Fast X review: Vin Diesel’s Furious franchise is spinning its wheels

You can also find out more about the following: Only one deceptive aspect of the Fast and Furious movies is that the people behind them pretend they’re still movies about cars. Don’t let the talk about torque and fuel-injection systems fool you: This series shifted into a different gear a long time ago. In 2011, it shifted to a new direction with Fast FiveThe movie that inspired Fast and Furious the hybrid superhero/superspy/super-heist franchise it is today. What was once an original (and funny, to be honest) twist has sunk into the mud. What brings us toFast X.

In this new chapter, the villain is Dante Reyes. He was the son of Brazilian drug dealer antagonists fromFast Five. Fast XRecycled footage opens the film Fast Five showing Dante’s dad Hernan (Joaquim de Almeida) meeting his end in that film’s climactic bank heist/car chase. It’s a telling choice, because it reveals where the current incarnation of the series began. It also reminds longtime fans what these movies used to be about — the car chase at the end of Fast FiveIt’s better than any other thing in the world Fast X — and what they’re ostensibly about now.

The answer to that last bit is — say it all together now — family. Fast XThis theme could not be more clear. This is a film with zero subtext, where characters state their motivations and explain what they’re about to do in the clearest of terms right before they do it. (“It’s a big-ass bomb!” a character says at one point, upon the reveal of said big-ass bomb. “I’m going to go kill the guy who’s trying to defuse my bomb,” Dante tells a flunky a few minutes later.) The bluntness of this is mainly meant to make you laugh. It is useful in that if the viewer misses one, they can easily catch up. Fast X’s many references to other Fast and Furious Another character will appear to clarify the relationship moments later.

Universal Pictures

Fast X also lays out Universal’s master plan for the series by constantly underlining the importance ofThe Legacy of the Founders The following are some examples of how to get started:The transmission of knowledge through generationsPreemptively setting up an upcoming reboot, Dominic Toretto’s (Vin Diesel), hands over the keys to his son Little B’s (Leo Abelo Perry), after the three-part epic conclusion of the current story is completed.

Fast X also passes the baton in terms of its supporting characters, introducing two new members of “the Agency” that controls the fates of Dom and his crew. Tess (Brie Larson) is the daughter of Kurt Russell’s Mr. Nobody, who’s currently “deep in hiding” (read: probably going to show up in a post-credits sequence at some point) after his plane was ambushed at the beginning of the last movie. Aimes (Alan Ritchson) is Mr. Nobody’s successor who’s out to get Dom and his friends until he isn’t.

New characters related to old characters also pop up on the good guys’ side, and our familiar friends — Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Mia (Jordana Brewster), Han (Sung Kang), Tej (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) — are there as well. Jakob (John Cena), the antagonist from the last movie, has been incorporated into Dom’s circle of trust, and even super-hacker Cipher (Charlize Theron) shows some temporary loyalty to the crew. And that’s not including the cameos!

Peter Mountain/Universal Pictures

At this point in their lives, Dom and Letty have settled down and become square parents — ones who keep guns with silencers in their night tables, but square parents nonetheless. They approach their lives and work with utter seriousness, whether they’re trying to stop a bomb or teach Little B the ropes. The two characters are therefore the least interesting in the movie. Their partners in crime (or heroism, depending on which movie you’re thinking of), meanwhile, are still cutting it up like old times. The jokes have become stale, especially since Han has been using dating apps while Tej and Roman are still teasing one another.

Cena and his variation of the meathead rocker from the previous film are the characters who have the most hilarity. PeacemakerHis scenes are filled with a lot of fun and energy. Momoa, what about him? Well, the best way to describe his performance in this movie is as a nepo-baby Joker, embracing chaos and destabilizing Dom’s extended family while wearing pastel nail polish and silk shirts unbuttoned to the navel. Even stealing a line of The Dark Knight when he says: “Some men want to save the world. I just want to punish it.”

Given Dom’s habit of acquiring family members (a point Aimes lampshades by complaining about the Fast and Furious “cult” that keeps recruiting former enemies), there are a lot of characters to keep up with inFast X. Louis Leterrier, the director who took over for Justin Lin (the original Fast and Furious creator, Justin Lin left early in production), splits up their adventures into separate globetrotting journeys. The movie is divided into several parallel adventures. Some are more thrilling than others. Tej and Roman spend much of the film shopping in London for underworld gear and visiting old friends.

Universal Pictures

And when the action does come in, it’s a different style than in the best Fast and Furious films. Leterrier used CGI to enhance the chase sequences, while the hand-tohand fighting is shot piecemeal. Not a single kick or punch is captured from the throw through the impact. The whole thing is devoid of any sense of scale or location — and that’s before the nauseating drone photography comes in.

IP, however exciting it may be, is still the most important factor.Fast XAs audiences are encouraged spend the entire movie pointing to the screen as a recognition of the Rick Dalton meme, Leonardo DiCaprio. This film is full of callbacks and references, repeating some of the series’ best stunts in warmed-over sequences that mostly reveal how this was more fun the first time. It’s disingenuous to bemoan a subtlety that this series never had, but the emphasis on lore in Fast X introduces an emotion that’s deadly for a film like this one: boredom.

Fast X suffers from the same condition as latter-day MCU movies, where it’s so laden with internal mythology that it feels more like homework than popcorn entertainment. “The days when one man behind the wheel of a car can make a difference are done,” Aimes soberly informs Dom in the buildup to the film’s fiery, physics-defying action climax, which naturally involves one man behind the wheel of a car. Aimes’ prediction is supposed to be incorrect, as well as wrongheaded. The days of a silly, exaggerated line being enough to bring audiences back may also be diminishing.

Fast XOpening in all theaters across the country on May 19,