As an overblown popcorn cinema spectacle that audiences continually embrace, Fast X races to the franchise finish line. All the players are brought back in a convoluted game of retribution and revenge in the first half of the two-part finale. Jason Momoa becomes a part of the chaotic mess as a quasi-androgenous, flamboyant psychopath born out of Fast Five. The movie is still on brand with familiar characters engaging in a violent CGI melee consisting of bumper car explosions, gunplay, and savage brawls. There are laugh-out-loud moments when strained dialogue elicits the wrong reactions.
It’s a blast from the Fast & Furious past with a memorable Rio de Janeiro robbery. Drug kingpin Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) is about to name his sadistic son Dante (Momoa) as his successor. Their vault is ripped from the building during the backslapping festivities in a daring heist. Reyes and his hulking scion give chase with deadly consequences.
Ten years later Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) has settled into family life nicely. He and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) raise little Brian (Leo Abelo Perry) as a gearhead in a high octane school while leaving Agency operations to trusted crew members. Roman (Tyrese Gibson) bickers with Tej(Ludacris) while Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) and Han(Sung Kang) look on exasperatedly as he gets command of his first mission in Rome.
The gang gets together with Mia(Jordana Brewster) and their abuelita(Rita Moreno) for a family dinner before business commences. Faith in each other will always bind them together. A late night knock brings a shocking visitor at their door.Letty secures Brian and joins Dom with her silenced pistol.A severely woundedadversary brings dire warning “The Devil” is coming for him.Dante isn’t looking to kill Dom for his sins. He wants to destroy everything that Dom has built. Then suffer the pain of losing everyone he loves.
Thankfully, Fast X dials back the outer space and underwater follies of earlier installments. Burnt rubber hits the road for most of the insane action scenes. Justin Lin, who directed the last five films, was replaced by French director Louis Letterier (The Transporter, The Incredible Hulk) over creative differences. The pedal to the metal approach is no different. There’s action competence with Letterier and it shows in these more realistic conflicts.Let me be clear,Fast X overall still feels like a CGI video game.But scenes with actual cars on pavement look good and pump adrenaline.
There are too many characters.The franchise inexplicably can never let anyone go.People who should be dead like Han return but aren’t zombies.Then Fast X bounces back and forth around the globe with inane subplots.A busy script with cornball dialogue gives every actor a scene to strut their stuff.This honestly gets tiring when they’re not beating each other to a pulp.The “we’re arguing,but we really love each other” shtick between Roman and Tej gets particularly tedious.
The story makes no sense and doesn’t try to.That’s sadly not an issue since logic was thrown out the window after Tokyo Drift.Momoa controls every outcome like a maniacal god.He spends half the film cackling and bloviating with remote controls on high overlooks.He’s neither funny nor threatening but admittedly chews up screen with crazy antics.
The intensity of a person’s reaction is directly proportional to the amount of their fandom. Fast X is the same story we’ve heard time and again; it’s just packaged differently. I thought this was supposed to be the final lap, but as always we can expect another round next year and then another after that. For me personally, my interest has been lost for quite some time now — although looking at these box office figures, you wouldn’t think so! But enough with this — let’s stick around until after the credits roll… There might be something interesting hidden there.
Fast X is produced by Roth/Kirschenbaum Films and distributed by Universal Pictures through One Race Films alongside Original Film with Perfect Storm Entertainment.
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