Our Avengers - Why The Fast and Furious is a Superhero Series for Everybody

"No. We don't need spandex. Our shirts are tight enough."

Last week I gave Furious 6 a bit of a hard time. Mostly because of the concentrated ridiculousness on display and the hammy writing, but that's to be expected from a Fast and Furious film. I still mostly thought it was an entertaining experience, and I have amended the review to reflect that.

I also mentioned that Furious 6, with its assemblage of heroes, is pretty much the multicultural equivalent of Marvel's Avengers. Indeed, as several reviewers have noted, The Fast and Furious is essentially a superhero series. And as silly and over the top as it is, I am glad we have it.

Hard as it is to believe, The Fast and the Furious franchise is the most important superhero franchise of the summer because its success can show Hollywood that audiences, both foreign and domestic, are far more colorblind and diverse than the studios care to admit.

In its decade plus existence, The Fast and Furious series has elevated the presence of people of color (POC) in franchise flicks by simply presenting "heroes" on screen who are not uniformly white males between 18 and 50. Granted, Paul Walker's Brian O'Connor was the audience surrogate and point of entry for the earliest entries, he is, by no means, the focal point of the series. Instead, Vin Diesel's ambiguously brown Dominic Toretto is unarguably the series anchor and one of its main draw. With 2 Fast 2 Furious, the series added an African-American lead in Tyrese's Roman and gadget man Tej (Ludacris). The third entry, Tokyo Drift, brought Asian character Han (Sung Kang) into the fold. Fast and Furious may have refocused on Dom and Brian, but it also added Hispanic characters played by Don Omar and Tego Calderon as well as reminding audiences about Michelle Rodriguez's Letty, one of the few Hispanic characters to remain present in some shape or form since the 2001 original. That's not even counting Eva Mendes' Monica from 2 Fast 2 Furious and Gal Gadot's vaguely Middle Eastern Gisele. Fast five brought most of these characters back together and added another major non-white character in Dwayne Johnson's Lucas Hobbs, and to a lesser extent Elsa Pataky's Brazilian cop, Elena. Now Furious 6 brings most of these characters back together, just as Fast Five did, in way that is not dissimilar to Marvel's Avengers with the main difference being that 90% of the team is non-white--the series' inclusion of women is not exceptional but it's a far cry above the average for big budget blockbusters, which makes the series significantly progressive by Hollywood's unremarkable standard. 

Truthfully, just getting one or two substantial roles for POC in a tentpole is a victory. Seven to nine substantial roles for POC in an multi-million dollar franchise is some kind of miracle. And what's particularly reaffirming about the characters of the fast and furious franchise is that, while they may have started as "criminals", they have evolved into full blown outlaw heroes, with a reasonable, mind you not Marvel level, cultural cache. That's important because non-white moviegoers can leave the theater after seeing a Fast and Furious movie as energized as they may have been after seeing Avengers but with the added bonus of seeing people who look like them and not having to think about what a Hispanic Thor, Asian Tony Stark, and Black Captain America might look like.

For all the strides the series has made in promoting diverse characters, it has also expanded its scope under Justin Lin's direction in a way that allows it to rival blockbusters like Avengers. Since the first entry, the series has gradually increased its scale, coming from a local story of LA drag racers to the misadventures of globe-trotting super Robin Hoods. The scope is so oversized that most recent entry offers as much destruction as the Avengers and Dark Knight Rises. The expanded scope has been and boon and a curse. In some ways, the increased scope has improved the focus of the later entries, giving each a unique genre flavor. On the other hand, the movies have become increasingly divorced from logic and reality as they embrace audacious, ridiculous stunts and set pieces. That may make the movies a bit of an affront to high-minded cineastes, but these movies were never designed to be insightful examinations of the human condition, and neither, despite our rose-colored instant nostalgia, was the Avengers. Movies like the entries in the Fast and Furious series are primed to make audiences pump their fists and enjoy a few hours of mental auto-pilot, and that's more than enough for most moviegoers. But making a big, ridiculous, profitable tentpole with massive set pieces, and doing so with a cast dominated by POC, is still a remarkable, reassuring feat, and it's more than we usually get.

