Long Fast Five Wrapup (SPOILERS)
Apr. 30th, 2011 06:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cudaAll right, so I can say a few things without being spoilery:
I was afraid that I was going to be disappointed, after building myself up so much. That usually happens when I get so worked up about something. This movie, however, does not disappoint. It's very much in the spirit of the franchise, in my opinion, with plenty of fun lines, little character tidbits, and incredible car chases and race scenes.
Stay through the credits sequence. True to F&F tradition, you won't regret it if you stick around 'til after the fun CG stuff at the end. No, really. You totally won't. I promise.
That was one hell of a ride. It required more suspension of disbelief than Fast and Furious, but not so much that I did more than snort at a couple of less-than-believable sequences. Let's face it: Brian and Dom would likely be toast less than fifteen minutes into the film, because surviving a fall into water from that high was incredibly unlikely, let alone unscathed. After a little research, I saw that it MIGHT (repeat: MIGHT) be possible because the car hit first, thus breaking the surface of the water so it was a little less like hitting a concrete wall, but still.
But hey, this is the franchise where the dead come back to life. So, yanno. I know I wasn't the only one who heard a few people chuckling while the boys were suspended in midair. I bet I'm not even the only one who had a flash of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
But while we're on the topic of people coming back from the dead... wtfomg. If you saw the publicity art and some of the trailers, you probably knew Han (wow, his last name is Seoul-Oh? Do we pronounce that as as 'Solo'? *grin*) and Vince were back from the land of we-don't-know-if-they-survived. After all, all my fellow soap opera fans know that if there's no body, they're not dead. And if you're an All My Children fan, you know that sometimes even if there IS a body, they're not dead.
One more character is back from the grave, but we'll get to that at the end.
The music is awesome, appropriate, and really underlined the environment these characters exist in. Without looking to see who the performers were, it really brought me into their reality in Rio. Plus, the song from the montage showing what everyone was doing with their millions is a song I have got to have as soon as it's released. That made me so happy that if they pulled the right heartstring, I would easily have tumbled over into tears.
If I saw one more sweeping shot of Cristo Redentor, I was going to start throwing popcorn at the screen. Once was enough to help me register that this was Rio, one more after a sad or otherwise appropriate moment would have been poignant. I think we spent a good cumulative ten minutes of this movie looking at Christ's back and hands. I like the statue, really, but c'mon.
I like Dwayne Johnson's character because he's such a campy caricature. He fits in with the rest of the F&F series' semi-ridiculous reality, reminding us that this is total fantasy even better than the "DO NOT ATTEMPT THESE STUNTS" warning at the end of the film. Johnson's Hobbs was almost a tribute to his wrestling persona, and I loved him end to end. I also loved that he was sweating buckets - 'cause seriously, if you're not used to the heat you're gonna sweat like that!
Beyond that, his anguish over his team and the growth of his respect for Dom and Brian made me very happy. I can respect a character with those sorts of thought processes. Uh, though, man: he just blew away Reyes? I don't care if the guys DID have all of the man's money, there's going to be repercussions for that at least politically. Someone with that much power has a gaggle of people around them jockeying for a piece of that, and SOMEONE is going to move into that spot and demand Hobbs' head as a power play. You could almost make a fic out of Hobbs needing help from Our Heroes after the next thug takes Reyes' place and starts gunning for him.
The cars were beautiful, but they always are.
Yay! We got information on Brian's (absentee) dad! And Dom's dad! And Brian's relationship with Rome! And the backyard barbecue tradition! I'm hoping that at some point we get to know about Dom and Mia's mother, but it sounds like their dad was a single father for a long, long time. I kind of snorted at the whole perfect-uber-dedicated-dad bit, but you know what? It's different from the childhoods that most anti-heroes have, and I can respect that. It creates a really complex mental landscape for Dom.
Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges just blows me away with his ability to act. I loved Tej in this film as much as I loved him in 2 Fast 2 Furious.
