F. Gary Gray takes over in this installment and he makes sure to draw in audiences who have been fans since the start of the franchise. The film begins with the usual street race (with added elements of exaggeration and intensity) and Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) leaving his opponent in the dust. The Toretto family grows slightly with the introduction of Dom’s seemingly useless cousin Fernando (Janmarco Santiago) playing on the idea that family is the most important thing in the world of Dom and Brian (Paul Walker). This film, like the previous installments in the franchise, moves further and further away from the original theme of street racing after the opening scene. Gray continued what other directors had started and made the stars of the film more energetic, dangerous and full of life than ever before. They are seen taking down submarines, deactivating nuclear weapons and coming face to face with their most formidable foe(s) yet. Charlize Theron (Cipher) is brought in to lead an attack on the superpowers of the world and is used to make connections to major players from previous films. The plotlines in previous films appear somewhat unrelated until Cipher is used to make connections between Luke Evans’ Owen Shaw and Djimon Hounsou’s Jakande. She is immediately seen by audiences as powerful in the sense that she has been everywhere and knows more about her enemies than seems possible. Her knowledge of Dom is endearing and is what allows audiences to accept her as a formidable opponent. If her intellect was not enough to get audiences excited about the war that would take place over the next two hours, adding Dom to her team made it so. He has been turned into a superhero-esque character over the course of sixteen years and it is well known by audiences everywhere that he is not the one to mess with. Regardless of the circumstances of Dom’s betrayal, seeing him stand toe to toe with the people he has grown deep and meaningful relationships with was a unique and exciting twist. After the mistake of trying to do too much and travel too far and wide in the previous film, Gray (and writer Chris Morgan) did a better job of keeping things more cohesive and less fractured. This allowed audiences to focus more on the action and the relationships rather than always trying to play catch up with when and where they were in the film. One of the biggest things fans were worried about going into this film was the fact that Paul Walker would be entirely absent. Scott Eastwood (Little Nobody) was introduced in this film not as a way to replace Walker but to add new elements of comedy and camaraderie. He managed, however, to fill some of the void that Walker left. His chemistry with Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) was somewhat comparable to the relationship that Brian O’Connor had with Pearce. This could have potentially been a damning choice for Morgan and Gray, but the fact that they did not force a relationship and the two characters managed to come together naturally allowed fans to accept what had happened since Walker’s untimely exit. All-in-all, the film is able to present loads of humor and action which is exactly what audiences are looking for at this point in the franchise. Gray was successful in his first attempt with this cast and crew, and it seems appropriate that fans would want him back again for a future installment. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4630562/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3
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