was trying to come back from the amnesia caused to her and she did a really good job showing all the emotions flowing through her during a completely unrelated plot.
Jason Statham was a great choice to be Owen's elder brother. His character has been described as a ghost and despite whatever the audience speaks of him hardly being there in the film, his characteristic of being a ghost was showcased excellently. The way they have molded the character is beautiful. His entrance itself gave the chills and he really was a one man army who was almost impossible to take down. It almost seems inevitable that he might reprise his role in the next two sequels though nothing is confirmed just yet.
Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson continue to add the big fun elements to the film. The latter still gets the best dialogues positioned at the perfect intervals. They've made his character the real Joker who is good at what he does and continues to give a burst of laughter to the audience.
Kurt Russell, Nathalie Emmanuel, Ali Fazal and Djimon Hounsou were the new additions to the film with the first two set to turn up in further instalments. Kurt Russell adds more mojo to the cop side of the team with Nathalie adding a more geekish character to the family. Fazal's accent was funny and nice, a small yet vital role for him. The new elements continue continue to make the franchise stronger and better.
The cinematography and editing of the movie were marvellous. The amount of hard work the camera men would have put in this film has clearly paid off. The shooting and editing of the movie has really been phenomenal and hats off to the entire filming crew because it is really amazing on how they have spent so much money, time and man power on trying to cover those aerial shots and all kinds of shots with perfection. The use of CGI has again been great in the film and its use in the end has been optimum. A great gesture at the end of the film, something which Paul Walker deserved. The end of the film which retired the character of Paul didn't just retire him but it really gave us a glimpse of how this franchise has become into one big family. The end monologue of Vin Diesel just sounded so real. With all of them being together for 5 to 6 films now, it is amazing how they've gone through Walker's demise together and given this tribute to him. That end scene in the film where Walker and Diesel's car go to two different paths just gives you chills and makes you cry. A beautiful ending.
The movie lacked good dialogues as I've mentioned earlier. They had the stunts, they had the entertainment, there were chills and thrills, there were emotions involved and there was a lot of combat and fight involved with some great music to aid all of this but the lack of good punch lines didn't really work out for the movie makers. Also, the story was a little weak in my opinion. About the combat scenes, the fight between the Rock and Statham was out of this world. It was great to see those two heavyweights fight and that battle was much better than Diesel against Statham in the end which had a lot of scope for improvement. But overall, the film was highly entertaining, wonderful scenes and chases and a very smart use of cars I would say. This is one movie everyone would enjoy though it is advisable to watch its predecessors before watching this one, Fast 6 and Tokyo Drift especially.
"This time it ain't just about being Fast."
- Kothi