“Dayum! I am so jazzed to see F&F6 tomorrow. Fast Five was just the extra jolt I needed to get my engine revved up.
Seriously, I still can’t believe how much new life got breathed into the back half of this series. It didn’t ever deserve it, but all the pieces fell together and it’s been such a fun ride. Five picks up exactly where Four left off. Exactly. But it continues the cliffhanger and we actually do see Brian and Mia bust out Dom, and off they go to Brazil to continue their adventures.
Ah, but this time around, bigger jobs mean they need more help, So we bring back characters from the entire franchise, major and minor. Besides the obvious trio, we’ve also got Vince from 1, Roman and Tej (and Monica if you count the mid-credits scene) from 2, Han from 3, Gisele Tego and Rico from 4. As you can tell just from the character names, it’s a rather diverse bunch. Racial diversity in films is something I don’t typically notice, but it’s true that this is a refreshing change to a usually whitewashed landscape.
I love how the minor characters don’t just fade into the background of our trio. They get fun intros and an even more fun epilogue. And I’ve gotta say that Han is quickly becoming my favorite character in the bunch. I’ve been paying a lot more attention to how his storyline fits in with Tokyo Drift (which sequentially is the last film). Besides the teases of him eventually going to Tokyo (we had that in 4 as well), you get his history with Dom and this movie also explains how he had all that money that he was basically throwing away on our car-ate kid. I also love the romance with him and Gisele. I typically don’t care for those subplots, but their courtship is fun and flirty and just played out enough.
Incidentally, this is the only one of the lot that I had previously written up, so I’ve already been through all the details of it as a stand alone film. Great action sequences (the safe chase, the Vin Diesel/Dwayne Johnson brawl, etc), bringing in The Rock, etc. And just rewatching that midcredits scene, I repeat, I cannot wait to see the next chapter tomorrow”