If you’re familiar with video game franchise movies, you know that you can’t always expect much. Despite this, Reliance Entertainment and Electronic Arts has molded the racing game, “Need For Speed” into a cross country car-fest and wrapped in it a revenge story.
When debt catches up to their auto- shop garage,Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul, of “Breaking Bad”) and his team of expert mechanics and racers agree to work with a snobby ex-NASCAR racer, Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper, of “Captain America: The First Avenger”) to build a custom supercar to sell. Just as the garage seemed saved, a disagreement that turned into a high-stakes race ends with Tobey being framed for manslaughter.
After two years in prison, Tobey looks to team with Julia Maddon (Imogen Poots, of “28 Weeks Later”) to the winner-takes-all De Leon race to seek revenge on Dino.
The story comes as a surprise because when a movie adaptation of a video game comes out, it’s seems to always be a disappointment. “Prince of Persia,” “Doom,” and “Max Payne” were all films that didn’t get good critical reception. And on paper, a game where players care more about the driving mechanics and throw in Aaron Paul because “Hey, he was in Breaking Bad!” could spell disaster for fans of the games.
But the film proves to be more. Aaron Paul is a great emotional- actor. His portrayal of anguish and shock are tear-jerkers and gives character to his role. But his portrayal of anger can be exaggerated even in the presences of Dino, the man he knows framed him. And while the soundtrack was mostly forgettable, sound effects of the car engines rumbling and zipping by are satisfying and accurate in terms of the differences between muscle, sports and supercars.
Overall, the story works. It almost feels like the director Scott Waugh and writer George Gatins planned to have an important story with cars in it instead of a weak story dancing around cars that are pretty and go fast. I say “almost” because some points are missed.
Some scenes that shoot for those funny moments with shock value are misplaced because of the lack of use of Roman Rodriguez’s character, which doesn’t necessarily call for more attention to his characteristics. If Gatins did more for for his character than just showing he’s a passionate, loyal friend, his role could be more important. Maybe they could’ve included him in more key scenes.
Another scene tries to convey a sense of urgency by showing Tobey’s crew driving close by to fill his car with fuel without stopping. Since they were racing against the clock to arrive at the De Leon race, it was important not to stop. The scene used tense camera work and gave the feeling of the chance of failure. But the scene becomes useless almost immediately when Tobey and Julia stop at a local gas station without the story saying why or if they had no choice.
The “Need For Speed” franchise now has a good movie under it’s belt. The casting of Aaron Paul did more than pull in fans and the story had a decent punch to it; definitely some sucker punches that will keep your eyes glued. One just have to get past scenes that seems to be thrown in for empty laughs or make you wonder what makes prison wardens like Tobey Marshall so much.
B-
