Fast X — What Happens When a Movie Grows Too Big | Anatomy of a Failure

dumb there's really nowhere to land who said anything about Landing [Music] in fast X Don toretto's life experiences a sudden disruption when a shadowy figure from his past returns to take revenge on him and his family in other words it's another Tuesday for him oh my God now it's just Tuesday the 10th and it seems to be some kind of bank holiday as well because it's a bit of a more casual step down I mean whereas last time we drove a car into space this time we don't even go to space what the heck in all honesty though fast X is perfectly adequate it's like Eminem would say if you know what to expect you can expect your expectations to be met spaghetti if you like these movies you get what you like you get the fast cars and the family and the fair ladies and the explosive action and even cool set piece sequences you haven't seen before in that regard well worth the price of admission but that said I did notice one Central issue with fastx that I thought would be worth discussing an issue that most likely played a part in it becoming a bit of a box of down all things considered the issue that the movie is simply too big [Music] and what I mean by too big is exactly that it's too long it has too many characters too many scenes and plot lines it's doing too much to the point of hurting itself now let's say your first instinct is to disagree it's not too long it's two hours 20 minutes that's nothing for a modern Blockbuster there's not too many characters I like all these characters I want to see them all if you say that you know what you're absolutely right size is subjective in movies at least there's no way to concretely determine the value of length and size because every viewer will experience them differently as per usual filament of your you are correct but but in terms of a few holy Cardinal scriptures of screenwriting that all of us must adhere to the movie is actually too big it is too long because there are scenes that should have been cut that could have been cut without anything changing it is too stuffed because a lot of characters have nothing meaningful to do and just kind of wander around it is doing too much because what it does sometimes goes against what it at its core is meant to be so today let's look into that what are the holy screenwriting rules of size that this film fails to adhere to and how do we ensure that we don't here's why fast X is just too damn big the first cardinal rule of screenwriting about science is that every scene should Advance either story or character and this way serve a larger integral purpose like how in the opening flashback we learn about the Dante the son of the mobas from the fifth movie who lost everything at the hands of Dom's family this scene or sequence is crucial to the story what we see later functions only if we see this right well there are a lot of bigger and smaller scenes here not like that when lady wakes up in a CIA prison she finds herself in the company of the villainous Charlize Theron oh hello there and once they've then put together an Escape Plan lady turns around and says fight and then Letty escapes alone only to realize that she can't go anywhere so she comes back and and then they revert back to their earlier Dynamic and Escape as two enemies forced together in other words nothing was changed or achieved with this fight you could cut it out the movie and the plot would function exactly the same the audience wouldn't even notice same on the character side lady comes back down to see that Charlize Theron is there ready to go and then they kind of continue where they left off as enemies plopped together which is a sorry excuse for a scene compared to if you use the scene to fundamentally evolve their Dynamic like maybe in the fight lady knocks Charlize Theron out and ties her up because she can't let her Escape but then when she realizes that she can't get out on her own she makes a proactive choice to put her trust in Charlize Theron and free her from this prison free the killer of Dom's child's mother that would make their Dynamic very different than what it was moments before the scene would serve a character purpose but as of now they kind of supposed to escape to fight a bit and then carry on in the context of the movie I understand why you have these two badass actresses you have to have them do something why not fight fair enough but in terms of the screenplay it doesn't need or deserve to exist and thus in this form should have been caught and sadly there are entire plot lines here at plagued by this very problem it's as if the filmmakers keep pulling random events and obstacles out their ass because they can't find anything better The Fugitive plotline with tej Roman Ramsay and Han it's pointless the only objective for them in the entire movie is to go to a rendezvous Point set by Dom allegedly Tom is gonna meet us at the Rendezvous point in the meantime we have to stay under the radar which is already pretty weak for a fast and furious plot just travel somewhere and it's also pretty weird since if they need to go from here to here why do they go here to begin with stupid I'm not going glitch but what makes it worse is that their scenes don't generally even Advance this plot for some reason they suddenly determine that they must get weapons before the Rendezvous Point really guns artillery tanks so they visit this black market dealer where they joke around a bit and then realize they were reported to the CIA that's it they don't get weapons here they don't get in danger here the scene is empty and could have been cut then they go see Jason Statham and get ambushed by the CIA which could have happened directly anyway because you already established that the CIA is monitoring Dom's Associates and then they fly to Portugal and get shot down and that's it that's the whole bloodline that's about it see ya it's as if the filmmakers know they have to include these characters but have no clue what to actually do with them so they can't just take them somewhere and have them stroll around cracking jokes and fighting while also doing the same Dynamics as always before it's like their dead weight plastered onto the script with duct tape out of necessity and before it may work for you in this movie because it's the 10th movie yeah John Cena mostly just travels somewhere with Donna's kid and nothing about the dynamic really changes but it's John Cena with Dom's kid it's pretty cool all I'm saying is that most likely you don't have that luxury you can't base an entire Blockbuster flatline on simply traveling to a place allegedly said by another character for no clear reason even though that character himself most of the time is not traveling there because he actually has meaningful stuff to do every scene and sequence and plotline must earn its place in the larger sense if it doesn't need to be in the movie for the movie to work then you must either or make it so or eliminate it I would love it if you could take him out take him out take him out like for drinks no no no take him out take out like to dinner take him out to a meal take him out look on the town party no uh take him out [Music] another Holy Verse of screenwriting around size is that characters must remain faithful to their core to preserve the fundamental point of who they are to be fair Fast and Furious does have some leeway on this because it's full of exaggerated characters wow let me see your profile picture again you kind of have to keep exaggerating to Not Fade Away into the loudness but one character that does suffer heavily from doing way too much in terms of his core here we go is the villain Dante the essential gist of Dante is that he's the son of the Brazilian mob boss from Fast Five he was born into greatness destined to inherit that greatness and after it was all destroyed by Dom he vowed to get revenge which he's coming for today all great so far but the more of Dante we get the further from this dark emotional core we get on the interior side this means that his personality is very oddly Goofy upon every entrance he makes some funny remark upon every decision he adds some Hardy horror commentary dorks what are we blowing up what okay upon every action beat he acts like a juvenile overall it's like he's doing an impression of Heath Ledger Joker if Heath Ledger's Joker was 12 years old you know except for the times when he's suddenly super serious again because he lost everything he's suffering fill my destiny your pain has just begun and look I understand why they did this the franchise is full of silently brooding tough guys so this is a great way to set Dante apart the issue is that it's done in a way that damages his core when we see him doing his nails while talking to his dead helpers that he killed for no clear reason we kind of forget that oh yeah he's motivated by this great tragedy that destroyed his life if you want Dante to be this insane Jester seeing the world as a joke fine but then adjust the core accordingly have his score be about him having gone fully over the edge about him wanting to make Dom see the world in a funny way Dom made him see it but don't pose him as this tragically serious being only to then constantly do the opposite shades are great but Total light and darkness cannot coexist all they can do is take power away from each other let these dry finish those Mojitos and I told you know me suffering who's gonna come and bury you guys too I'm gonna go wash my hair you killed my Bridge I love it if you could take him out take him out take him out for drinks no no no take him out on the exterior side this means that the power dynamics and levels that they play that are all over the place what the [ __ ] is that the basic idea is that he comes from a wealthy family and could have anything but then lost everything and was reduced to nothing I'm a man with no name it's nothing and yet in practice it doesn't quite seem like it he dresses in expensive designer clothes he drives incredible custom cars he's had a major CIA operative on his payroll for years he carries fashion bags full of millions of dollars and tosses them around like nothing very clearly he has lived a life of luxury this whole time to a point where it has no value to him he's like but then what's with all this talk about him losing everything at the hands of Dom what's with him having to steal Charlize Theron's men and resources alone when he already has enough resources to own half of the old you know it's like the filmmakers wanted him to be this lonely Warrior determined to climb the tallest mountain with nothing but his hands and legs but then they remember that it's fast and furious so of course he also needs to have the cars and the money and the infant Army for the heroes to fight even though those two sentences do not gel how do you think that looks and once again I understand I