Fast X: Movie Review

Cast: Vin Diesel, Jason Momoa, Ludacris, Nathalie Emmanuel, Tyrese Gibson, Michelle Rodriguez, Charlize Theron, Brie Larson, Jordana Brewster, John Cena, Jason Statham, Helen Mirren
Director: Louis Letterier

"It's like a cult with cars."

Sometimes, a big dumb film is just a big dumb film.

The Fast and Furious franchise has long moved past any pretensions of grandeur, and instead has focused on providing OTT action and what the fans of the genre want - as well as what the box office expects in terms of the European summer returns.

Fast X fits squarely into the category of big and dumb, with its mix of ACME cartoon violence stylings fitting nicely with its main cast's inability to provide any kind of nuance of emotions throughout.

However, what Fast X has in its arsenal as it reveals the latest film is just the start of a three part finale for the franchise is Jason Momoa's vengeful and flamboyant Dante Reyes, who's determined to visit his father's "never accept death when suffering is owed" mantra on Toretto et al for killing off his dad in Fast Five.

Cue plenty of globe trotting, sequences of retrofitting Momoa's Dante into Fast Five footage and moments of CGI and practical stunts melding together to defy all laws of gravity. 

The Fast and Furious franchise isn't interested in logic, nor is it interested in dialogue in this latest, but is more concerned with splitting off groups of Toretto's fam, revealing unexpected betrayals and setting up future instalments with cliffhanger endings that MCU films would revel in.

Yet, it's hard in parts to take the threat seriously - for in among most of the chaos, and brutal brawls, there are not any hints of any of the characters taking a scratch. 

Cars fly into walls at speed, leaving only broken windows, fights crunch with bloody might but no hint of blood - it's all shifted away from the human level now to reveal Dom Toretto et al are superheroes, protected by the superpower of family and faith.

It would be laughable were it not for a few positive things in the latest. 

Firsly, Momoa's manic character is an excellent antagonist for the series. From revelling in wearing scrunchies and doing nails, to camply taunting Toretto and swinging quickly to menace with demented ease, this Joker-like level performance proves knowing enough and also dangerous enough to provide some menace for the showdowns now - and in future. And while Diesel still can't emote at all during his acting, it's the first time he's gifted his Toretto some vulnerability in proceedings.

Secondly, the action is wall-to-all swirling, twirling cameras that plays up the bigger nature of the stunts and also leans heavily into the cartoony ACME levels you'd expect. (It's a surprise Road Runner and Coyote don't show up, to be frank.) The scale of it all is overwhelming and in fairness to Letterier, extremely crisply choreographed and shot. From a rolling bomb in Rome to street racing in Rio, the visual aesthetics of the series prove once again insanely compelling and crowd-pleasing - no matter how much you're eye-rolling and wondering what next.

But ultimately, alongside the cameos, the returning characters, the peril faced at the end, Fast X is a hollow movie which will be judged on its second half. As a blockbuster, it serves up what's needed, but as ever with this franchise, it's a shallow adrenaline rush that will satiate its fans, will leave some screaming at a post-credits scene and leave others utterly clueless over the appeal of this nearly creatively running on empty series that somehow continues to reinvent itself despite all the odds and despite there being nothing new on offer.