It’s been 16 years, 8 films and 4.8 billion dollars!! The most recent film in the franchise, Fate of the Furious marks its triumphant return to cinema, now among the biggest cinema franchises of all time. There are even plans for a total of ten films and then, thank god, it will hopefully be over. But if I know Hollywood this is going to keep going until it stops making enough money… but it’s time for it to die.

What started the franchise was stealing DVD players essentially, and as the budget got bigger and the cast expanded now there are submarines chasing cars and characters that can survive multi-storey car parks collapsing. It no longer has the niche that started the franchise with a focus of actual good car action. Mindless action isn’t a bad thing, but when an 8 film franchise is known for just that it screams unoriginality. These days it feels like the Mission Impossible 2 writing process, action set pieces first, plot second.

Now there are submarines chasing cars and characters that can survive multi-storey car parks collapsing

Tantamount to the series new direction is this concept of ‘family’, now this in itself isn’t a bad idea, the recent Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 does it well. However in this franchise it’s so badly shoved down your throat and feels so unnatural, most characters actually don’t even like each other. It’s just so badly executed that it’s cringworthy now, either have a natural progression of this concept or don’t bloody use it!

Grab your popcorn because it’s so formulaic for it hurts

But what happened to Vin Diesel?!?! You’re probably asking, why is he evil? Well grab your popcorn because it’s so formulaic for Hollywood it hurts. I won’t spoil it in case you want to see it, but c’mon. As soon as I saw that in the trailer I thought “he’s going to be good guy in the end again anyway, so what’s the point?” Why make a plot point if it isn’t going to actually be that interesting? I mean in the newest Transformers (comparable to F8 in a lot of ways actually) it seems Optimus has gone rogue, but I can already understand why, humans have killed all his mates, it’s a character arch that makes sense, which for Transformers and it’s explosions is saying a lot.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, kill Fast and Furious. It is perhaps the best (or worst?) example of unoriginal Hollywood moviemaking and only keeps going because it makes money. End it… please.

Will Nelson

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures