The Fate of the Furious was not a good movie. I am sad to say that it was a waste of time and money. I really enjoyed all the other movies in the series, and I have even watched Tokyo Drift more than once. Anyone who can make it through Tokyo Drift more than once is a dedicated fan because prior to the most recent installment, Tokyo Drift was by far the worst movie in the series. Fate of the Furious now wins at being the worst movie in the series to date. 

The movie itself will probably earn a lot of money because for those of us who have enjoyed the series, we’re locked in. We have to go see it because we’ve already invested so much time on the other movies. Rotten Tomatoes shows the movie having an audience score of 80% and a Tomatometer of 66%, but these people were more forgiving than I am.

The movie begins with the crew living a normal life of marriages and soccer coaching, but then they get a challenge to bring down Cipher, a totally new villain with an obsession for nuclear missile launch codes.

It would be hard to target the worst aspect of the movie. Unbelievable plot? Weird effects? Subpar acting? Many of the other movies shared these same characteristics. Most fans just expect ridiculous stories and over-the-top car chases from these films. It is not the first time that these characters saved the world with their cars, but this film might have had the first submarine sequence and maybe the first wheelie on ice.

Some of the other actors seemed off, too. The character of Cipher played by Charlize Theron was not a good villain. The Rock and Jason Statham were okay but not great. This movie series usually has funny lines, but I can’t even remember anything that made me laugh aloud.

This is not the first film without Paul Walker, but it definitely felt like something was missing. Even though Vin Diesel was an important leader in most of the other movies, it just lacked a sense of family, which has been an important theme in the previous movies. With his character turning on his family, it feels like it violates the most important rule of this franchise.

To me, the movie had too many action sequences to the point that they were boring. Instead of being interesting and fast paced, it was long and drawn out. I wanted to like this movie, but it was just dumb and I went into the movie expecting a dumb movie. This movie didn’t even do dumb correctly.