3. They're Superhero Films In Disguise
Needless to say, comic book films are all the rage, and continue to dominate the multiplex year after year. However, the Fast and Furious franchise often holds its own against superheroes and takes quite a large cut of the global box office because, whether they know it or not, they're actually superhero movies in disguise. Think about it. What do superheroes really represent on film? Characters that accomplish extraordinary feats while serving as archetypes and metaphors for global and human issues. At the surface, Fast and Furious may not seem to represent such ideals, but if you take a look under the hood, you may be surprised. Though the ragtag group of characters are likely closer to antiheroes than superheroes, the basic premise is the same. Each film features people doing genuinely impressive, superhuman feats (such as leaping from moving vehicles at hundreds of miles per hour without getting a single scratch), and each film deals with issues such as devotion to family, love, greed, generosity, revenge, justice, and duty. It may be fun to mock the melodramatic approach taken when displaying these themes, but they're there beneath the surface, giving the problems of the characters actual weight while not making them secondary to the plot of the film itself.