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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