sympathize this is a big franchise with big characters and big everything so maybe you do need a big villain internally and externally to compete maybe for this movie it was the correct choice you decide but what I'm getting at is that for you and your script it's very important to trust the strength of the character core Benicio del Toro's character in sicario had a bunch of dialogue in the original script to pose him as his badass Warrior but then he was the one to say no I don't need all that all I need is silence and a few looks the character will do the rest don't ever point a weapon at me again so do yourself a favor and be like Benicio del Toro identify the core and support the core but trust the core do not do too much do not go against it the third holy screenwriting science verse is that action shouldn't be separate from the story but you rather continuously progress and evolve the story same as every non-action scene as a positive example for context again the opening flashback Chase with the vault is pretty tightly made when Dom drives to the bridge with Brian and decides to stay back we're not gonna make it you're right we are not tell us something about this character when Dom Rams enemy cars with the world that establishes The lethality of it which is necessary for us to know as we then get to the beat where it's used to defeat the villain it's not just action it's a step building on a step building on a step and as per usual in this franchise the movie is pretty good with this in many action sequences there are these constant beats developing character or power dynamics or something and because of that these sequences often do not feel too long they feel as long as they need to be yes this is perfect but just to highlight the importance of this topic let's look at a couple places where that's not so when Letty and Charlie is there on a fight they kind of just fight they fight here and then they fall to fight down here and then they fight as the lights Flash and so on and so on they do use the surroundings which is cool but the battle itself is kind of the same from beginning to end in terms of story you can't really tell the difference between the beginning and the end we don't learn anything new about them or their Dynamics definitely on the big side it's more like she punches and then she punches and yada until at some point the scene Cuts away [Applause] so yeah that's about it same when team Han gets ambushed by a CIA hit squad in Jason Statham's garage the only narrative value this fight sequence has is that during it Jason Statham realizes that Han is not the enemy aside from that single thing this two-man sequence is just the same old stuff we already know to be true and thus it can feel kind of meh yes I mean uh a little ridiculous and for contrast take one of the greatest narrative confrontational teams of all time the final stand between Sherlock and Moriarty the reason it's so great is because it's not just a fight it's this constant evolution of who these people are and what are the power dynamics between them Sherlock stops Moriarty's assassin to ruin his War Moriarty reveals War to be inevitable and that he as a rich politically immune man can wait Sherlock takes away Moriarty's immunity by taking away his riches about that fortune of yours I believe it's just been substantially reduced Moriarty makes the fight personal by targeting Watson and his wife Sherlock makes the fight physical by using his Sherlock vision and then and then and then come now I really think you're the only one who can play this game Target weakness just strategy wound taking its toll injury makes the again it's this constant step upon a step upon a step the situation at the end of the sequence is very different from what it was in the beginning the confrontation doesn't stop the story it is the story as action but that said the story of the action must also be organic when Brie Larson enters a shady bar to meet Dom the first thing she does is ask around for them like a fit I'm looking for someone how about around on me you know so that's some random bad guys can show up and so that she can beat them up to establish how tough she is shots no shots he does do the job but it also feels pretty forced if she's meeting Dom why not just look around for Dom what is she immediately start fitting and what is this group of men immediately gang up on a lonely woman half their size the action canvas the story is painted on is so thin that you can see right through it I don't even know so the point is that your action must be organic and lasts the duration of the story within it if Dom save civilians at the beginning of a sequence and then saves more civilians later in the sequence notice how it's the same thing repeating how it can make the sequence feel repetitive and long it may work pretty well here because it reinforces how Dom pushes himself to save every single life but I just want you to be aware of that unless your action is only as long as it needs to be to be what it is meant to be it's too long and if it's too long if it feels too stuffed and big there you go you movie is too big and then this uh yeah we need to go to the hospital or somewhere and get it fixed that's about it so yeah foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Filmento

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Id: oouEBda2bZg

Length: 18min 27sec (1107 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 24 2023