As I sat in the movie theater during the 7 p.m. Thursday night premiere of “The Fate of the Furious” with my friend and fellow Falcon reporter sophomore Francesca Chu, I couldn’t help but notice that the theater was barely half full.
Maybe it was because it was a school night, or because not many people knew the movie was in theaters, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the absence of a substantial crowd was related to the absence of Paul Walker, a star member of the cast who passed away in an off-set car accident in 2013.
“The Fate of the Furious,” the eighth and final installment of “The Fast and Furious” series, stars Vin Diesel as Dominic, an elite street racer, Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs, a former government agent, and Michelle Rodriguez as Letty, Dominic’s newly wed wife.
As the opening scene began, we were introduced to the setting of Havana, Cuba, where Dominic and Letty went on their honeymoon. Francesca, who’s been to Havana, pointed out that the movie’s depiction of Cuba was spot on, except for the swarms of partying young women wearing underwear-length shorts and the plethora of sports cars randomly placed in the middle of the city.
The main problem with the movie, however, was that the plot has many gaps and the main antagonist’s motives are unclear. On the bright side, the stunts are as thrilling as they’ve always been and the comedy is spot on.
In the eighth installment of the Fast and Furious franchise, Dom is blackmailed to turn against his team and work with a mysterious blonde woman named Cipher. Eventually, the movie reveals why Dom has to go rogue; his ex-lover Elena Neves and his baby son are locked in a glass enclosure, held captive by Cipher.
The family element in the movie is strong, and the entire plot revolves around Dom following orders in hopes of saving his loved ones. But after defying Cipher’s orders once, she shoots Elena to show her dominance over him. Alas, the only thing Dom has left to race for is his son, whom he does not name until the very end of the movie.
The storyline started to become confusing and unclear to me when Cipher wanted to blow up the world from Russia with no apparent reason for doing so. The main antagonist Cipher is severely underdeveloped, which made the movie confusing due to her lack of backstory.
By the end of the movie, Dom saves the day even though Cipher escapes. Dom ends up naming his baby son Brian, after Brian O’Conner, who retired from the team. This touching tribute to Paul Walker, who played Brian in the first seven films, is one of the most heart-wrenching moments of the movie.
Even though the film has bits of comedy sprinkled throughout, “The Fate of the Furious” ends up being more of a science fiction film than an action movie, since the stunts are too unrealistic — there is no way somebody could crash a car that’s on fire, then walk away completely unscathed and uninjured.
As the series of movies has progressed, the stunt scenes have gotten more and more ridiculously over the top. What started out as street racing back in 2001, when the first “Fast and Furious” movie was released, has turned into a world where cars burst through glass and rain down from a skyscraper. Yes, that is an actual scene from the movie.
I’m not an avid fan of the series (I haven’t even watched all the movies), but I understood most of the movie, since there weren’t many references to past movies besides the naming of the child. Somebody who is not familiar with Dominic Toretto can still watch the movie and have a similar level of understanding of the plot as a person who has seen the entire series.
The movie’s rating on Rotten Tomatoes is 67 percent, which is pretty accurate, because the cinematography and plot line are mediocre. However, die-hard fans of the series may disagree because “Fate of the Furious” is fun to watch, and if movies were rated based on the sheer number of car stunts, fire and superhuman fighting, “Fate of the Furious” would be hard to beat.