Need for Speed joins a small, ignoble group of films based on video games. The Need for Speed franchise covers a legacy of twenty full editions, few of which offer players any sort of plot. The primary appeal of the games lie simply in what the title suggests: lots and lots of speed. Weirdly, the film doesn't quite follow that lead. When the film focuses on delivering big, practical car stunts, it can be pretty enjoyable. But there is a lot of unnecessary stuff in between all that, lessening the total fun of the experience.
Two years ago, mechanic and underground racer Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) was wrongfully convicted for the theft of a pair of cars from rival racer Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper) and the death of his best friend Pete. Now, he's out of prison and looking for revenge. Tobey's plan involves joining the De Leon, a secret high stakes race featuring some of the best drivers in the world. There, he plans to beat Brewster and reveal him for the fraud that he is. But first, he's got to skip parole, get a car, and make it across the country to the race in one piece.
For a film called "Need for Speed," it sure does take a long time getting to where it wants to go. The convoluted setup involves a bunch of elements that don't really make much sense in the long run. In setting up the stakes, the film ends up constructing a completely baffling world that offers few consequences for terrible actions. The more the movie explains about the big race and the motivations of the drivers, the more difficult it is to buy into the tenuous illusion of this world.
People weren't in this for the story, anyway, so it's really puzzling why there's so much of it in there. The film would probably work better if it stuck to its raison d'etre: big, dumb car stunts. On this front, the film does deliver. Its devotion to practical effects results in a series of captivating exercises in automotive recklessness. The stunts aren't quite as big or ambitious as the ones in the Fast and Furious series, but they're rather entertaining all the same. The editing is strong and coherent, more willing than most to use longer takes. The film's use of high-end supercars delivers a different kind of thrill, one built on the sense of drama and fantasy that these luxury vehicles bring.
There isn't a whole lot to the character played by Aaron Paul. He's basically a wound up ball of testosterone, largely there to be strong and silent and really good at driving. Given that, Paul does a fair job holding down that fort. His eyes convey a hard mix of loss and determination. Where the script fails to elucidate, Paul steps in to fill in the blanks. He shares decent chemistry with Imogen Poots, which makes the long middle stretch of the film more tolerable. Dominic Cooper plays a villain with no nuance, and he doesn't really do anything to salvage that.
Need for Speed could use a lot of trimming. There's just no reason for it to be so long. All that time spent not putting together big stunts doesn't really net the film anything valuable. Its characters are all still pretty flat, and the plot only becomes more nonsensical as the film expands. There is plenty of simple appeal in how this film puts together its chases and races, primal thrills borne of the connection between man and machine. Too much of the movie forgets about all that, pushing ideas that take away from the primacy of speed.
My Rating:
