The Fate Of The Furious: 12 Critical Reactions You Need To Know
The fate of the franchise.
Ahead of its release in a few short weeks, The Fate of the Furious was given a surprise world premiere at CinemaCon (aka Comic-Con for cinema owners) this past week, and thanks to a number of critics in attendance, word has begun to leak out on how well the eighth entry into the series fares.
Though attendees have been restricted from posting formal reviews, it's easy enough to glean a lot from their not-that-vague reactions. First of all, yes, it doesn't suck, managing to carry the weight of Paul Walker's absence and new director F. Gary Gray joining the fray, though how it stacks up to more recent franchise efforts remains a little more ambiguous for now.
The fact it's been screened almost three weeks out is at least encouraging, showing Universal's confidence in an extravaganza that's sure to be one of the year's highest-grossing and talked-about movies.
12. The Rock & Jason Statham Steal The Show
This one admittedly seemed somewhat obvious from the movie's trailers, where The Rock's Agent Hobbes referred to Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw as a "tea and crumpets eating criminal".
But yes, the early word is that the back-and-forth insults between the two, and relentless attempts to one-up one another, often result in many of Furious 8's best moments.
Most of all, it'll be interesting to see how it all ends up: will Hobbes reach an understanding with Shaw, or will it violently explode in the third act?