Faster, and More Ferocious Than Ever

Brian o'Conner, protagonist of the series

                            Action movie buffs, car enthusiasts and quite simply, die-hard fans of one of the few movie series that hasn’t been ploughed into the ground quite yet have a reason to love 2013. The sixth instalment of the Fast and Furious series serves to provide nothing short of pure adrenaline surging entertainment, apart from knitting together a few gaps in what, till now, seemed to be a very randomly developing storyline.

                In a nutshell, the movie deals with how Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew of wanted street racers take out a rogue British Special Forces soldier, Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), being hired for the task by Diplomatic Security Service agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) in exchange for their acquittal, as well as valuable information regarding Toretto’s former love interest, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), who was earlier presumed dead. Brian o’Conner (Paul Walker), Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Ludacris), Han Lue (Sung Kang), Gisele Harabo (Gal Gadot) and Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) reunite with Dominic to spread some vehicular mayhem in this grand sequel. In spite of having quite the cliché action flick plot, if you look at the series as a whole after watching the sixth part, the gradual transition from street racing to drug cartels and bank robberies and now international criminals isn’t really that badly constructed. It simply can’t be helped, however, if you are one who seeks some sort of fanciful enlightenment from an awe-inspiring tale that speaks to your soul. There are movies like this one that have a simpler sort of appeal to them, and aren’t quite entirely stupid.

Roman (Tyrese) gettin' some air

                As stated earlier, the film is an absolute treat for action movie fanatics. Staying true to its purpose, the film has numerous fast-paced, nail-biting car chases that retain the beauty of the previous movies, and yet do not feel redundant in the least. Fight sequences have gained prominence in the series since the fourth movie, and they have improved over the instalments, although it can’t be said that they’re special in any way. There’s a lot of good humour to be enjoyed as well, chiefly owing to Roman, who has already been thoroughly established as the clown of the series, though I must say, Tej totally killed it with “You’ve gone from Shaggy to Scooby. This is something we don’t doooo…” And what’s also important is that the humour is well placed, and doesn’t spoil the movie’s atmosphere one bit. For automobile fanatics, well, if you enjoy cinematic, dramatized races, you will have a swell time. I also personally liked the symbolism, however infinitesimal it may be, that lay in the Skyline and Charger models gifted to young o’Conner (or was it Toretto?). In addition to these rather worldly aspects, the film beautifully illustrates how man’s soaring planes and lethal tanks are naught in comparison to almighty gravity and a good tow cable.

                Among the many outrageous stunts performed in the movie, the one which has a love-stricken Toretto flying high, right out of his crashed Charger, to catch a forsaken, and rather bewildered Letty mid-air as the tank she’d helped steal is towed away to a watery grave, successfully touches intricately crafted cheesiness of the highest order. Thankfully enough, there isn’t any other scene which would make you scorn your very existence and fuel the urge to pluck your eyeballs out. Apart from that, one of the other flaws to be noted was the complete lack of reluctance on the crew’s part in flying down to meet Toretto when Hobbs first put the task in front of him, which I felt added some slight character inconsistency. I mean, they’re not a bunch of crime fighters who’d say “do or die” without a second thought. Especially not Roman. Another point to question is, why would Fenix (the scary looking guy in the flashback) hesitate in the least to shoot Letty? I always thought of him as a cold, merciless buffoon. In addition, obsessive gearheads might say it lacked tech-talk and a general street racing appeal, but in my opinion, it had just about as much of that as the first few movies. There isn’t much of anything else to slander this movie with. If you’re really intent on stating that the laws of physics were being inconsiderately mocked at every step, you should probably go film someone playing around with a driving simulator. As far as I’m concerned, they did a great job with the action sequences throughout, leaving out Toretto’s Astro Boy moment.

Dominic Toretto - unarguably one of the biggest badasses in cinema

                All in all, it’s definitely a movie worth watching, more than once even, depending on your taste. Having wrapped up pretty much all loose ends and set the stage for the next instalment through quite the spicy post-credits scene, the Fast and Furious team seems ready to deliver what is prospectively the grand conclusion to this enduring series, which certainly leads to speculations – will Sean Boswell (Lucas Black), the prodigal Drift King of Tokyo, return to play a major role in the final chapter? Will the events of Tokyo Drift, other than, quite obviously, Han’s death, have major repercussions on what’s to come? Will Braga (John Ortiz), the chief antagonist from the fourth instalment, escape from prison and add to the chaos? There’s a lot to expect from the next movie, set to roll out in 2014. In that respect, the upcoming Need for Speed movie will only do better if it has a story substantial enough to put down this well established franchise, which one would deem highly unlikely for obvious reasons. The F&F crew’s had a great run so far, and it’s dead certain that till the very end, they’ll ride, or die.