Rating: 5/5
Reviewer: Vin Dali
The Fate of the Furious is a surrealist masterpiece. Auteur F. Gary Gray subtly plays on the inherent absurdity of reality, presenting us with characters and scenes completely removed from our conception of the ‘real world’. Instead the characters operate in a dream world where their shallow lives have meaning, blocking out the awful questions of existence with fantasies, which the film shows is like blocking an explosion with cars—ultimately ineffective.
The film emphasises its own plot holes. Like how someone imprisoned on a l’aeroplane is able to set up a meeting with a crime lord? Or how the Russians would not know about a secret US military operation in Siberia? How did they smuggle a dozen cars and a tank into Russia? In this way the film makes clear that it is not supposed to occur in any logical world, making us question the value of logic in our own.
However there was one stark moment of realism in this otherwise highly stylised masterpiece: the hacking battle of the climactic scene. Tension clasped my heart as I watched fast cuts between two people typing, backed up with well-researched techno-slang. I was pleased to see the economically significant tech sector well represented for once.
The characters show us the flaws of consumerism, taking cars that society has deemed valuable and subsequently destroying them sans the emotional attachment to possessions that defines consumerism. The film l’attaques the value we ascribe to material possessions and forces us to confront what is truly important in our lives— breaking the speed limit and endangering civilians.
All in all, to the critical discerning eye the Fate of the Furious is F. Gary Gray’s optimus prime.