“Fast X” Review
Vin Diesel steps into the driver’s seat for another ride as Dominic Toretto in “Fast X,” the eleventh film in the long-running franchise.
With the “Fast and Furious” films, they are a perfect representation of mindless yet incredible entertainment. While some films in the franchise have been emotionally meaningful and the cast of characters have become action icons, most can agree that the films exist to show off incredible action, improbable stunts and give the audience a rush of adrenaline while attached to your usual plot of an evil group being thwarted by Dominic Toretto’s family. While an improvement over its predecessor “F9” and an entertaining spectacle, “Fast X” has a lack of self-containment that may confuse long-time fans and turn off newcomers to the franchise.
After the events of “F9,” Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his family are continuing to perform elaborate heists for a secret agency. However, like always, this peace is interrupted by a new adversary in Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa), a psychotic criminal mastermind whose father, Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), was killed by Dom’s crew during the events of “Fast Five.” However, Dante isn’t interested in killing Dom. Instead, he wants to make him suffer and goes on a worldwide rampage against Dom’s family/crew to bring this great hero to his knees. With his family threatened, Dom decides to take the fight to Dante in a battle unlike anything the Toretto family has ever experienced.
When it comes to the “Fast and Furious” franchise, I enjoy watching these films and always grow excited when a new one comes out even though I don’t take them that seriously. They’re just so ridiculous and fantastic with so much grand action and people that you really enjoy. While I do like my summer blockbusters to have a bit more intelligence, like “Top Gun: Maverick,” there’s a lot of fun to be had with this series and its devoted fan base is proof of that.
With “Fast X,” I was certainly having a ball with the chase sequences that you know deep down aren’t physically possible but you love anyway. After all, is there anything more cool than seeing Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Sung Kang, Ludacris, Nathalie Emmanuel and Tyrese Gibson trying to stop Jason Mamoa from blowing up The Vatican by using their cars to steer the gigantic circular bomb through the streets like a life-size game of pinball?
These action sequences are sure to impress many fans of the series and they feel more fresh than the chases in “F9.” Also, no one goes to space in this film so that helps the credibility a bit more. But make no mistake, this film knows that it's a ridiculously good time and embraces that identity, especially when it comes to Momoa’s performance.
Jason Momoa is an actor who can be incredibly dramatic and grounded, even in big-budget blockbusters like “Aquaman,” “Dune” and incredible series like “See” and “Game of Thrones.” That ability is nowhere to be found in “Fast X.” Instead, Jason Momoa is so goofy and over-the-top that you have to wonder if he studied the performances of Nicolas Cage and John Travolta in “Face-Off” for reference. Whether or not it’s true, Momoa is a lot of fun and is easily the best new character in the film.
As for the rest of the cast, they bring their usual flair for grand action and fun one-liners to make every scene interesting. You really can’t go wrong with people like John Cena and Michelle Rodriguez taking on masked guys wearing tactical gear and flashing assault weapons. Newcomers to the series like Daniela Melchior and Brie Larson are quite entertaining and make their mark on the series but it’s unsatisfying to see so many great people like Rodriguez, Larson, Jason Statham and Scott Eastwood all feel underutilized in this film. This is due to the biggest problem of “Fast X:” it’s just the first part of the story and this was never made clear to the viewers.
The fact that the film has a cliffhanger is somewhat intriguing and it feels like, for its inevitable conclusion, the franchise is trying to have a multi-part epic finish things off. For some fans, this ending might feel like the ending of “The Empire Strikes Back,” “Back to the Future Part II” or “The Dark Knight.” However, the difference between those films and “Fast X” is that they properly utilized all of their characters instead of holding off on using some of them until further down the road.
By pushing characters like Deckard Shaw (Statham) and Letty Ortiz (Rodriguez) to the side with the promise that they’ll be used more in the next film, it feels like the filmmakers are purposefully not delivering everything the films are capable of. Say what you will about the other films, at least they felt self-contained and used most of their characters quite well. While I think that this will become less of a problem when the next film is released and widely available, I don’t see “Fast X” being anyone’s favorite film in the series.
If you go into this film knowing that you’re getting a Part One, I think that you’ll find this to be a fun time. If you’re wanting to experience another self-contained adventure in this adrenaline pumping franchise, then “Fast X” will come light on fuel.