I snorted all the way through that bit with the safe. I'm waiting for the Mythbusters episode that addresses whether a 10-ton safe full of many 49K packages of cash could be pulled down a city street. And let's not even go into the "did you guys take out a BANK?" sequence or the fact that all the rolling that safe did DURING the bank sequence should have gotten those wires hopelessly tangled. I gotta admit, though, I loved watching Dom and Brian in a pair of matched Dodge Chargers(oh, the pun) tearing down the street like a couple of new age chariot steeds. And I loved the last sequence where Dom plays a game of physics with the dirty cops. It maybe wasn't physically possible, but it sure was a damn lot of fun.
I soundly reject Elena Nieves. This isn't just because I'm a fan of any particular relationship, because I like playing around with friendships and pairings within this series a ton! I love to read Brian/Dom fanfic, but it isn't my OTP. It doesn't have to be, because it's there if you look for it. Elena and Dom? Yeah... had to strain for that one. I respect her character, but all I have are the bare bones of her. She was useful to the plot, so although I think the significant points of her role in the plot could have been added to another character, I wouldn't say she shouldn't have been there at all. I DO think, however, that several of those ridiculously long car sequences could have been cut down to give us a little more time with Elena. Maybe I would have bought her a little more.
Then again, she's so undeveloped that she'll be fun to explore in fanfic.amberdark and I discussed Elena's relationship with Dom, and I agree with her observation that Dom and Elena could definitely find solace and friendship in each other due to their loss. But I don't buy a relationship.
Vince's death gave me major sniffles, and I think it was INCREDIBLY unnecessary. The Creator of The Matrix is right, I'd probably have rejected it if nobody suffered. But still. There were plenty of other bodies to throw at the cannons for Movie Realism - enough people died. Seriously, movie, did you REALLY have to kill Vince after he's been in ONLY ONE of the four previous films? He wasn't even competing for Mia, he was a happily married man. I'll watch your movies, Mr. Lin, but I'm not forgiving you for that until you totally Greenlee Smythe his ass and bring him back from the dead despite showing us his cooling corpse.
That said, it made for a poignant moment with Dom, both in the vehicle and later, in the garage. I love Vin for his ability to show that grief is not a pretty thing. Not a single crystalline tear, not a slow turn away,he looked like a frog with something stuck in his throat while he fought for control over his desire to just unleash over Vince's body and I believed it. Nobody looks pretty when their recently rediscovered family is taken away from them again.
I don't know what I think about Mia's pregnancy. It definitely ties into the Toretto focus on family, and it makes for lots of interesting conflict for Brian considering his issues about fatherhood. But while I think Mia would make a fantastic mother, I just don't see Mia and Brian staying together. I saw the movie again today, and afteramberdark suggested I pay specific attention to Brian's expressions at the end of the film, I saw something less than contentment on his face. Mia might be happy with a peaceful life on the beach with her man and her baby, but Brian looked anything but. I don't foresee a happy ending there, but... I'm biased. I've never seen a happy ending for them. Brian is excellent at telling people what they want to hear, and I think in this case it may have trapped him. Maybe even he thinks that this is what he wants, too - or should want.
I'm not sure where this movie fits in the timeline. I want to believe that Han survived his accident in Tokyo and this story is post-Tokyo Drift. But it's also possible that his dialog in the car with Gisele on the way out of Berlin was a hint that this movie is set before Tokyo Drift, and Han is actually on the road to Tokyo and his own eventual death.
However, I don't want Han to die. So it's my preference that he survived the accident, and he's on his way back to Tokyo to get in touch with Sean and the rest of his team.
Okay. Now to the BIG BIG SPOILER.
LETTY ISN'T DEAD OMFG. WHOA.
Or, hey.
Maybe it's her Evil Twin.
