Fast 6 gives fans of the franchise exactly what they want while expanding one what they’ve already offered in other films. It doesn’t feel like pandering to the fanbase, and it doesn’t feel recycled. It’s fun.
To borrow a phrase from “The Matrix Reloaded,” this is the sixth attempt at making a Fast and Furious film, and they've grown increasingly efficient at it.
Unlike the failed Matrix sequel from which that quote was drawn, “Fast & Furious 6” succeeds in retooling a beloved franchise while keeping the key elements that made the original likable. In short, they don't mess the formula, but still managed to give some new looks.
Efficient may not seem like the right word to use for a 130-minute film that picks car-chases over character development. But that’s only because of the interpretation of what usually belongs in a movie.
Fast 6 gives fans of the franchise exactly what they want while expanding one what they've already offered in other films. It doesn't feel like pandering to the fan base, and it doesn't feel recycled. It’s fun.
If you’re looking for deep dramatic themes, a great story or even thoughtful dialog, this is not the film for you. The "Fast and Furious" films are about taking simple concepts (chase scenes, laughable dialogue between flat characters and prolonged fight scenes, for starters) and employing them in different ways (such as in mid-air, going through London or with a tank). In this case, it involves taking the familiar rag-tag crew of heroes and pitting them against an elite, ruthless special forces operation. Then, stuff explodes.
If that doesn't sound like fun, you might have trouble enjoying this film.
Like its predecessor, “Fast Five,” the sixth film feels like the re-purposing of the franchise in the framework of another film. For “Five,” this meant taking familiar characters and placing them in an "Ocean’s Eleven"-type scenario in order to allow heist shenanigans to unfold. There were more car chases, but the vibe was all the same.
Fast and Furious 6 uses a similar device, except this time, the protagonists are placed in James Bond-type adventure where they must track down a notable antagonist in order to stop a small, but elite, group of criminals from destroying the world while employing Jason Bourne-type chase scenes on foot, shaky hand-cam included.
This is where the efficiency comes in. Rather than building up the villains and establish a rich world through which we can see their motives and better understand them, the film simply places them in positions where they do villainous things. That’s not to say that they’re boring, one-dimensional villains. Well, they are one-dimensional, but they’re at least interesting enough to keep the conflict between them and the Toretto Crew noteworthy.
The exposition of "Fast 6" is pretty simple. The antagonists are introduced and revealed to be highly skilled and searching for the final component of the MacGuffin Nightshade device. If they get that, terrible things will happen. Why do we know this? Because the movie openly tells us so we can get to the fun stuff.
We even get to bypass the “Don’t go, it’s too dangerous and you have a family” stage of the film in favor of some scenes that easily could have been lost on the story room floor, but are integral to any Fast and Furious film. There’s the obligatory street race scene with fast cars everywhere and countless scantily clad women dancing. There are instances of characters using their car knowledge/superpowers and having quirky interactions. There is even a pair of car chase scenes that, when you think about it, don’t mean much of anything to the plot. But it’s there and it’s fun to watch. Don’t think about it too much.
Additional notes:
• The post-credits tag occurs shortly after the movie ends, so stick around to see it. It’s very important to the plot and sets up the seventh Fast and Furious movie – with a bang – while messing with your head a bit.
• Fast 6 takes the stunts to another level. In previous films, the “jump from a moving car” stunt was really the centerpiece of the action. In this one, the moving-vehicle jumps easily reach the double digits.
• There’s an understanding that these characters aren’t the most fleshed out. However, many of the female roles in this film simply feel recycled. For example, there are three females who are attractive, mostly wear a ponytail, are clad in military/operational clothing and often take out handguns to subdue male physical threats. Note that these do not include Michelle Rodriguez’s character Letty or the one female antagonist, who is mentioned by name probably twice all film.
• There’s actually an argument to be made that Fast 6 develops plot lines from the fourth movie of the franchise more than it does in its own film. Sure, that doesn’t bode well for the storyline of "Fast 6," but it does help the overarching story of the franchise, something that didn’t really exist until the fourth film was released.
• "Fast and Furious 6" did something that I thought was really cool. It featured a fight scene with two familiar characters that aren’t good at fighting. At all. Far too often, it’s easy to just assume that all these characters are trained in some sort of combat – most of them are. But as this scene approaches, we remember that “Hey, we’ve never seen these guys in a fight before, have we?” and they proceed to perform poorly. And the movie is better for it.