So I was lucky enough to get free tickets to an advance screening of The Fate of The Furious before it came out in theaters. From what I saw in the trailers, I thought this was going to be the same as Furious Seven. This one continued to up the anti on the action and by far the most emotional chapter in the saga. So here's a quick rundown of the highlights of the movie. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
1) Why Did Dom Go Rogue
The reason for Dom turning on his family was an actual legit reason. Cipher was holding something over Dom and what we could tell by the trailers, she was holding someone hostage. Now we all assumed it was his little sister Mia or his nephew Jack. But that wasn't the case and this is where things took a dramatic turn. Cipher kidnapped Eleana, Dom's ex-girlfriend from Fast Six, and...THEIR SON. Dom had a secret kid he didn't even know about. All I could think was, How the heck was he going to break this to Letty, his wife???
2) Charlize Theron puts the "B" in bad.
Charlize Theron really got into her character. She was one of the coldest characters of all the movies. She tortured our main hero by using his greatest strength against him as a weakness. The most intense and heart-breaking scene in the movie was threatened to kill the baby but kills Eleana instead because Dom saved Letty from one of her henchmen. She basically wants to start world war three, as if it isn't already happening. Unfortunately, she escapes being captured by Shaw on her plane which could mean we have a new main villain for the next two movies.
3) Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham bringing the action and comedy.
I was shocked to see Deckard Shaw join the team to stop Dom. What I didn't expect was for him and The Rock's character to become friends in this movie. The pull off good fights together and they form a truce towards the end. They earned each other's respect with their shared history for working for the law and breaking the rules. These two need a spin-off ASAP.
4) Throwback to the beginning
These movies started out as being about racing for pink slips and they brought back overseas. While on their honeymoon in Cuba, Dom and Letty run into a local trying to tow his cousin's car. Dom challenges him to race for his car in a Cuban mile, which by the looks of it is long as heck. Not to mention, Vine Diesel wins the race while the car was on fire and driving in reverse.
5) Running of The Cars
This just shows how many cars they really wreck in these movies. The New York scene where Cipher hacks all the self driving cars and operated cars with people in it were insane. Even the director said this one had the most cars be destroyed. I can only hear the tears of Google self-driving marketing team while they watch this.
6) Love Conquers All
Dom and Letty are the heart of this franchise. They're the Jay-Z and Beyonce of action movies. The whole movie tested their relationship and not even an high-tech terrorist could tear them apart. Letty never lost faith that Dom had a reason for going bad and Dom kept saving Letty while working for the other side. These two deserve a little happiness in the ninth sequel, preferably in the form of a baby. #BabygirlToretto
7) The fight scenes are beyond staged.
Since he had only three scenes in the last movie, The Rock got to shine in this movie. He got to use his wrestling background and acted in a choreographed fight scene with over a hundred extras. Rubber bullets can't take those muscles.
8) The action continues to throw Physics out the window.
You gotta remember, when you go to see these movies you need to throw out logic and turn off your brain. Every climatic scene has death defying stunt that ignores simple Physics, which I enjoy. The stunts in this movie are up to pare with a submarine in tow. I don't know the weight of torpedo's but The Rock seriously has the strength of King Kong.
9) New member of the family and honoring a brother.
All of this craziness and mayhem was all because of this little guy. This baby boy had my heart laughing and crying through this whole movie. With Elena dead, it leaves him to be raised by his father Dom and his stepmom Letty. Now he has been going by his middle Marcos because his mom wanted his dad to give him his first name. Which confuses me since he's about ten or eleven months old and you wait this long to give him a name. Nonetheless, The end of the movie includes the family barbeque and Dom introducing his son to the family and his first name, Brian. Cue the tears man cause this was too much to handle.
My overall review: It had all the elements of a fast and furious movie and I'd give it an 8/10 (B) on the viewer scale. This just gets people more excited for the next installment for April 19th, 2019. With that being said, who do we call to get casted in the next movies?
