The Fate of the Furious: A lucky few got to watch the film and reacted on Twitt...

Universal Pictures surprised the crowd in attendance at the Las Vegas CinemaCon by screening The Fate of the Furious, the eighth film in the Fast & Furious franchise.

While the event is primarily designed to showcase studios’ upcoming fare to theatre owners, there are always several critics in attendance to report back.

Many of them took to Twitter to share what they thought of director F Gary Gray’s film, whose first trailer took everyone by surprise by turning Vin Diesel’s protagonist into a ‘villain’.

Fans are also excited to see Dwayne Johnson’s role in the film. The trailers showed him teaming up with Furious 7 villain Jason Statham against Charlize Theron’s hacker antagonist from this film.

Diesel fought back tears as he introduced the film on stage. “Part of Paul (Walker)’s legacy lives through every frame that we shoot... You are reminded of this angel that was so integral to this concept of brotherhood for our millennium,” Diesel said, fighting his emotions.

“There’s something beautiful about that. There’s something celebratory about that... I always feel like he’s looking down on us, so we didn’t want to let him down.”

Walker was 40 when he died in a fiery single-vehicle crash in California in 2013, before the seventh film was released.

The reactions have been mostly positive. We’ve picked out a few here:

Yessss #fateofthefurious is perfection. So much fun. #cinemacon

— Rebecca Ford (@Beccamford) March 29, 2017

THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS features some great action set pieces but I think I may be too old for this franchise, which just isn't the same now

— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) March 29, 2017

The Fate of the Furious is another winning entry in the franchise. Crazy, fun, and yet very different feeling. I laughed, I cried, I cheered

— Germain Lussier (@GermainLussier) March 29, 2017

Loved @TheRock and Jason Statham in FATE OF THE FURIOUS. Their characters really popped; great dialogue & fight scenes #F8

— ErikDavis (@ErikDavis) March 29, 2017

THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS is no joke. Doubles down on action, emotion, intensity, humor &, of course, family. The NYC stuff is off the chain. pic.twitter.com/K3aeviUYCf

— ErikDavis (@ErikDavis) March 29, 2017

I adored every ridiculous, silly, charming, absurd, fun second of The Fate of the Furious.

— Eric Vespe (@EricVespe) March 29, 2017

The Fate of the Furious takes the ridiculousness of the franchise to a whole new level, yet feels very different. Should be a gigantic hit.

— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) March 29, 2017

Fate of the Furious is everything you want it to be and a ton of fun. @TheRock is a straight up superhero in the film and I loved it. pic.twitter.com/uz9QgnhVZ3

— Steven Weintraub (@colliderfrosty) March 29, 2017

not sure I saw even one shot in Fate of the Furious with @TheRock & Vin Diesel together. Take that how you will.

— Steven Weintraub (@colliderfrosty) March 29, 2017

The best part of #Fast8 is mosdef Jason Statham interacting with a wee babe.

— Amy Kaufman (@AmyKinLA) March 29, 2017

The Fate of the Furious also stars Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, Michelle Rodriguez, Kurt Russell and Scott Eastwood. It arrives in theatres on April 14.

With agency inputs