The Fast and the Furious | 100 Movies Bucket List

 

I have no experience with the Fast and Furious franchise. I know the actors, but I've never seen any of the movies and had no idea what they were really about before watching this one.

Despite this not being a long film, it took me a while to get into it.

That being said, I really liked that it doesn't start off with introductions or context. You learn about the characters and this world as you go. The more the characters learn about each other, the more you grow to like and care about them.

The story was actually a lot more compelling than I expected. At the beginning I was feeling apprehensive and a bit uninterested in the whole thing, but it took a couple of interesting turns that kept me invested. 

And that's not to say that the plot was great - this isn't the best-written film in the world. It had some good ideas and great scenes but either ended them too quickly or didn't commit to them. It focused more on fun and fast cars then telling a great story, and that's their prerogative.

The reason why this film works, and why it spawned so many sequels, is because of the characters.

I really liked the way they were written. They were all distinct, all had their own backstories (whether they were used to tell the story or not), you can tell that the writers and actors created three-dimensional characters. They never felt like they just existed in this one story, but rather the story existed because of them. And in a character-driven story, that's exactly how it should be.

The actors have kind of become synonymous with these characters, and with good reason, they were all great in these roles. Granted I've only seen each of them in one or maybe two other projects, but they all fit really well into this world.

The pacing didn't really work for me - it felt like every scene ended before it was finished. I don't think it necessarily should have been longer, but another 20 minutes spent on properly developing the plot and elongating some of the scenes might have been helpful.

And then the lead-up to the ending was all over the place. It was still enjoyable, but it was clear a group of people in a writers room decided to focus on drama and noise rather than a realistic ending, and again, that's fine by me!

I've heard that the movies get more and more unrealistic as they go on, and that this one is the most grounded one, and that kind of makes me want to watch some of the sequels because I would have loved for this one to be a bit crazier!

So, this isn't a masterpiece, and I'm guessing it's considered a classic because of the franchise it created rather than this specific film as a standalone, but I'm glad I've finally seen it!