Review #2: Fast & Furious 6

“The second you go through those doors, everything changes. Our old life is done.”

Dominic Toretto

Fast and Furious 6 was a follow up to it’s prequel Fast Five. This movie was all right. I thought it was a good movie of itself but to follow up what was an amazing Fast and Furious movie, it leads to this. I just felt like this movie tried hard to become a great sequel after Fast Five. It did, but not as good of its predecessor, even its sequel was better than this movie.

However, it did have some great qualities that it became an entertaining movie to watch. Though, the movie is not without its faults, and it shows.

This is my perspective and opinion on Fast and Furious 6 and how I thought it was an okay and passable movie to watch.

The Bad Stuff of this Movie

So, I do have a lot of high marks of this movie, but the one thing that made me prefer Fast Five and Furious 7 over this movie is the pacing. This movie was better than I remembered, but my god the pacing is SOOOO slow. We went from hyped action scenes, then talking, then action, then walking, then talking, then Letty’s return, then the Amnesia storyline, then action, then more talking, then action, the end. I don’t want to say the movie is boring because it isn’t, but the pacing is what really got my attention off. Luckily there is a lot of stuff that I like about this movie.

So I’m not going to lie, I’m not the biggest fan of watching the Brian in jail scenes. I thought these scenes would be fine as deleted scenes, and just be explained in the movie without watching it. I swear, whenever I skip these scenes, I don’t miss anything. I think it’s better off for these jail scenes to just be explained by Brian himself when he reunites with the crew instead of just showing us the scenes, although the fight scene is pretty cool.

I’ve had pretty mixed thoughts of Letty returning to the franchise. Overall, I think it’s a great idea to have Letty back, even though Elena would’ve been a great replacement for Dom, but the execution of bringing her back was just way dumb. No one likes an amnesia storyline (see Spider-Man 3 for example). I don’t mind them, but they just HAD to drag this on for two movies. Having Letty as a villain for just this movie is one thing, but for her to go through amnesia is just unnecessary. I mean ok, they handled it better in the sequel, but it wasn’t just worth it to sit through in this movie. If anything, they could’ve just made Owen Shaw brainwash Letty into thinking Dom never really loved her or anything while faking her death.

My other mixed feelings is Owen Shaw himself. He’s the right villain for this movie, but he could’ve been more threatning and more sinister. There was that one scene of him flirting with Letty, which made it very hateful to watch, which is a good thing. But other than that, beside the climax of the movie, he just known as an okay villain.

Another thing I forgot to mention that I didn’t like was the ensemble of villains, with the exception of Owen and Letty. They’re just… there, like all of the other villains from the previous movies, they’re just forgettable.

The Good Stuff of this Movie

First things first, this opening is a great way to start this movie. It may look like Fast & Furious 6 would be the last movie in the series after looking back at memories, but obviously that wasn’t the case. This song “We Own It” by 2 Chainz and Wiz Khalifa could arguably be one of the best Fast & Furious songs to date. It describes perfectly of the character’s motivations and goals. It’s even sadder to note that this would be the last Fast and Furious movie of Paul Walker fully completed.

The one thing I will always love watching the Fast & Furious movie series is Tyrese’s performance as Roman, and he was hilarious as hell in this movie. The comedic writing in this movie is top notch especially this scene with Roman telling everyone their look-alike evil twin. The best part was Roman showing Brian’s look-alike, with Brian giving him the best reaction of them all. It was a glorious moment!

Another performance that I will always love would be Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s performance of Luke Hobbs. Just like the movie, he’s always quick and agile, takes no shit, looks strong and a kick-ass superstar. Definitely steals the spotlight of the movie. It’s really hard to pick which best scene he was in because in every one he’s the best part. So I would say being introduced first in this movie would be the best.

Another thing I love about this movie is the action sequences. I’ll get to the climax of the movie later, but my favorite fight scene in this movie would happen to be the subway chase scene. The fight choreography was fast, intense, strong, up, down, left, right, I don’t even think the cinematographer can try to keep it up. It was exciting to watch making you believe that the crew was trying to get Letty back on their side… but failed.

So I may have ragged on Letty’s return a bit much, but one can’t deny that Dom’s chase for Letty has been emotional to watch. The race scene between them is very exciting to watch. It’s also even funny to watch how Letty doesn’t even know how to use NOS in a race, especially against Dom. “Here we go” indeed!

The first talking scene between Dom and Letty after the accident is such a good scene. Dom reminding Letty of what happened in the past, the chemistry and Dom showing the scars that Letty had in the past to help her remember, IS SO Letty and Dom. I swear Justin Lin’s direction and the writing in this scene is so good, it’s just a shame this movie couldn’t catch up to it’s predecessor and sequel. This scene could arguably be one of the best for it’s movie or even the franchise itself.

I would say the car chase scenes have always never failed to impress me, this movie had some pretty damn good scenes. I know a lot of people love the tunnel chase scene especially when Brian gets flipped over with an “OH SHIT!” reaction, that was mind blowing to watch. The tank bridge scene is the one I love the most. So much drama going around, and it get’s more intense with Dom trying to grab Letty to save her before something bad goes down. The effects and tone of this scene are very top notch.

So this one I did not see this coming. Having one of the characters betray the team. When I saw this the first time, I literally thought it was going to be Letty going back to Owen after saying “Coming babe?” But once it went towards Riley Hicks, I was damned. I was so shocked that she betrayed the team, even Hobbs’s police force, I definitely didn’t see that coming, but it definitely hyped up the third act’s fuel with Letty joining back the team permanently, and to get ready for the climax.

This climax was so action-packed that there was so many stuff going on! The team dragging the plane down, Mia being saved, Dom VS Owen, Letty VS Riley (aka: “WRONG TEAM BITCH!), Giselle’s death (which was SO heartbreaking), the plane explosion, and the best shot of them all: Dom driving through the exploding plane. This is one of the best looking scenes I have ever seen. This climax is so epic it saves the movie for being at least good.

1327. The best price that Dom ever had. The return of the family home was the best decision Dom ever made. This was a very heartwarming ending to have. Welcoming a new member of the family, leading up to Tokyo Drift with Hans going to Tokyo, Elena saying goodbye to Dom, Letty coming back to the family, Hobbs setting the crew free. It was just a beautiful way to end the movie and what could’ve been a satisfying way to end the series…

but it didn’t.

So if there’s anybody reading this review and watching the series for the first time in timeline order, do not go any further and skip to the conclusion. However, for the people who watched the movie in released order, continue on reading.

Like… holy hell, you didn’t just set up to Tokyo Drift, you also set up for the perfect sequel by introducing for what I can say the best villain of the franchise, Jason Statham- I mean Deckard Shaw! The final line in this movie definitely fits the ending perfect. “You don’t know me, but you’re about to.” What an ending!

Conclusion

So I came into this movie for reviewing it trying to find a lot of bad stuff to this movie. Needless to say, I’m surprised to find a lot of good things than the bad stuff. I still don’t think it’s better than Fast Five. I think the problem is after seeing the last movie, I got too hyped watching it. This movie made me felt drained wanting to like this movie, it did, but not a lot. After a few rewatches, it definitely did grew on me. There were a lot of good that outweighed the bad, however it couldn’t save the movie for being great. I definitely do prefer it over 2-4, but this movie just comes out of okay. It’s definitely not disappointing that’s for sure, but if the pacing could’ve been on par with Fast Five, then I think the movie could’ve been really good.

I give Fast & Furious 6 a 6.5/10. Very good moments, but still a slow movie to follow.

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