Big Stupid Things with Big Stupid Plots

Who else thinks it's ridiculously awesome when franchises with no right to have stupidly dense mythologies, have, stupidly dense mythologies. That's the topic of this post where we'll be taking a look at The Fast and The Furious and the Saw franchises.




Horror movies, particular slashers, have always had an affinity for crazy dense inter-character relationships, probably because they are so inclined towards sequels. But since they don't take themselves so seriously, it never really mattered. With Saw, while it is silly, there are so many utterly meaningless characters that take themselves and their huge web of connections so seriously, as does the movie itself, that it reaches an unheard level of ridiculousness. In the seventh, and last (?), Saw, this character from the first movie shows up and it's supposed to be like this big reveal. WHY WOULD ANY CARE ABOUT THIS EVER? Of course, this is the same series that killed of its main villain before its halfway point and had people just stumble into his preplanned traps like months after the fact.

With The Fast and the Furious, I probably could've just written a post about its naming methods.


The Fast and the Furious


2 Fast 2 Furious


The Fast and the Furious:Tokyo Drift aka 3 Fast 3 Furious (in my mind)


Fast and Furious (4eva)


Fast Five

And the upcoming Fast Six.

But it also has this absurd, convoluted timeline where like some movies are taking place either before or like concurrently with other movies. Currently, 3 Fast 3 Furious is the most recent event so far. Combine that with how it has all these characters that appear in one movie and return in other movies like people are supposed to care. Continuity in car action movies.

Why is this happening? I blame comics.