anyways.. heres the review! (btw.. I sent this out as a supplement for one of my colleges, as im going for film, so feedback on how i did would be awesome and greatly appreciated)
Fast Five crashed, or should I say car crashed, onto the big screen as one of the first action packed blockbuster hits of the summer! Although many audience members were extremely stoked to see the fifth installment of the wildly popular film franchise, some were treading the waters. After all, how many sequels can really be made about fast cars and hot chicks, right? Wrong. The Fast movies do sequels better than perhaps any other film franchise known. What sets them apart from all others is that each movie comes with a new plot. Its a simple concept, the Fast movies (with the exception of Tokyo Drift) follow the same basic character, Brian O'Connor, and friends through many different journeys they have over the course of many years. Think about it, series such as the Final Destination films take the same exact story in each of the movies but change the characters and the ways in which they die. The same movie, with the same name, over and over again. The Fast movies are one continuous story which has brought a huge fan following. However the fan base is not the only audience for these films. Each movie references back to it's predecessors, but not so much that a new viewer cannot watch the fourth movie and still understand everything that is going on. This makes all of the Fast films more accessible to people aside from their already dedicated fans. This will allow the series to continue to accumulate new fans while still satisfying their original fans.
Although the story line is one huge reason to love the series, there are many more technical reasons why Fast Five is a quality movie and the perfect summer blockbuster for 2011. The makers of Fast Five are clearly very intelligent people, and they obviously make films not just from a film makers point of view but an audience member's as well. What I mean by this is that the maker's obviously realize that the audience loves the series enough to pick up on the little details that have been thrown into the film to make it more authentic. For example, there is a close up of Vince's arm, on his arm are the scars he received in at the end of the first movie when he got tangled up in wire on the door of an eighteen wheeler. A detail that many fans will pick up on, and those who are new to the series will just simply overlook until they see the first film and get the back story, again easy for both old and new fans to follow. Not only did the film makers add in Vince's scars, but the script includes some 'inside jokes' from the first movies. At one point, Roman Pierce can be quoted as saying “we hungry” clearly a reference 2 Fast 2 Furious, as that seemed to be one of his favorite lines in the movie. Throughout all five of the films in the series, each character has successfully kept his or her personality just as it was when the series began, any changes in their personalities are too small to notice or occurred simply because the character has grown and developed.
Audiences around the world love Fast Five and give it rave reviews, however, details about the production of the movie that many viewers may not have picked up on is what truly makes this new edition to the series so great! The backdrop for the film, beautiful Rio, is the first great production aspect of Fast Five. The new film takes place in a lower class area ruled by one extremely wealthy evil man, putting the movie in this setting was a very smart choice because it is outside of American jurisdiction. What I mean by this is, certain aspects of the plot become more believable, such as the Rock joining forces with Vin Diesel to help take down Reyes. It becomes more believable that one United States official, Dwayne Johnson, shoots Reyes in the end simply because we as the audience do not want to believe that dirty cops could exist in our country. The fact that the wealthy Reyes' money is all stolen, along with his life, is more appreciated by the audience due to the fact that they can see the poverty that he is making worse. Fast Five takes the main characters (including many from every other film in the series) and turns them into the good guys despite the fact that they are made to look like the 'bad' fugitives on the run by pitting them against the respectable Reyes. The tables are turned as the 'bad' guys are actually the good guys and vise versa.
The sound, amplified if the film was viewed in IMAX, makes the audience feel as though they are in the film. One can hear the rumble of the large military vehicles on the ground. A shaking feeling coming over their bodies. This as well as the sounds of the guns shooting off in their ears, and of course, the revving of the engines of the fast cars. All of the sounds in the movie come together to bring the audience into the world of Rio and our heros as they fight to bring down the bigger evil. The camera angles also play a great role in making the sequel come to life and jump off of the screen. In the scene where Paul Walker and Jordana Brewster are being chased over the roofs of Rio the cameras are flying all over trying to keep up with the chase in effort to make the audience feel as though they also need to keep up with the chase. It puts the audience into the sheer insanity and adrenaline of the moment. Although I will say, sometimes those camera angles swooshing around can make it hard to keep up with and sometimes give the viewer a slight headache.
It is evident in this film that the makers cared very much at about the audience and their feelings towards the sequel as well as the series as a whole. Fast Five keeps true to the feeling of the Fast series while still shining through with its own personality. And it is clear, the Fast series is far from over. Definitely worth seeing.
as always,
dont forget to light it on up and pass it around..
colleen teagan
No comments:
Post a Comment