The evolution of the fast and furious franchise has been very erratic. And of late, it has been much less about cars, and it was moving more towards what if Salman Khan was offered something like Mission Impossible. With the pool of actors they brought into the franchise and some twists in real and reel life, that transition was very smooth until F9. Compared to that film, I would say Fast X is much more refined in presenting its nonsensical imagination.
Dominic Torreto lives that calm life back in LA with Letty and his kid. One night an uninvited guest comes to his house and tells him that Dante Reyes, the son of Hernen Reyes, is after Torreto and his family. Remember that set piece where Dom and Brian took out an entire vault in the streets? Well, it belonged to Dante’s dad, and he lost his dad and pretty much everything that day. How Dom protects his family from this psychopath is what you witness in Fast X.
Those car races and nitro boosters were primarily what made all of us love this franchise despite being cinematically less fascinating. But like I said in the beginning, the idea of achieving something bigger made them forget about what this franchise really was. The inclusion of cars into the movies in the franchise, of late, has been very forceful. It’s almost like, let’s write a script that looks like Mission Impossible on steroids, and after 2 drafts, they realized there are no cars in it and rewrote some portions to include them in the story. This CG overdose obsession over scale perhaps makes this franchise less exciting these days.
Directed by Louis Leterrier, the emphasis this time is on the closure. Dom’s character is repeatedly talking about how great this journey has been. The characters who died and won’t return for sure are acknowledged. And the villain’s target list is elaborate and precise; Dom’s family. This emotional angle is actually saving this movie from being a bad package. The whole Vatican setpiece looks fascinating in the beginning. But as it proceeds, cinematic liberty is breaching into the stupidity zone. The visual effects are also a bit clumsy in making things believable. I appreciate their effort to imagine bigger stunts, but this platter packaging feels tiresome after a point.
I am always reminded of Salman Khan whenever I see Vin Diesel in a Fast and Furious movie. While Salman played the same character in different movies, Diesel was sensible enough to opt for a single franchise. His expression of vulnerability isn’t that great, but as the head of the family, who always has a crazy plan to protect, Vin Diesel still looks solid. As the antagonist, Jason Momoa is given a set of psychopathic quirks which he uses smartly, and one could see him enjoy the part offered to him. John Cena as Jacob is more of a comic relief this time. Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris are trying to be funny and manage to make you laugh here and there. Charlize Theron as Cipher reprises her role; this time, her major combination scenes are with Michelle Rodriguez’s Letty. A lot of brief appearances of major characters from past films, along with new entries like Brie Larson’s Tess, are there in the film. Btw, no one is dead in this franchise if they haven’t shown you their dead body.
Fast X is a movie that is a lot better when compared to the disastrous previous installment. But I don’t really see it escaping from the possible trolling for the illogical things one had to see in most of the set pieces. Well, the good thing is, somewhere during all these years of confusingly named Fast and Furious films, we were manipulated to throw away our thinking caps before watching this franchise’s films. Hence a metal ball bomb literally on fire rolling around Rome, and Dom trying to maneuver it with his car doesn’t induce the facepalm reaction.
Compared to F9, I would say Fast X is much more refined in presenting its nonsensical imagination.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
