The furious fated for greatness
BY IAN VAN ORDEN
The opening scene o f “ The Fate of the
Furious” sets the tone for the rest of
the movie. “ Fate” finds Dominic ‘Dom’
Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Letty O rtiz
(Michelle Rodriguez) on their honeymoon
in Havana, Cuba, and it isn’t long before
Dom is forced into a street race to defend
his cousin from a loan shark.
in stead o f using his own veh icle,
though, he races with his cousin’ s, “ the
slowest car on the isla n d ,” w hile his
opponent drives his own, “ the fastest
on the island.” Dom modifies the vehicle,
ending in the engine catching fire halfway
' through the race. He nonetheless wins, of
course, but not before launching his car
into the ocean where it explodes.
“ Fate” ups the stakes
higher than they’ve ever
been while continuing
to explore the themes
that have dominated
the franchise since the
beginning, family being
chief among them.
Since the release of the first movie in
2001, “ The Fast and the Furious” franchise
has gone through several evolutions.
Beginning as a street racing franchise,
--g.' the first three movies focused heavily
on this culture, w ith the overarching
plot revolving around fast cars and the
racers driving them . There were always
additional elem ents, such as th e truck
heists featured in the first movie, but the
focus was clear.
With the release of “ Fast and Furious,”
in 2009, the franchise saw the return
of Paul Walker and V in Diesel, and with
them the series shifted away from its
street racing origins, instead becoming
more of a detective story. “ Fast Five” and
“ Fast & Furious 6” saw yet another shift
in favor o f explosions and destruction.
“ The Fate of the Furious,” released April
, -1 4 , continues this trend.
“ Fate” ups the stakes higher than
8 Clackamas Print APRIL 26,2017 theclackamasprint.com
Universal Pictures
they’ve ever been w hile continuing to
explore the themes that have dominated
the franchise since the beginning, family
being chief among them . This is a theme
that’ s existed within the franchise from
the beginning, and it becomes especially
im portant to Fate’s; plot. The m ethods
used to explore the idea are not subtle,
the number of times the word “ family” is
spoken in the movie illustrates this well
enough, but for a movie built on throwing
the concept of subtlety out the window,
it seems to work.
The rest o f the dialogue follow s a
similar vein, much of which is made up
o f one liners and generic action hero
phrases. This is not a Coen Brothers
film and if you w alk into the theater
expecting Shakespearean w riting, you
will be disappointed. There are several
m o m en ts in the m ovie, sp ecifically
delivered by V in D iesel and Dwayne
“The Fate of the Furious” opened April 14 to the biggest opening weeked in’
Johnson, where the dialogue feels clunky
cinematic history, grossing $532 million worldwide, a record previously held by
and forced, but for the m ost part, the
straightforwardness works. The chemistry “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
between Johnson’s character Luke Hobbs
and Deckard Shaw, portrayed by Jason
Statham , works especially w ell as the
two actors seem to play o ff each other to
exceptional results, though the inclusion
of Statham’s character in the movie does
seem forced. Other characters, such as
Tyrese Gibson’ s Roman Pearce and Chris
‘Ludacris’ Bridges’ Tej Parker maintain
the status quo.
“ F ate” also sees the introduction of
a new villain in Cipher, a cyberterrorist
who orchestrates the events of the movie.
Portrayed by Charlize Theron, Cipher is
menacing enough to carry the plot, and
Theron generally manages to pull off the
som etim es-clum sy dialogue handed to
her.
“ The Fate of the Furious” doesn’t try
and do anything new. It is a very similar
movie to its predecessor, “ Furious 7 ,”
though Paul Walker’s absence is definitely
noticeable. Overall, fans of the last few
movies will most likely enjoy this entry in
the franchise as well. Anyone looking for
a return to the franchise’ s roots or a more
complex story are sure to be disappointed.
This trend is likely to continue, as the
film now holds the record for biggest
worldwide opening in cinematic history.
Two sequels are already planned, the first
set to be released on April 19,2019.