Fast X

Fast X
Starring Vin Diesel, Jason Momoa, Michelle Rodriguez, Charlize Theron
Directed by Louis Leterrier

Growing up my mom watched soap operas, and they all had the same type of storyline: feuding families, love, betrayal, deaths, people thought dead coming back from the dead, evil twins, and the like. "The Fast and the Furious," now ten films into its twenty-two year run, is basically a soap opera for men. It has everything the daytime soap operas offer, but masked with strong masculinity, fast cars, and even faster with the rules to science, as the "family" we've come to know and love have done everything from get involved in small-time street races to aiding a government organization in stealing a drug lord's safe, driving through high rise buildings, send cars flying out of airplanes to land safely on the ground, and, yes, even send cars to outer space. Yet through it all the concept of family remains the franchise's core, and that family's life is threatened yet again by a villain who has close ties to Dom and his pals, who wants nothing more to see Dom suffer, and sets out to achieve this goal by spending ten years playing the long game before his seemingly perfect plan begins to unravel.

After spending years helping the government rid the world of vicious evildoers who also seemingly have personal connections to his family, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) is happy living his life with his wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), his son Brian (Leo Abelo Perry), and his extended nuclear family. Yet what he doesn't know is that Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa) - the son of a drug lord that Dom and his family took down years earlier - has been patiently biding his time before unleashing his fiendish plan to torture Dom by taking out his family. Having separated the group, Dante seems to always be a few steps ahead of Dom and his family, but never count them out especially when the lives of those they love are on the line.

The Good:
"The Fast and the Furious" is one of those unique franchises that have somehow managed to reinvent itself in ways that make it endearing to audiences, ranking up the profits with each subsequent sequel by providing a male version of a soap opera in grandiose style. No one watches these films for reality, but instead turn off the logic in their brains and sits back and enjoys the wild ride it delivers. "Fast X" is no different, as there's no shortage of exciting car chases, fights, and shoot-outs to keep you entertained for the (arguably) lengthy runtime, especially considering it's the first of a trilogy to end the franchise.

The returning cast all have been committed to the franchise for a long time, and their duty to it hasn't wavered. None of them phone in their performances here, and you can sense the comradere that they share behind the camera (notwithstanding the numerous grips made, typically due to Vin Diesel, that have led to the likes of director Justin Lin and co-star Dwayne Johnson exiting the franchise). When Dom talks about family, you feel it, because these actors are pretty much family after spending over twenty years together. Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, and the rest all have their shining moments and really deliver when push comes to shove.

The newcomers also have their moments to shine, especially Brie Larson and Jason Momoa. Larson's character has personal ties to Dom's group, and she showcases her action prowess outside the MCU. Yet the standout is obviously Jason Momoa's Dante, a foe that Dom and his group has never encountered before. Not only is Dante precise and always three steps ahead, but he's flamboyant in his delivery, relishing every agonizing moment where he's torturing Dom by torturing his family. Momoa understood the assignment and delivered an A+ performance in villainy: he knows that the franchise isn't meant to be serious, and he dives wholly into the outlandish nature that the franchise is known for with gusto that's very appreciated, especially in an era where villains are mostly background characters who play to their stock character strengths.

While not as great as the other films - mostly due to director Louis Leterrier's late arrival (Justin Lin abandoned the project due to conflicts with Diesel) - there's still some exciting car chases, shootouts, and brawls that the franchise is known for. The effects aren't as polished as the others, and you can notably see the CGI effects here, but it still provides some death-defying thrills that'll keep you in your seat and your eyes wide open. The best of these is the fight scene between Charlize Theron's Cipher and Michelle Rodriguez's Letty, who really tear into each other due to their hatred that's stemmed since the eighth film, and it's all the more admirable due to the fact that they shot their fight sequence without the director on set.

"Fast X" is the first of three films to round out the franchise, and much like "Avengers: Infinity War," this film also ends on several cliffhangers that really resonates with the audience. By now if you haven't seen any of the previous films, you won't start here, so there's a pedigree that's existed throughout the decades that leaves you caring for these characters - no matter how thinly written they are. Lives are in peril, some people die, and there's some other shocking revelations that will leave your jaw on the floor as long as you're not spoiled by them beforehand.


The Bad:
"The Fast and the Furious" is known for the concept of family, and that idea has been beaten like a dead horse on the highway. The last film had numerous memes making fun of that concept, but here it seems to go full depth into it, easily because it's the beginning of the end. Still, the word "family" was mentioned 56 times, and it's as subtle as being hit over the head with a carburetor.

The concept for this story centers on Dante's quest for revenge by torturing Dom by attacking his family, yet there's no sense of real danger for them until the final half hour. The rest of the time they're cracking jokes like usual and treating it like another run-of-the-mill villain, when Dante is so much more. The stakes began to feel lessened until the final shocking moments that propel the story like a slingshot into a black screen, leaving it open for the next film to pick up on (and who knows when that'll happen).

Though the idea of family is paramount, "Fast X" spends the majority of its runtime keeping the family separate. Dom is in search of Dante; Letty finds herself caught up with Cipher; John Cena's Jakob takes Dom's son Brian for a uncle-cousin road trip; Roman, Tej, Ramsey and Han spend the film trying to find Dom. The family isn't really together, which is one of "The Fast and the Furious"'s strengths, and without that the story falters.

The film repeats itself numerous times, spinning its wheels like a car revving up before being launched, but the revving up parts feel disjointed with the whole. There could've been thirty minutes or so cut off and it would've been better, but fortunately the action overshadows these faults.

Much like the other films in the franchise, the action scenes here (although technically well done) will get lost in the grand scheme of the franchise as a whole, causing you to forget what happens in this film as opposed to others due to the repetitive nature of it.


The Verdict:
Serving as the starting point for the end of "The Fast and the Furious" saga, "Fast X" heightens the tension by introducing the most dangerous and yet enjoyable villain of the long-running franchise, but also is dampened by shoddy CGI work and the now-tired trope of family.

The Score: B+