What do you get when you cross Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), fast cars that you may never be able to afford with your life savings, and a need to out do the Fast and Furious franchise? You get the all new adaption of the popular video game franchise Need for Speed, with director Scott Waugh (Act of Valor) at the helm, and all star cast to back-up the film's leading man, Jesse Pinkman himself. So what can I say about the first run at the big screen for the Need for Speed franchise, well it was remarkably phenomenal, yet held its self back in many various regions. See what I mean below.
When first embarking on the journey to watch the special screening of the
Need for Speed film, my expectations were low being that game to movie cross overs often end in a crash and burn like scenario. Yet when watching
Need for Speed, it dictated itself in a way that remembered where the source material came from, the audience to appeal to, and took small elements from the game like the use of intercoms to communicate, as well as the "takedown" type style of driving.
So to start off on the good note, the action was phenomenal, exotica cars are often used as props in films and are rarely used, and other less interesting cars are often doing the racing in other films. Yet in
Need for Speed, if you see a freakishly cool car, guaranteed you will see it in action by the end of this film. The action felt in your face and was sure to have your adrenaline rushing. One feature I liked was a consistent use of the cockpit view at all times. This means when they are driving fast, you are in the front seat with them as well as when their car crashes, you are also in the seat with them.
One of the biggest questions was whether or not Aaron Paul would be able to take on a lead role, he was not perfect, yet he shows potential which I find great since he is a developing actor and has years to come. Dominic Cooper's character felt less threatening and more of a "douchebag", and it would have been nice to see a little more character versatility. Imogen Poots character felt spunky and I look forward to seeing her show up in future films, while Ramon Rodriguez gave a lackluster performance, nothing big, yet a boatload better that that of
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
One thing I noticed is that most of the characters feel like a mash up of the
Fast and Furious characters, which doesn't exactly help the film separate itself as a unique type or racing film. Some examples include how Aaron Paul's Tobey Marshall feels like mash-up of Paul Walker's Brian O'Conner and Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto mashed together, Scott Mescudi (Kid Cudi) felt like Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris' characters in one, and so on and so forth. The roles were similar to those of
Fast and Furious for sure, but it did not necessarily penalize them to much in this case.
Now the bad thing about the film is the story line, it felt smooth at some points and then choppy at others, trying to escape through the use of time lapses. Everything about this movie's story felt as though you have seen it somewhere before. At one point it felt like the film
Four Brothers, where as some actions taken felt like that of
Disney/Pixar's
Cars. So the story wasn't all that thrilling but was made up for with the action factor of the film.
So the final verdict on the film is that it is a great movie for a first date, Friday night flick, take the kids out for a film, hanging out with your friends type movie, and not more towards looking into in depth value type film. It has more than enough potential to build a franchise upon and create its own base to build from, as long as it stays focused on the fact that the
Need for Speed is a racing franchise.
I give Need for Speed 3 out of 5 stars:
It's also worth mentioning that the film almost earned itself half a point extra from me, thanks to a special guest appearance by Aaron Paul at the screening, and his quotation of the classic Jesse Pinkman line
"Yeah bitch!". Sorry Aaron, but if you wanted the bonus half a star, you should've said the line in the movie. So close.
So what expectations do you have for the Need for Speed movie? Any car in particular you hope to see in the franchise soon? Do you find yourself having the Need for Speed? Let us know below!
