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Author's Note: This review will contain movie spoilers. If you have not yet seen the movie, intend to watch it, and hate having movies spoiled, stop reading and click on another one of our great articles to read!
The Good
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Starting with Fast & Furious, the franchise slowly began to move away from the illegal street racing aspects of the first three films. I found this to be a welcome change as some of the street racing sequences started to become silly. That is not to say the Fast & Furious, Fast Five, and Fast & Furious 6 did not have street racing elements either, but they were not the main focus of the movie like they were in the first three movies. Instead, the most recent films have more of a "heist movie" aspect to them, where the characters use the cars to accomplish specific tasks (i.e. robbing a drug cartel in Fast Five) instead of just using them to win races. While the racing in the first three films was not exactly boring, the direction director Justin Lin took the recent films is far more exciting.
The characters have also grown quite a bit since The Fast and the Furious, seeming a lot more story driven than just shallow husks of people that care only about "living life one quarter mile at a time." Brian (Paul Walker) and Dom can be seen in the beginning of the movie, picking up from the race that ended Fast Five. The race turns into a heart warming scene with Brian, Dom, and Elena (Elsa Pataky) witness the birth of Mia (Jordana Brewster) and Brian's son. Scenes like this, where you get to see the softer side of the characters, were not that prominent in the first three movies, and are a welcome change to the franchise.
Of course, being a car movie, there has to be nice cars. The one thing I have truly enjoyed about Fast & Furious, Fast Five, and now Fast & Furious 6, is that they have moved away from the street racing, rice rocket cars of the first three films. Instead, you see a lot more classic American muscle cars, vintage rally cars, and even some European makes as well. In fact, an entire scene in Fast & Furious 6 is dedicated to watching Dom and Brian's crew chase villain Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) around London in BMW M5s. Of course, that is not to say Japanese cars are non-existent in the latest three films. Brian can be seen driving some form of Nissan's GT-R in the three most recent films. I guess what I am trying to say is that I really like the fact that they are mixing things up instead of just appealing to one specific crowd.
The Bad
Image courtesy of Geek News Network and Universal Pictures |
Image courtesy of Forbes and Universal Pictures |
Cars seem to be less the main focus of the Fast franchise as the movies progress. While there are still some incredible cars to see in the movies, much of the time the cars are just sitting still. Sure, they are pretty to look at, but this is an action movie franchise. I want to see the cars racing, chasing, and doing things, not just looking pretty.
Finally, there is the story. I did say that the storyline was good, but there is one thing that bothers me about the Fast franchise. I definitely understand Justin Lin's desire to continue the story line from movie to movie, but it makes the movies difficult to follow without having seen the previous ones. Even the scene pulled from movie three, Tokyo Drift, used to close the movie might leave some confused.
Summary
Is Fast & Furious 6 worth the watch for the car enthusiast? Maybe. As the Fast franchise continues to progress, the focus moves more and more away from the cars and focuses more on the story. There are still some fantastic cars in the Fast franchise, but the amount of screen time they get is limited, and sometimes are seen not even moving. If you are looking for a movie that has a high focus on the cars, stick with a movie like Gone in 60 Seconds. However, if you are looking for a movie that is just fun to watch with familiar characters, Fast & Furious 6 is definitely a good choice. This is also the movie you are going to want to watch in order to see the end to Justin Lin's Fast saga, and the beginning of the next.
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