Notable Cast: (deep breath) Vin Diesel, Michelle
Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, John Cena, Nathalie
Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Jason Momoa, Scott Eastwood, Daniela
Melchior, Alan Ritchson, Helen Mirren, Brie Larson, Jason Statham, Charlize
Theron, Rita Moreno, Joaquim de Almeida, Leo A. Perry
Every two to three years I get the pleasure of revisiting
the Fast & Furious franchise and, in a rather unfortunate manner,
the last couple of films in the series - not counting the surprisingly fun
spin-off Hobbs & Shaw, have been declining returns in creativity and
quality. Not that Fate of the Furious or F9: The Fast Saga don’t
have their strengths or their fans, but compared to the first of the fifth,
sixth, and seventh films, they just were missing that special heart that beat
underneath the illogical scripts and outlandish action set pieces.
Thus, my expectations were metered when Fast X, the
tenth entry into this billion-dollar grossing action blockbuster series, was
finally on track to vroom vroom its way into theaters. Could Vin Diesel and
company find a way to start their own Avengers: Endgame with this reportedly
first of two (or three?) “final” films in the series?
Fast X, for some of its continued flaws, marks a
substantial step back for the series into the arenas where it found so much
success in its “middle trilogy.” Where F9 went back to some basics by
bringing in some long-lost family members to re-right the buoyancy of its
themes, Fast X takes it the next step further. The combination that its
fans come to expect is still here, whether it’s the laugh-inducing
ridiculousness of its action or the rather dire seriousness that it speaks
about family, and it manages to pull some significant heartstrings in the
process while delivering its pedal-to-the-metal thrills. It still hits a few
speed bumps in trying to juggle its massive ensemble and it makes a massive
franchise choice that will leave some of its viewers disappointed with its
finale, but it’s easy to call Fast X a pleasant return to form.
As is the case with this globetrotting franchise, Fast X
is stuffed to the brim with all kinds of shit - plotting, character, and
retconning are all game for this one. And, to its detriment, there’s actually
too much for this film. Our protagonists are faced with the “ultimate” enemy.
Dante is looking for revenge on our delightful street racers turned
international militaristic spies for killing his dad during their heist at the
end of Fast Five. Dante almost immediately manages to split up our
heroic ensemble by attempting to blow up the Vatican with a giant rolling bomb.
As explosive (and rather elongated) as that setup might be
for an initial action set piece for our spunky NOS-fueled team, it essentially
scatters the team to all corners of the world. Instead of a chaos-addicted and
maniacal laughing Dante, which has Jason Momoa scene eating as the Fast
& Furious version of the Joker throughout, hunting down the team one by
one, it splinters the narrative into essentially four different plots: Vin
Diesel’s growly Dom is hunting Dante, Dante is hunting Dom’s son, Rodriguez’s
Letty goes to prison with Theron’s Cipher, and the rest of the gang try to
outrun the law by going to London.
It’s…a lot. It might be the biggest obstacle for Fast X
to overcome. Part of the reason that fans have come to love this series is watching
its characters interact and by splitting them up, it inherently pulls itself
away from that. It’s obvious by its ending - of which there really isn’t one
because the film is left on a cliffhanger with none of its narrative threads or
characters arcs (sans one) reaching a conclusion, that this is an attempt to
start off a multi-film story. Which, to be fair, still irritates me to some
degree as it goes to pull a “Go see Fast X Part Deux in two
years” moment. Fast X is splitting up our heroes so we get that big
Avengers Assemble moment in the next film (or two) for fans, but for this film,
it does detract from its overall effectiveness as we watch only the first
chunk.
The splitting of characters does allow for the newbies to
the series, including Daniela Melchior, Brie Larson, and Alan Ritchson, to play
some pivotal moments in the film, but much of it is played as plot progression
rather than anything of substantial merit to the character arcs or themes of
the film. The former actress gets a silly familial connection to try and weave
in more lore to the film but the latter two act as agents of “Not Real
Government But Definitely Spy World Bullshit” The Agency and they definitely
don’t get much time to grow beyond caricatures. Fortunately, as indicated above,
they have one to two more films to grow so let’s hope it weaves a tighter
thread as it goes.
Fortunately, new to the series director Louis Leterrier
manages to make so much of it feel more grounded than the last two entries,
while still delivering those bigger-than-imagination action set pieces. The
charm continues to ooze out of the film, whether it’s the family BBQ scene that
kicks off the film with a nice cameo from Rita Moreno as Dom’s grandmother, or
the way that John Cena’s Uncle Jake handily makes for the best kid-friendly
companion as he attempts to outrun Dante and keep Dom’s son alive, Fast X
still retains that charm factor that has carried this series for so long. There
are plenty of jokes and levity to be had, but the balance is more in line with
the highlights of the series rather than its doldrums, which is where its tone
desperately needed to be.
Also, as with so many of the newer entries, Fast X
manages to be a film that feels like its non-stop action. For a film with that
much plot and a half billion characters, it still packs in some seriously fun
action set pieces. For the action connoisseurs out there, the series continues
to rely far too much on CGI for its spectacle, continuing to lose its grip on
reality that many of the earlier films were so successful at, but it is fun.
Whether it’s the vehicular combat of Dom on the freeway before outrunning the
biggest gas truck explosion of all time (I think I heard Michael Bay swoon a
thousand miles away) or some of the hand-to-hand combat brought to the table by
Jason Statham, John Cena, and a fantastic one-on-one battle between Rodriguez
and Theron, there’s plenty of action to be had.
Not all of the action feels all that necessary to the plot
or character development though. The Save The Vatican Rome sequence feels
extraordinarily drawn out, for example. Yet, it’s hard to be too nitpicky when
it’s easy to see that the filmmakers and crew are having so much fun crafting
the set pieces.
With all of that - which is too much admittedly - and some
interesting themes around generational hope and a slyly embedded religious
layer that the film doesn’t explore nearly enough in interesting ways, Fast
X is a strong start to the final runway of this series. Once again, despite
some of its issues in its narrative cohesion or the amount of material they are
jamming into its 142-minute runtime, this tenth mainline entry still has that
fun and charming B-movie smirk to its demeanor that finds the heart that has
rung a bit hollow in its most recent predecessors.
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