Fast? Yes. Furious? Maybe.

Everyone loves a good, old-fashioned comeback. Tales of redemption are tailor made for the big screen and the film industry itself is awash of them. Hollywood’s greatest comeback story of recent years, however, hasn’t concerned a washed-up star, nor a down-on-their-luck director, but an entire franchise.

From relatively humble beginnings as a Point Break rehash by way of Gone In 60 Seconds, things began solidly enough with the original The Fast and the Furious pulling in very healthy box office numbers. This success was more than enough to warrant a sequel but, by the time the third film in the series hit cinemas, things were rapidly running out of fuel.

With spiralling critical and box office success, combined with a loss of interest from its two main stars, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, the road was looking increasingly bleak for the franchise. However, with the fourth instalment bringing with it Vin Diesel’s long-heralded return and the masterstroke introduction of wrestler-turned-megastar Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson for Fast Five, things were finally looking up. Fast forward a few years, several sequels, and billions of box office dollars later and the Fast & Furious franchise is now one of the most profitable in cinema today and, against all odds, has cemented itself a place at Hollywood’s franchise top table.

With Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) settling comfortably into married life with Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and with the rest of his ‘family’ either retired or exonerated, it looks like the team have found normality. That is, until the newlyweds’ Cuban honeymoon is gate-crashed by the shadowy Cipher (Charlize Theron). Seducing Dom back to the criminal world he fought so hard to escape, the villainous hacker leads him to the ultimate betrayal of those closest to him. The remaining members of the crew, together with some unexpected allies, must pull themselves together to hunt down their turncoat friend and his dangerous accomplice, before they unleash chaos upon the world.

The very fact that the Fast & Furious series has made it to an eighth instalment at all is a minor miracle for any film era, let alone one so willing to pull the trigger at the faintest whiff of failure but, surprising though it may be, it’s certainly no fluke. The precise cause for the series’ longevity is hard to put a finger on precisely, but if there’s anything that Fast & Furious 8 succeeds at, it’s acting as an aggregate reminder of why the films continue to hit home with global audiences.

The franchise has long since moved past the original trilogy’s B-movie car-action-meets-crime-caper premise, to take a leaf out of the Bond book of excess and absurdity that has seen every new instalment become a battle of one-upmanship with the previous one. This brand of bravado would only get you so far if it didn’t include the franchise’s magic ingredient - character. In this respect, Fast & Furious 8 is a prime example of just what gives the franchise its coveted mass appeal as, from start to finish, it becomes a smartly executed exercise in how to successfully juggle bonkers overindulgence, escapist action, and heart.

As charming it is, however, it certainly has its limits and all excess and heart in the world won’t mask the film’s glaring problems. Chief amongst these is just how stale the plot is and, for a film with so much showmanship and theatricality going on, fails to bring anything remotely interesting to the party. While the choice to embrace its inherent lunacy is fine, it’s all rather underwhelming in execution and, with every passing Fast & Furious instalment, the missions become increasingly tired. From Charlize Theron’s dreaded supervillain (as in, she’s sporting dreadlocks) and her well-worn world domination/terror plot, to the never-ending keyboard tapping scenes (something that very rarely works cinematically), via a trip to a stark and snowy Russia, the entire thing has the stale scent of Ian Fleming’s reject bin.

The film’s sub-Bond plot is weighed down further by some rather shaky dialogue and a kind of character development that’d associate with a cheap daytime soap. While the franchise’s dedication to character is to be admired, its actual execution imbues Fast & Furious 8 with a forced melodrama that drifts far too close to cheesy to be taken at all seriously.

The soap opera feel certainly isn’t helped when the writers insist on throwing the word ‘family’ around so much that it loses all meaning and gives the unnerving feeling that you’ve accidently sat down to watch a feature-length, Phil Mitchell-heavy EastEnders special. It’s one thing to supplement your action with a little character work (in fact its actively encouraged) but when the motivations and dialogue are this flimsy, and empty catchphrases are thrown about willy-nilly, it’s all rather uninspiring.

As those familiar with the series will expect, the primary character work in Fast & Furious 8 centres primarily around the franchise’s main star Vin Diesel; a man who has appeared in all but one film in the series. The dynamic he has with the rest of the ‘family’ and his standing as the group’s paternal figure operates as the film’s core, allowing for some degree of emotional friction in amongst all the fast cars and it’s through this emotional investment that lends his betrayal of the group some dramatic heft; even if it ultimately feels a tad ridiculous.

It’s certainly a neat emotional trick that relies on the character groundwork laid patiently over multiple films, but the problems really begin with the realisation of how little on-screen charisma Vin Diesel possesses; making it incredibly difficult to root or care about Dominic Toretto at all. It may be down to Diesel’s acting limitations, or just how poorly written the character has become but his character has picked up the rather irksome habit of draining any scene he’s in dry of personality.

In a manner befitting their monolithic statures, the film’s twin saviours come in the muscular form of The Rock and The Stath. The two come as close to the classic 80s/90s action-man mould as you’re likely to get in modern era and they make full use of their all-action talents to push the film far further than it has any right going. Both take it upon themselves to, not only carry the bulk of the film’s action on their spacious shoulders, but have a huge amount of fun while doing so.

With Dwayne Johnson in top form and oozing the kind of effortless charisma that makes him such an impressive on-screen presence, it’s easy to see how the former WWE star has managed to rise through the ranks to become Hollywood’s go-to action man so rapidly. The absolute masterstroke of the entire franchise to date was to draft in Johnson for Fast Five and his ascendance within the series has reached a point where he has long-since overshot Diesel as its star player. If the series is to continue (as I’m sure it will) then the studio will be kicking themselves if they fail to make Dwayne Johnson the focal point going forward.

Playing the yin to The Rock’s yang is Jason Statham - a man who has found just the right level of self-awareness to give his career a big shot in the arm and his appearance here perfectly reinforces this. Both Johnson and Statham bring with them a great presence, personality, and an old-fashioned physicality to their roles that feels like a genuine breath of fresh air for a film and a franchise that threatens to go stale at any moment. For a film steeped in visually impressive, but rather weightless, action involving fast cars, faster cars, hacked cars, ice-skating tanks, planes, and nuclear submarines; it’s a welcome respite when something with a little more grit and substance comes along to kick things up a notch.

As a moment of pure retro-action joy, the early prison fight scene alone is enough to overshadow all the film’s CGI-heavy car chases, but its Statham who pips it with far and away the film’s best action set piece. Involving a plane, a baby, and some superbly crafted fight choreography, this is Statham running on all cylinders; mixing balletic movement with muscular brutality and a sly wit to devastating effect. Done just right, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with CGI action, but when you let a man with the hand-to-hand combat skills of Jason Statham loose in the close confines of an airborne vehicle, it renders almost everything else null and void.

Like every other instalment in the saga, the level of pleasure you glean from Fast & Furious 8 really depends on the angle from which it’s approached. Of course, if it’s intellectual stimulation you’re after, you might want to look elsewhere, but if you’re willing to checking your brain in at the door, there’s lots there to enjoy. Yes, at times it becomes so mind-meltingly ridiculous, your eye’s will ache from excessive rolling. And, yes, the dialogue and hole-ridden plot work on a level most soaps would avoid, but the film is such a whirlwind of unashamedly over-the-top action that it becomes incredibly hard to dislike, let alone ignore. On the back of the combined presence and charisma of Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, Fast & Furious 8 manages to balance the pomposity of its grand, car-based action with some truly impressive physical set pieces. With the action backed up by a continued dedication to a level of character development that’s rarely seen in modern blockbusters, it’s becoming difficult to begrudge the franchise its ongoing box office success.