Movie Review: Fast X

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B-

This may not be "great cinema", but it is exactly what fans would want from a Fast and Furious movie.

Some of you may know that this movie was originally set to be directed by Justin Lin, who had directed the fourth, fifth, sixth, and nineth films in the series. However Lin stepped down due to "creative differences" though he still receives a screenwriting and producer credit on the final film. The director's chair was taken over by Louis Leterrier, who has experience directing action films with the first two Transporter movies as well as The Incredible Hulk (2008). Despite this change in directors, this movie fits perfectly into what anyone excepts from this franchise. The storyline is at the same time needlessly complex and very simplistic. Yet it gives us just enough to care about the characters and to nicely tie together each of the wonderful action sequences. The action sequences are fantastic here. It is pointless to complain about the lack of logic behind these sequences as that is actually much of the charm. We all want to see a person driving a car pull multiple helicopters with said car or watch that car fall from a plane and land on and destroy other cars, but still keep going itself. This is just the type of nonsensical fun that makes people want to see these over the top action films on the biggest screen possible. The climatic massive car chase is a pure adrenaline rush that is simply too fun to care if it doesn't make logical sense (though admittedly the fact that no cars go into space this time makes it more realistic than the last film). This is only one of the fun action set pieces though. A scene early on in Italy and a street race are also quite a bit of fun. Yes, even though this movie is far from the lower stakes movies that started this franchise, there is actually a street race here and this proves why actor Tyrese Gibson, said this this film would have the franchise in some ways go back to its roots. While this street race is a much higher stakes affair than anything in the first movie, it certainly is a lot of fun, and captures the charm of the earlier films. This film also benefits from a truly wonderful villain. Dante is probably the best villain this franchise has ever had. Jason Momoa has stated that he had the time of his life playing this character and this definitely shows on screen. This is an over the top performance but that is the point and that is just what is needed for this type of character. This character clearly feels a lot of joy in the pain he inflicts on our heroes and this joy can be felt in every moment he is on screen. Momoa's performance is incredibly energetic and fun, and he even employs a crazy laugh that reminds me of Frank Gorshin as the Riddler. 

This movie does have its share of faults though. The main one is that it feels the need to fit nearly every character from the franchise into one film. This can make the movie feel overcrowded and overstuffed. Not only this but the scenes starring the supporting characters are simply not as interesting as the scenes between our main hero, Dom, and our main villain, Dante. When the story drifted from these two characters, I often times found my attention drifting a bit and I certainly was not having as much fun (the exception being the one cool fight scene between Letty and Cipher). This gave the film a feeling of being overlong and padded out. This movie also has quite a bit of unfunny humor and clumsy dialogue. I also was not a fan of the ending. The film ends on a cliffhanger, but unfortunately this cliffhanger doesn't really work and it feels like the movie just seems to end at a random moment. 

This movie is a Fast and the Furious film to its core with both the obvious flaws and the pure fun that one excepts from the franchise. 

Plus how can I not enjoy a movie that features Roy Rogers and Dale Evans singing Happy Trails?