Jonathan Sim
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The Fast and Furious franchise continues with Fast X, an action film that features the return of Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). In the tenth movie of the main series, Dom must protect his family from Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa), the son of the villain Hernan Reyes from Fast Five. The opening scene brings us back to an iconic moment in Fast & Furious history in 2011 with Dom and Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) dragging a safe through the streets of Rio de Janeiro. This time, we see them through the eyes of Dante, who seeks revenge in a 141-minute nonsensical action extravaganza.
Fast X is unbelievable. These movies have gained notoriety in recent years for transitioning from a series about cars and street racing to a Mission: Impossible-esque action ensemble series with physics that would make Sir Isaac Newton roll in his grave. If you thought F9: The Fast Saga jumped the shark by sending Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Ludacris) into a car that launches into orbit, get ready for this one. This movie marks the beginning of the finale for Fast and Furious, and it’s going out in style with a fittingly absurd symphony of explosions, destruction, and family.
Think of the craziest possible idea for an action sequence. Then, double it. That’s what you’re getting with these movies, which have embraced their stupidity and are now reveling in it. Most franchises would peak with a character flexing their bicep so hard that their arm cast falls off (see Furious 7 for more). However, Fast & Furious doubles down on its foolishness, and how you respond to it depends entirely on how much you’re willing to suspend your disbelief. If you watch a movie from this series with your brain turned on, you’re doing it all wrong.
You buy a ticket to Fast X for the action, and boy, this movie delivers. Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk, Now You See Me) stepped into the director’s chair after franchise veteran Justin Lin left the project to avoid working with Diesel again. Behind-the-scenes drama aside, Leterrier brings a lot of energy to the set pieces, serving as a worthy fit for the franchise. He shows off his skills during a major action sequence with a goodness gracious great ball of fire tumbling through the streets of Rome as our heroes must chase it down before it explodes. This sequence is filled with moving parts, including a thrilling motorcycle chase between Dante and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), and it’s a blast.
It also somehow took three movies for this series to finally make use of Charlize Theron’s action abilities. She has played Cipher since The Fate of the Furious, but now finally gets her shot to kick ass. She shares a fun fight scene with Letty. Complete with Diesel, Theron, Rodriguez, Momoa, John Cena, and Jason Statham, Fast X offers one of the best action ensembles of the year. Much like recent Fast & Furious movies, this film offers ridiculous action that resembles a Looney Tunes cartoon. The standout is a sequence with the team fighting alongside Shaw because Statham makes any movie better.
This is also perhaps the hammiest of the Fast movies. The hokey dialogue can be laughable as Diesel tries his best to push out a serious performance that ends up becoming comical. Momoa is a highlight as the film’s villain, who is aware of his evil nature and embraces it. He’s chewing up the scenery and having a lot of fun as this over-the-top bad guy, sometimes serving as a mouthpiece for the audience. The movie also introduces new characters played by Brie Larson, Daniela Melchior, Alan Ritchson, and Rita Moreno, who are all welcome additions to the family, even if their presence leads to quite an overstuffed film. The rest of the characters are as you would expect—Roman is a loudmouth, Tej counters him, Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) is amused, yada yada yada.
The movie goes old school, too, with one scene where Dom races Dante in a street race that feels right out of the older films. It takes an unexpected turn, but it works well. The issues with the film are how the second act is dragged down by its overabundance of characters and subplots. Although it’s never a boring movie, there are a few too many moving pieces. This movie is implausible and messy, and it has guilty pleasure written all over it. It can sometimes feel like it’s reusing character arcs, with Aimes (Ritchson) serving as the new Hobbs (agent tracking down Dom) and Jakob as the new Shaw (reformed villain protecting Dom’s son).
Fast X even has the audacity to end on a cliffhanger, blowing your mind with multiple outrageous moments and getting you ready to flock back to theaters for Fast & Furious 11. Lovers of logic will roll their eyes to the back of their heads at how utterly ridiculous this movie is. However, lovers of fun will have the dumbest grin on their faces as Dom performs calculated acts of action perfection and makes it out without a scratch. Fast & Furious is a franchise that did not know when to pull over and park, but audiences can now reap the benefits by enjoying this mindless summer blockbuster with a buttery sack of popcorn.
SCORE: 7/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 7 equates to “Good.” A successful piece of entertainment that is worth checking out, but it may not appeal to everyone.
Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening for our Fast X review.