I was afraid that I was going to be disappointed, after building myself up so much. That usually happens when I get so worked up about something. This movie, however, does not disappoint. It's very much in the spirit of the franchise, in my opinion, with plenty of fun lines, little character tidbits, and incredible car chases and race scenes.
Stay through the credits sequence. True to F&F tradition, you won't regret it if you stick around 'til after the fun CG stuff at the end. No, really. You totally won't. I promise.
That was one hell of a ride. It required more suspension of disbelief than Fast and Furious, but not so much that I did more than snort at a couple of less-than-believable sequences. Let's face it: Brian and Dom would likely be toast less than fifteen minutes into the film, because surviving a fall into water from that high was incredibly unlikely, let alone unscathed. After a little research, I saw that it MIGHT (repeat: MIGHT) be possible because the car hit first, thus breaking the surface of the water so it was a little less like hitting a concrete wall, but still.
But hey, this is the franchise where the dead come back to life. So, yanno. I know I wasn't the only one who heard a few people chuckling while the boys were suspended in midair. I bet I'm not even the only one who had a flash of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
But while we're on the topic of people coming back from the dead... wtfomg. If you saw the publicity art and some of the trailers, you probably knew Han (wow, his last name is Seoul-Oh? Do we pronounce that as as 'Solo'? *grin*) and Vince were back from the land of we-don't-know-if-they-survived. After all, all my fellow soap opera fans know that if there's no body, they're not dead. And if you're an All My Children fan, you know that sometimes even if there IS a body, they're not dead.
One more character is back from the grave, but we'll get to that at the end.
The music is awesome, appropriate, and really underlined the environment these characters exist in. Without looking to see who the performers were, it really brought me into their reality in Rio. Plus, the song from the montage showing what everyone was doing with their millions is a song I have got to have as soon as it's released. That made me so happy that if they pulled the right heartstring, I would easily have tumbled over into tears.
If I saw one more sweeping shot of Cristo Redentor, I was going to start throwing popcorn at the screen. Once was enough to help me register that this was Rio, one more after a sad or otherwise appropriate moment would have been poignant. I think we spent a good cumulative ten minutes of this movie looking at Christ's back and hands. I like the statue, really, but c'mon.
I like Dwayne Johnson's character because he's such a campy caricature. He fits in with the rest of the F&F series' semi-ridiculous reality, reminding us that this is total fantasy even better than the "DO NOT ATTEMPT THESE STUNTS" warning at the end of the film. Johnson's Hobbs was almost a tribute to his wrestling persona, and I loved him end to end. I also loved that he was sweating buckets - 'cause seriously, if you're not used to the heat you're gonna sweat like that!
Beyond that, his anguish over his team and the growth of his respect for Dom and Brian made me very happy. I can respect a character with those sorts of thought processes. Uh, though, man: he just blew away Reyes? I don't care if the guys DID have all of the man's money, there's going to be repercussions for that at least politically. Someone with that much power has a gaggle of people around them jockeying for a piece of that, and SOMEONE is going to move into that spot and demand Hobbs' head as a power play. You could almost make a fic out of Hobbs needing help from Our Heroes after the next thug takes Reyes' place and starts gunning for him.
The cars were beautiful, but they always are.
Yay! We got information on Brian's (absentee) dad! And Dom's dad! And Brian's relationship with Rome! And the backyard barbecue tradition! I'm hoping that at some point we get to know about Dom and Mia's mother, but it sounds like their dad was a single father for a long, long time. I kind of snorted at the whole perfect-uber-dedicated-dad bit, but you know what? It's different from the childhoods that most anti-heroes have, and I can respect that. It creates a really complex mental landscape for Dom.
Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges just blows me away with his ability to act. I loved Tej in this film as much as I loved him in 2 Fast 2 Furious.
