Worth: $10.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Vin Diesel, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris, Jason Momoa, John Cena, Jason Statham
Intro:
What was once bombastic, ridiculous, and endearing has become rote and ignorable…
After going to space in F9, it seems that the only logical direction for this franchise to go is crashing back down to Earth. This purported beginning of the end for the Fast & Furious series is a sign of its death knell, whether it makes it to the finish line or not.
The action scenes in Fast X fail to continue the oneupmanship trajectory of the series thus far, which is disappointing but understandable. At this point, the only feasible way they could outdo F9 is if it went full Crisis On Infinite Vin Diesels and had Dom team-up with Groot, Riddick, and the Iron Giant.
Taken on their merits, the action is not exciting. A bomb chase through Rome that looks like Rocket League by way of Mouse Trap, numerous hand-to-hand fights, an ill-advised attempt to go back to series origins with a drag race; try as the stunt and effects teams might, it’s all remarkably unremarkable.
This isn’t helped by the film’s glaring issues with pacing, which make the prospect of this being the first of a two-part (rumoured three-part) finale exhausting just to contemplate, let alone sit through. The amount of purely unnecessary scenes and cutaways here beggars belief, and we’re not talking about emotional engagement or any irrelevant goals like that. Whether it’s a fight scene, a moment for jokes, or yet another showing of the franchise’s now-tiring pretences about family, they all seem to operate solely to remind audiences that characters still exist and are related and are doing things. Not particularly interesting things, but y’know, things.
Speaking of the characters, the contentious departure of series director Justin Lin over conflicts with Vin Diesel (here replaced by Transporter’s Louis Leterrier) seems to be a warning sign that the family is in crisis, because most of the actors don’t look particularly thrilled to be here. It gets to the point where the ones that are having fun (namely Jason Momoa’s ‘60s-TV-Joker-trying-to-be-Heath-Ledger’s-Joker villain, and John Cena’s goofy uncle) look like they’re in entirely different films from everyone else.
Vinny is stone-faced throughout, Tyrese Gibson is the worst he’s ever been as Roman, the confrontation between Sung Kang and Jason Statham that was promised at the end of F9 amounts to sweet diddly-dick, Alan Ritchson’s Agency head spends more time picking apart the film than actually engaging with it, and the extent to which Brie Larson is wasted in this thing is maddening. Bringing together Captain Marvel and two different Aquamen doesn’t automatically make your pseudo-superhero movie better, guys.
Fast X manages to be the one thing that the Fast & Furious franchise has avoided being for over a decade: Tame. Since it’s the Infinity War of the series, could indicate that they’re saving their biggest blasts for later, but since when have these films ever pulled their punches? What was once bombastic, ridiculous, and endearing has become rote and ignorable, and at the risk of sounding trite, it shows the high-octane series is now running on fumes.