Review: Battle: Los Angeles

Grade:B-

Upsides: Aaron Eckhart’s alternately subdued and intense performance. Gritty military combat reminiscent of modern classics Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan.

Downsides: Clichéd, disposable supporting characters and a bit of melodrama from the younger actors in the slower moments.

In any given alien invasion movie, there’s always vague talk of the military’s efforts to “halt” the invasion. We rarely see their efforts in these flicks outside of the irtrouncing at the beginning and the triumphant curb stomp they deliver to the once unbeatable invaders at the end.

Battle: Los Angeles earns that ending by actually showing the die-hard efforts of a—here it comes—“ragtag” platoon of Marines who “save” LA in the wake of an extraterrestrial Pearl Harbor.

As opposed to typical invasion flicks, which often serve too many masters with multiple interweaving plotlines, Battle: LA is lean and focused with some amazingly gritty set pieces. It only falters when it tries to be deeper than a men-on-a-mission/Independence Day mash-up and plunges into occasionally clichéd melodrama. In a sense, this is exactly what it says on the tin. Black Hawk Down with Aliens! As much as that sounds like a cheap pitch, it doesn’t hurt the quality of this flick one bit. This is a summer flick lost in the wrong season—or is it?—but that doesn't stop it from setting the stage for blockbuster season, two months early.

Aaron Eckhart anchors Battle: LA as haunted, exhausted Marine Staff Sargent Mike Nantz. On the day of his discharge, Nantz is forced into one final tour of duty as LA is besieged by a brutal alien force bent on decimating the population and co-opting the planet’s water (What is it with water as a MacGuffin these days? First Rango, now this.) Merged into unit of young soldiers who distrust him for a costly mistake from his past, Nantz must find a way to help the unit rescue a small group of civilians, and maybe find holes in the alien’s defenses, while struggling with an overwhelming case of survivor's guilt.

Of course Eckhart isn’t the only performer in the flick, but he is the only one the audience is going to care about. The rest of the cast, including Michael Pena and Bridget Moynahan as a pair of noble civilians trapped in the invasion zone, is practically disposable. Battle: LA opens by acquainting the audience with almost a dozen characters. Some are mildly remarkable, like virginal Pfc. Shaun Lenihan (Noel Fisher) and bitter Cpl. Jason Lockett (Corey Hardrict), but most are forgettable military clichés, ranging from the sly Jersey smartass (Gino Anthony Pesi) to the soon-to-be-wed (Ne-Yo) and the expecting father (Ramon Rodriguez). As soon as the audience meets the characters, they can begin taking bets on who survives and who doesn’t. Once Michelle Rodriguez arrives in the later half, all bets are off, thanks to her dubious survival record. Not to ignore the adequate efforts of the cast, but Eckhart’s Nantz is such a force—through big-time heroics and a subtlety in slower moments that escapes the younger actors—that none of the other characters stand a chance of stealing his spotlight. He is the perfect combination of the haunted, yet determined, hero, harkening back to the days of Eastwood and Wayne.

Not to be outdone by his performers, Director Jonathan Liebesman shows a deft hand at combining practical and computer generated effects to create a solid portrayal of decimated Los Angeles. The alien invaders have a look that falls squarely between Transformers and District 9. The grotesque insectoids are decked out in cluttered mechanical armor that makes them seem like one of the poorest and most desperate alien race to ever invade. The junky look of the aliens and their vessels creates a vulnerability that allows the aliens to avoid seeming invincibility. This vulnerability is invaluable in the combat sequences, which host some dirty and realistic, yet fairly thrilling, gunfights. By the end of Battle: LA, the amount of destruction to natives and invaders is astounding. There is a true sense of loss and defeat that is well captured by the Liebesman and his team—even if we've seen it all before—putting Battle: LA leagues above some weaker invasion films of the past decade (eyes directly on you Skyline).

On the surface, Battle: LA may seem like an obvious spin on the invasion formula, but it is a sometimes thrilling, adequately-crafted take with a compelling central performance. As one of the better invasion flicks in a long while, audiences would do well to get a front row seat to end of LA as we know it. Just don't start counting the references to other invasion flicks.