Fast X Review
A loud, proud, fast and furious start to the finale of this franchise.
When Dante (Jason Momoa), the son of the main villain from Fast Five, comes looking for revenge on the crew that killed his father, he doesn’t want to kill them; he wants to make them suffer. On the back foot, Dom (Vin Diesel) is separated from Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), who is also separated from Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Ludacris), Han (Sung Kang) and the rest of the family. As they each try to get out of their respective jams, and assemble the full crew for the fight of their lives, Dom has to also try and protect his son from the claws of this madman.
Fast X is the long awaited start to the uber finale of the Fast and Furious franchise. After 10 movies, the question is not whether these movies can still surprise you - the question is whether or not you care.
This film deals in major, mind-boggling action, taking us from LA to Rome, to Portugal and Rio. It’s a whirlwind tour, but one of the best things about this film is that while it still undoubtedly is far from realistic, it has shaved off some of the more outlandish choices of previous movies. The team are generally back to the cars, and that feels grounded - in so far as this movie could ever be grounded.
Jason Momoa makes his franchise debut as Dante; the villain of the piece. And he is fantastic. Camp, aggressive, and playing to the rafters, Momoa is fabulously dressed, fabulously mean, and straight up fabulous. The franchise, heralded to finish with a big two parter in Fast X and the sequel (although rumors abound of it being a 3 parter), needed a villain who could match the lovability and bombasity of these characters, and they have finally found one. Momoa brings such a welcome breath of fresh energy to the franchise, you’ll be wishing this wasn’t the beginning of the end.
Other than that, this movie generally takes the form of the first hour of The Avengers. The villain is introduced in a big way. The team has to sort of get back together. And they are set up for a big finale. The difference? Mixed among all of that is some A grade action.
Whether it’s pulling clips from the backstory elements of Fast Five (a nice way to include Paul Walker in this film), which serves as a great reminder of that incredible safe sequence, shepherding a giant bomb with cars through the streets of Rome, or smashing cars off the road with helicopters attached to your bumper, the visuals on display are just insane.
Then there’s all the regular things we love about the Fast and Furious franchise; huge names, even bigger cameos, gruff dialogue that doesn’t always make sense, a plethora of one liners, tank tops and white jeans. It’s all here, and if you’re a fan of the previous movies, you’ll love this one.
Ultimately, for me, this film sat somewhere below Fast Five and Furious 7, which jointly represent the high water mark in my humble opinion, but above the remainder of the franchise entries (including Hobbs and Shaw). For a film that is effectively the introductory half of the finale, that’s a great sign.
