Verdict
Summary
Fast & Furious is one of the duller entries in this series but it has a decent villain and it’s great to have the crew together again.
Plot: Brian O’Conner, now working for the FBI in LA, teams up with Dominic Toretto to bring down a heroin importer by infiltrating his operation.
Review: The old gang is back together after being AWOL for Tokyo Drift… except this is set before it; it’s all very confusing isn’t it? Anyway, Fast & Furious is a surprisingly dull entry in the series and despite having the crew back I can never remember anything about it.
There is also some rather obvious CGI in places which defeats the purpose of these movies. We watch them because we want to see real stunts, not crappy CG effects and the synthetic looking tunnel during the finale totally removes any sense of threat or excitement from the action.
It’s funny how after watching the 6th entry of the series, this movie is now pretty pointless; Letty doesn’t really die so all of Dominic’s grief was for nothing.
It’s not a total loss as there are some decent set-pieces and John Ortiz is good value as the villain Campos. The lovely Gal Gadot makes her first appearance in the series but the poor girl really should eat a few cheeseburgers.
It’s great to have Dominic and Brian back together but one has to wonder how Brian got back into the FBI after quitting in the first movie; was it explained in Part 2 ? I can’t remember but this is The Fast & Furious series where logic does not apply, so best not to overthink things.
The story is quite unengaging and it’s actually a little in slow in parts, so for me I think this might be the weakest of the series.
It’s really the characters of Dom, Brian and Letty that keeps the franchise going and the addition of Dwayne Johnson as Hobbs really elevated the later movies above being forgettable Saturday night fare.
I still never feel anything while watching these films though; it’s basically moving wallpaper for a few hours and you’ll quickly forget what happens after 5 minutes, but there’s enough to be entertaining.
There is some good banter between the cast and you can tell they are all having a blast.
Overall, Fast & Furious is one of the duller entries in this series but it has a decent villain and it’s great to have the crew together again. It’s now pretty pointless though after Furious 6.