The Fast and the Furious Franchise: Ranked
In close to 15 years, there have been a total of seven movies that make up the Fast and the Furious Franchise, with Furious Seven coming out earlier this year. So It's time to take a good look at the franchise in the order from worst to best.
If there is an installment of this franchise to stick out like a sore thumb it's this one. It's only one to not star either Paul Walker or Vin Diesel. (yes Diesel made a quick cameo but you can't make any argument that his amount of screen time would be called starring) The lack of these two stars shouldn't automatically make the movie bad (after all, the real stars of the franchise are the cars) but the new characters aren't as fun or as interesting as Walker and Diesel, nor is their dynamic and chemistry on par. The previous movies had already hinted at raising the stakes, only for this movie to bring those stakes back down. And focusing the whole movie on the concept of drifting did very little for the movie. All in all, this felt like the "direct to DVD" installment of the series to get those last few dollars out of the franchise before killing it off for good. Only it somehow made it into theaters.
After assuming that everything had run it's course, we were not only going to get another Fast and Furious movie, we were getting one with all of the original actors reprising their original roles. This movie felt very much like the sequel to the first movie that we had never gotten. The hype for this movie was exciting, but really, the most I can say about this movie was it was pretty much forgettable. Seriously, I can hardly remember a thing that happened in this movie. I know that at the beginning, Paul Walker was an FBI agent again. And at the end they're about to break someone out of a prison bus. And I think a tunnel might be a major plot point in this movie? See the movie wasn't bad per say, but it was forgettable. And in the Fast and Furious franchise, forgettable might be an even bigger problem than bad.
The second movie suffers from the fact that Vin Diesel wasn't back to reprise his role. It shouldn't have suffered from that, but the movie was so clearly built around the two main characters from the first movie reuniting, that when that happened with a brand new character instead of Vin, it was jarring. But the second movie was bigger, louder, and faster and more furious than the first one, so it sets up the "forever upping the stakes" feel of the franchise.
It's almost amazing to go back to the first movie and watch it again, knowing where this franchise ended up. Back then the franchise was actually about street racing, and the crimes being committed were robberies where VCR/DVD combo machines were stolen, not bank vaults. The original movie almost feels like it belongs in a different franchise than the later movies. The first movie has that "go see it, cause why not?" feel rather than the must see movie of the summer, but that doesn't make it a bad movie. Just nothing compared to the action franchise that it spawned.
So the fifth through seventh installments in this franchise make up what may be one of the greatest action trilogies in recent memory. The three movies, together tell an overarching story where actions in the first (5th) one have consequences throughout the next two. Six is the middle arc of that franchise but has some of the more impressive action sequences of the franchise. (Tank sequence, plane sequence) And It's a lot of fun to watch The Rock and Vin Diesel constantly try to out action man each other.
You can almost judge the quality of a Fast and the Furious movie by the number of bald men starring in it. By that count Furious Seven has to rank near the top with Vin Diesel and the Rock boy starring as action heroes while Jason Statham stars as the main villain and a bald Djimon Hounsou starts as another bad guy terrorist that the heroes have to fight. In addition to being a fantastic action film in its own right, the most recent movie also managed to be a touching tribute to the late Paul Walker in a way that managed to serve the story of the movie, and give the character a proper sendoff, and one last ride with the fans.
The fourth film did a lot to bring the franchise back from the brink, but it was the fifth installment that really solidified the new direction of the series as an action franchise that was here to play. Adding The Rock to the cast as the primary antagonist for the heroes (and eventual ally by the end of the movie) was a great addition. Moving the franchise from a street racing story to an over the top action/heist series was the right call. Fast Five molded the direction of the franchise for the foreseeable future and it was a positive direction. Fast Five shows the best potential that the series has to offer and delivers on every level.
7. The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift
If there is an installment of this franchise to stick out like a sore thumb it's this one. It's only one to not star either Paul Walker or Vin Diesel. (yes Diesel made a quick cameo but you can't make any argument that his amount of screen time would be called starring) The lack of these two stars shouldn't automatically make the movie bad (after all, the real stars of the franchise are the cars) but the new characters aren't as fun or as interesting as Walker and Diesel, nor is their dynamic and chemistry on par. The previous movies had already hinted at raising the stakes, only for this movie to bring those stakes back down. And focusing the whole movie on the concept of drifting did very little for the movie. All in all, this felt like the "direct to DVD" installment of the series to get those last few dollars out of the franchise before killing it off for good. Only it somehow made it into theaters.
6. Fast and Furious
After assuming that everything had run it's course, we were not only going to get another Fast and Furious movie, we were getting one with all of the original actors reprising their original roles. This movie felt very much like the sequel to the first movie that we had never gotten. The hype for this movie was exciting, but really, the most I can say about this movie was it was pretty much forgettable. Seriously, I can hardly remember a thing that happened in this movie. I know that at the beginning, Paul Walker was an FBI agent again. And at the end they're about to break someone out of a prison bus. And I think a tunnel might be a major plot point in this movie? See the movie wasn't bad per say, but it was forgettable. And in the Fast and Furious franchise, forgettable might be an even bigger problem than bad.
5. 2 Fast 2 Furious
The second movie suffers from the fact that Vin Diesel wasn't back to reprise his role. It shouldn't have suffered from that, but the movie was so clearly built around the two main characters from the first movie reuniting, that when that happened with a brand new character instead of Vin, it was jarring. But the second movie was bigger, louder, and faster and more furious than the first one, so it sets up the "forever upping the stakes" feel of the franchise.
4. The Fast and The Furious
It's almost amazing to go back to the first movie and watch it again, knowing where this franchise ended up. Back then the franchise was actually about street racing, and the crimes being committed were robberies where VCR/DVD combo machines were stolen, not bank vaults. The original movie almost feels like it belongs in a different franchise than the later movies. The first movie has that "go see it, cause why not?" feel rather than the must see movie of the summer, but that doesn't make it a bad movie. Just nothing compared to the action franchise that it spawned.
3: Fast and Furious Six
So the fifth through seventh installments in this franchise make up what may be one of the greatest action trilogies in recent memory. The three movies, together tell an overarching story where actions in the first (5th) one have consequences throughout the next two. Six is the middle arc of that franchise but has some of the more impressive action sequences of the franchise. (Tank sequence, plane sequence) And It's a lot of fun to watch The Rock and Vin Diesel constantly try to out action man each other.
2. Furious Seven
You can almost judge the quality of a Fast and the Furious movie by the number of bald men starring in it. By that count Furious Seven has to rank near the top with Vin Diesel and the Rock boy starring as action heroes while Jason Statham stars as the main villain and a bald Djimon Hounsou starts as another bad guy terrorist that the heroes have to fight. In addition to being a fantastic action film in its own right, the most recent movie also managed to be a touching tribute to the late Paul Walker in a way that managed to serve the story of the movie, and give the character a proper sendoff, and one last ride with the fans.
1. Fast Five
The fourth film did a lot to bring the franchise back from the brink, but it was the fifth installment that really solidified the new direction of the series as an action franchise that was here to play. Adding The Rock to the cast as the primary antagonist for the heroes (and eventual ally by the end of the movie) was a great addition. Moving the franchise from a street racing story to an over the top action/heist series was the right call. Fast Five molded the direction of the franchise for the foreseeable future and it was a positive direction. Fast Five shows the best potential that the series has to offer and delivers on every level.
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