Fast X: Movie Review

This is it, the final instalment of the Fast & Furious franchise that started all the way back in 2001. To be precise, it's the first part of the tenth and final instalment in the series.

There was a lot of build-up around this one with various petrolhead circles making plans for group viewings. But I wanted my Fast X experience to be as unadulterated as possible. I did not even watch a single trailer and did not have any inkling about what to expect in terms of stunts and new characters. I did not mention story plot expectations because I knew that there probably wasn't going to be one, not really.

 

Everything from hereon can be considered a spoiler, so skip to the final para for a rating/assessment.

The "Plot"

The central storyline, if that's what we can call it, for Fast X gives us a flashback to 'Fast Five' (arguably one of the best movies in the series in terms of heist sequences). We are treated to some tear-jerking flashbacks of Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner while the movie reveals the origins of the final villain for Dom and his familia. The character in question is named Dante Reyes, son of the late Brazilian drug lord Hernan Reyes. Yeah, the guy whose money safe they stole by driving it around Rio using custom-built Dodge Chargers. The flashbacks are used to insert Dante's presence in those sequences where he uses the death of his father and the theft of his legacy as the motivation to take revenge on Dominic Toretto and his friends. 

The core crew still at the OG house from the first film comprises Roman, Tej, Letty, Mia, Han and Ramsey. Of course, we also have Dom's biggest weakness - his baby son named Little Brian or Little B as he's constantly referred to. The other key characters are brought into the frame as the "story" unfolds.

Dante's first action against Dom is to send a wounded Cipher as a display of villainous ability and declare an attack on his family. Simultaneously, he has set a trap up for the heist crew, led by Roman, who think they're doing another job for 'The Agency'. They're tricked into hijacking a giant bomb in the shape of a metal sphere that is meant to blow up Vatican City. The entire heist is broadcast to authorities in a way that paints the heroes as the perpetrators, discrediting them and cutting their ties to the all-powerful secret government agency. 

 

Conveniently, their known agency associates are either missing or out-of-action and there's a new tough guy in town, Aimes, who's had it with their reckless shenanigans that leave a bloody mess of collateral damage. It seems like the first self-aware moment from law enforcement in the franchise since '2 Fast 2 Furious'. We're introduced to another new character here, the daughter of the MIA Agency Head Mr.Nobody, Tess.

Of course, Dom thwarts the bomb attack but not without a fair share of damage to Rome and the Vatican as it does detonate. The hero crew, except the arrested Letty, then has to go underground to escape the authorities, taking them to their roots as outlaws. The movie then becomes a series of meet-ups between old and new characters, and unravels into lots of explosions, a paper-thin attempt at revisiting the franchise's roots with street racing, and many corny lines that would make for cheap motivational posters or a wannabe macho Instagram account. 

In terms of cars, we're treated to some eye candy that barely plays any role in the sequences - a McLaren Senna, a Datsun 240Z, a Porsche 911 GT3 RS, a foxbody Mustang, and a whole load of Dodge Chargers. Dom uses every Dodge he gets with custom equipment to save the day every time, from bouncing a metal bomb around Rome to using Helicopters as shurikens. Yeah, that kinda happens and it's definitely reminiscent of the final scene from Speed Racer. The coolest build however is a beat-up El Camino retrofitted with rocket launchers, because everything is cooler with rocket launchers. Even the GTA franchise doesn't have one of these!

The Acting Performances

This movie, like most of its recent franchise instalments, is carried by the comedic performance of the cast. 

Jason Momoa, a hunk of a man, has absolutely smashed it as the main antagonist of Fast X. He portrays an almost Joker-like crazed villain in Dante Reyes, with a touch of modern-day gender fluidity. From sparkly shirts during racing to cute hair buns while play-acting with corpses, Jason is the best part of the painful movie. He still carries his physique as a villain that can kick ass in a very believable manner but throws in a bit of campness to make his evil deeds seem even creepier.

Vin Diesel was as stiff as ever, showing true emotion only when making references to Brian's character. Michelle Rodriguez puts in another uninteresting performance, while Charlize Theron does a good job in her limited screen time as a complex character that is going from foe to friend. Sung Kang remains criminally underused as a revived Han but meets fan expectations in his role. Nathalie Emmanuel finally put in a bit more character to play Ramsey, elevating her role from cringe-inducing to easily forgettable. 

 

We were treated to more bromance between the characters played by Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson. However, one could tell there were some executive notes in the interactions between Tej and Roman as they were not as true to their characters as we've seen before. 

There was also some classic Jason Statham hand-to-hand combat and short menacing dialogue. along with 

In only his second appearance in the F&F franchise, John Cena has cemented himself as an iconic character in the series. Playing Dom's brother Jakob (still not sure why they didn't give him some prosthetics to make their relationship look somewhat believable), Cena shows off his improved acting skills, especially his comic timing. He also gets to drive the Chevy with rocket launchers.

In terms of the new side characters, none of them makes much of an impression and could have been easily portrayed by anybody else in my opinion. Brie Larson as Tess was a waste of budget, while Alan Ritchson who plays Jack Reacher in the TV show is clearly there for some kind of epic hand-to-hand combat sequence. Little B at his current age is played by Leo Abelo Perry who shows promise as a budding actor for more comedy and action movies. We're also treated to a pretty funny cameo from Pete Davidson and would love to see him get at least one more scene.

The Stunts

Fast and Furious graduated from epic street racing to awesome action sequences and then downgraded to absolutely ridiculous set-ups for the crew to take down satellites and submarines using modified cars. Like the last couple of films in the franchise, Fast X suffers the burden of trying to outdo the previous instalment. Here it resorts to rehashing some old concepts with new takes but does the right thing by sometimes acknowledging that connection by including it in the villain's plot.

 

However, the increased dependence on CGI to put Dominic Toretto in an almost indestructible Dodge requires more than just suspension of disbelief. You need to pretend like you didn't see it at all. Like you didn't see the prop car battered between the cuts as the 1970s Dodge Charger drops down a couple of floors onto a different part of a highway. Then there's the CGI set to cosmetic damage only from an arcade racing game where the bumpers of a Charger stay on after driving down a few flights of stairs. I mean, even the decade-old GTA V video game has more believable damage mechanics than Fast X.

I would implore the movie's writers Dan Mazeau, Justin Lin and Gary Scott Thompson, and director Louis Leterrier, to improve these sequences to make them entertaining in disbelief, and not make us wince from disbelief. 

Overall Experience

My immediate thought as the credits finished rolling for Fast X was, "This was pretty much the worst one yet", and I stand by that. It wasn't because of the bare resemblance of a plotline, or for the endless barrage of corny dialogue between the protagonist and antagonist, but because of the lower quality of stunt sequences and overall lack of driving scenes. 

But then I thought of the movie as a whole, not just as an F&F movie, and it's fairly average. It delivers on the exact expectations of its target audience with explosions, revving and downshifting, sexualised montages, and a cool cast of actors with some funny moments in between. 

I'd rate Fast X 6 Corona beers out of 10. 

Note:- I will still be watching all the Fast and Furious movies that follow. It's like supporting a club that hasn't won in decades. You know it's going to hurt, but you'll watch them play anyway.