I snorted all the way through that bit with the safe. I'm waiting for the Mythbusters episode that addresses whether a 10-ton safe full of many 49K packages of cash could be pulled down a city street. And let's not even go into the "did you guys take out a BANK?" sequence or the fact that all the rolling that safe did DURING the bank sequence should have gotten those wires hopelessly tangled. I gotta admit, though, I loved watching Dom and Brian in a pair of matched Dodge Chargers(oh, the pun) tearing down the street like a couple of new age chariot steeds. And I loved the last sequence where Dom plays a game of physics with the dirty cops. It maybe wasn't physically possible, but it sure was a damn lot of fun.
I soundly reject Elena Nieves. This isn't just because I'm a fan of any particular relationship, because I like playing around with friendships and pairings within this series a ton! I love to read Brian/Dom fanfic, but it isn't my OTP. It doesn't have to be, because it's there if you look for it. Elena and Dom? Yeah... had to strain for that one. I respect her character, but all I have are the bare bones of her. She was useful to the plot, so although I think the significant points of her role in the plot could have been added to another character, I wouldn't say she shouldn't have been there at all. I DO think, however, that several of those ridiculously long car sequences could have been cut down to give us a little more time with Elena. Maybe I would have bought her a little more.
Then again, she's so undeveloped that she'll be fun to explore in fanfic.
amberdark and I discussed Elena's relationship with Dom, and I agree with her observation that Dom and Elena could definitely find solace and friendship in each other due to their loss. But I don't buy a relationship.Vince's death gave me major sniffles, and I think it was INCREDIBLY unnecessary. The Creator of The Matrix is right, I'd probably have rejected it if nobody suffered. But still. There were plenty of other bodies to throw at the cannons for Movie Realism - enough people died. Seriously, movie, did you REALLY have to kill Vince after he's been in ONLY ONE of the four previous films? He wasn't even competing for Mia, he was a happily married man. I'll watch your movies, Mr. Lin, but I'm not forgiving you for that until you totally Greenlee Smythe his ass and bring him back from the dead despite showing us his cooling corpse.
That said, it made for a poignant moment with Dom, both in the vehicle and later, in the garage. I love Vin for his ability to show that grief is not a pretty thing. Not a single crystalline tear, not a slow turn away,he looked like a frog with something stuck in his throat while he fought for control over his desire to just unleash over Vince's body and I believed it. Nobody looks pretty when their recently rediscovered family is taken away from them again.
I don't know what I think about Mia's pregnancy. It definitely ties into the Toretto focus on family, and it makes for lots of interesting conflict for Brian considering his issues about fatherhood. But while I think Mia would make a fantastic mother, I just don't see Mia and Brian staying together. I saw the movie again today, and after
amberdark suggested I pay specific attention to Brian's expressions at the end of the film, I saw something less than contentment on his face. Mia might be happy with a peaceful life on the beach with her man and her baby, but Brian looked anything but. I don't foresee a happy ending there, but... I'm biased. I've never seen a happy ending for them. Brian is excellent at telling people what they want to hear, and I think in this case it may have trapped him. Maybe even he thinks that this is what he wants, too - or should want.I'm not sure where this movie fits in the timeline. I want to believe that Han survived his accident in Tokyo and this story is post-Tokyo Drift. But it's also possible that his dialog in the car with Gisele on the way out of Berlin was a hint that this movie is set before Tokyo Drift, and Han is actually on the road to Tokyo and his own eventual death.
However, I don't want Han to die. So it's my preference that he survived the accident, and he's on his way back to Tokyo to get in touch with Sean and the rest of his team.
Okay. Now to the BIG BIG SPOILER.
LETTY ISN'T DEAD OMFG. WHOA.
Or, hey.
Maybe it's her Evil Twin.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-02 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-03 03:35 am (UTC)Whether or not the information about who shot Reyes gets out could also depend on how the reports are filed. If Hobbs reports that he eliminated Reyes, rather than simply found him, then the report becomes information that could end up in someone else's hands.
Of course, if the information stays confidential, then Dom's team also could become targets to anyone trying to move up the food chain - because they could just as easily be blamed for taking him out.