Manuel here to kick off this week with a question all of you may be better equipped to answer than I: how good slash bad does Fate of the Furious (aka F8) look? I have to admit I haven't seen a single one of those films so all my knowledge of them comes from other people discussing them as either the best in post-modern Hollywood spectacle or the worse in contemporary shoot-em-and-'splode-em style Baytastic blockbusters. But even I couldn't resist seeing what Ms Charlize Theron was bringing to the table.
She's joined the long-running franchise (or, to use O.J.: Made in America nomenclature, your favorite ongoing miniseries) as — and here I had to confirm this was actually her name — Cipher, "the very definition of hi-tech terrorism" as we're told in the trailer.
Theron has a hit (Mad Max: Fury Road) or miss (Aeon Flux) track record when she takes on action flicks. And while there's no denying this'll be a hit no matter what, we always enjoy the Oscar winner when her talents are on full display. Amidst the obvious chemistry that runs through the rest of the sprawling cast of the franchise, the brief moments we have with Charlize don't give us much to look forward to. Or maybe, I'm just so allergic to the bonkers-ness of these flicks to muster much enthusiasm, which: fair.
So what does TFE think of "Cipher," which looks like it was borrowed wholesale from a cyber-thriller from the 90s? Are we meant to read her dreads as a visual reminder that she's evil (because, you know, she's, like, insensitively culturally appropriating that hairstyle)? Does her icy cold (almost wooden?) delivery suggest F. Gary Gray cast her only to neuter her appeal?