Hobbs & Shaw

Fast and Furious is a franchise that one watches mainly to see the crazy imagination of the makers to create set pieces involving vehicles. The characters Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw became easily popular when stars like Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham came on board in this Vin Diesel lead franchise. The popularity of those characters and the actors who played those roles resulted in the creation of a spin-off like Hobbs & Shaw. The story, style and the over the top tone are all the same here, but a stunt man like David Leitch being the director has made this movie a bit different from the usual CGI spectacle.

Deckard Shaw’s sister Hattie has the possession of a virus named Snowflake which she took from an organization named Eteon. A super-soldier figure named Brixton Lore from Eteon is trying to retrieve that virus from Hattie. Since the virus can wipe out the entire humanity, Hobbs and Shaw are asked to secure the virus by their respective authorities. Two men who can’t stand each other are on a mission to protect a girl who has the possession of a deadly virus from a super soldier who can literally dodge bullets. Their plan of action is what Fast & Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw all about.

On a content level, there is nothing drastically different from the Fast and Furious franchise happening here. Everything is over the top and when you have people like Jason Statham, Dwayne Johnson teaming up against Idris Elba, over the top becomes normal. What has changed by the way is the nature of the action.  The raw fist fight action sequences are so much there in the movie. And in fact it was only when they showed the cars I remembered the fact that this movie is set in the FnF universe. You can also feel the influence of something like a Deadpool as the humor in the movie aspires to reach that zone. Both Johnson and Leitch have managed to bring in their friends to do surprise cameo roles.

Both Hobbs and Shaw are two largely monotonous characters. The egoistic rivalry between the two is presented in a hilarious way and both Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham were fine in pulling it off. And in a movie like Hobbs & Shaw, the real demand is the swagger and both are known for that in their movies. Vanessa Kirby was surprisingly good as she managed to grab our attention in an action-filled movie that had three massive male stars. Idris Elba who plays the role of the Black Superman Brixton Lore manages to make the antagonist a real tough competition for our heroes.

Like I said in the beginning, David Leitch’s approach towards action makes Hobbs & Shaw a spinoff that has a different texture from the other movies in the franchise. He is not drooling over the machines and that can be a problem for people who are approaching this as another car spectacle. It almost felt like Leitch was restricted by the requirements of a fast and furious movie. The action here is trying to be a very physical one, but the nature of the franchise forces it to be over the top. There is nothing particularly exciting about the basic story here and there are too much of subplots happening here including the Samoa inclusion by Dwayne Johnson. The set pieces are grand and because it’s Leitch, the action has that brutal tone.

Hobbs & Shaw is definitely fun to watch. With all those cameos, it is pretty much clear that they are trying to give the audience inside the theater something to laugh and cheer. Hobbs & Shaw is a usual Fast & Furious movie with the action treatment getting a different tone.

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