MrDrWatson

Another F&F movie that’s stupidly entertaining if you can meet it on its wavelength. You don’t need to turn your brain off, but you absolutely need to be able to embrace the madness with this franchise. These are science fiction/anime, they have been for a while now and that tone is once again clearly communicated by the filmmakers. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some small changes compared to previous installments, however. They toned down some of the dramatic undertones and over the top antics from the last ones, which I think was drastically needed. Momoa is a blast to watch, his mannerisms do feel inspired by Ledger’s Joker. In fact, I liked most of the new additions, even someone like Brie Larson is a lot more fun here than anything else I’ve seen her in. However, it’s having a hard time balancing all of its characters and storylines (did we need this convoluted mini sidequest/Infinity War-esque structure?). Sometimes you really feel that any breathing room has been taken out of the edit to make it as tight as possible. It’s not incomprehensible, but I really hope they make something more focussed for the next part. It’s F&F, this should thrive on simplicity. Everything else is the same old recipe. It’s a string of set pieces (loved the bit in Rome) and other entertaining scenes filled with bad acting, boring trap rap, great sound design, soap opera dialogue, lots of production value, fun comedy, plot twists to roll your eyes at and a whole lot of Vin Diesel mumbling about family inbetween. The weaknesses are all very obvious, but it makes up for a lot of them by being shamelessly entertaining.

5/10