Fast 6

I am a huge proponent of the Fast series as a brilliant action franchise. The mythology and world-building they've managed to do with these movies is kind of crazy (the wraparound elaborate timeline from 3-6 is a stroke of genius). I would say this is one of the great unheralded movie series, except the last 2 have gotten huge praise from critics and audiences, so its not exactly a secret anymore.

This series has also grown to be extremely progressive and good-natured with the last few entries. The team is very multi-racial, there are several tough female protagonists, who don't get objectified by the film-maker,  and all get good character beats. 

Unlike a Michael Bay movie, the action is built around the character dynamics, so there's always stakes involved. Its also extremely well shot, Fast 6 in particular has some of the most impressive action filmmaking I've seen in years. Justin Lin is juggling a dozen characters, all in different cars, criss-crossing through these elaborate action scenes that just build and build, and you always know where everyone is spacially relative to eachother. Really exciting stuff, and done almost entirely practically (look up some behind the scenes online, it is INSANE how much stuff was done for real on this movie).

More than anything, I think this series really understands the expectations of the audience, and plays to them without insulting them. People really sell the screenplay short, when I think its actually pretty great about setting up and paying off multiple character relationships throughout this movie, while also paying off and mirroring things from the past 5 films, AND on top of that retroactively improving previous films in the series by filling in extra character motivations and plot points. In many ways, Fast 6 is the Avengers of the Fast and Furious series, and this movie has hands down the best post-credits tease I've ever seen, simultaneously setting up an awesome sequel, while retro-actively making Part 3 way cooler.

Last edited by bullet3 (2013-05-28 22:20:57)

^^ I agree they could stand to lose a scene or two in the middle, though for the most part I enjoy all the character banter stuff. The reason I like the action a bit more in this one is that the 3 big set-pieces in this one manage to involve basically all the major characters, whereas Fast Five was kind of just Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. And then for the finale in this one, not only do you have the like 10 good-guy characters all involved in the action, but you have 10 distinct bad-guys too, which the movie has taken the time to setup and establish. I love that kind of shit.

Still baffled that people all of a sudden like these movies. I really appreciate the cast diversity and the refusal to use cheap stereotypes. But this movie is no different from Battleship to me. Good action, idiotic otherwise. I laughed out loud several times at just how ridiculous some of the stunts are.

I guess the wraparound storyline is kind of interesting, but it seems to me to be just a cheap way to get a fan favorite character back. (Although that final scene does bring it all together in a major way, I'll give them that.) People are talking about this conceit like it's brilliant or revolutionary in franchise storytelling, as if they've never seen a single prequel before. It's not that interesting. Fast and Furious 6 is dumb fun at best and incredibly boring at worst.

I did enjoy its moments of self-awareness, like when someone comments on the fact that each member of the crew has an evil doppelganger on the villain's team. That was fun. And sure, the action is good. I just found it impossible to care about anyone or anything. But I guess that's not why people come to these movies. They aren't the worst action movies ever. But aside from the structure of the series and the casting, I'm not sure why these movies are even being talked about.

Last edited by Doctor Submarine (2013-05-28 22:47:00)

The internet has your back on this one...