'Fast X' Review: A decent, nitrous-filled rip-off of the 'Avengers'

Back defying the laws of physics and simply ignoring gravity comes the latest installment in the Fast & Furious franchise with Vin Diesel in his most dramatic performance yet. “Fast X,” directed by Louis Leterrier, hits theatres this weekend and finds our favorite ex-street racer turned superhero Dominic Toretto and his growing gang of misfits on the run from a raging psychopath retconned into the epic thriller series.

Jason Momoa as Dante Reyes | Credit: Universal

Starting out as a simple street-racing film franchise with your ordinary low-class heist jobs has turned into a global box office spectacle with world-saving missions using fast cars that can either launch into space, submerge under water, or stop a fiery bomb rolling through the streets of Rome. F10 shows all that and more, bringing in new big names to the franchise like Aquaman star Jason Momoa and Captain Marvel herself, Brie Larson, in the ever-expanding Fast and Furious universe. However, instead of sitting through some okay humor and ridiculous, non-possible stunts just to see Dom do something preposterous to save the day just in time for a good ole barbeque, is a deeper-darker film as Toretto races to save his son Little Brian (Leo Abelo Perry) from a ghost of his past.

This article will contain spoilers for “Fast X.”

In F10, Toretto and the gang – Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Mia Toretto (Paget Brewster), Roman (Tyrese), Tej (Ludacris), Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), and Han (Sung Kang) – return to face off against an over-the-top villain in Momoa who plays flamboyant Dante Reyes, the son of Brazilian drug-lord Hernan Reyes from “Fast Five,” who is hellbent on making Dom suffer for the death of his father who died in F5. If you’re confused about who Dante is, he is the character I mentioned that was retconned in the franchise in the first few minutes of the film so don’t worry, he’ll be addressed, sort of.

In the film, the Toretto gang is being framed by Dante for a massive terrorist in Rome which puts the crew on top of the global most wanted list and hunted by the Agency, a secret organization Dom and his crew previously ran missions for, and their new head Aimes played by Reacher and Blue Mountain State’s Alan Ritchson. The bomb you see in trailers rolling through the streets of Rome goes off destroying parts of the Vatican, thus splitting up the characters in all the carnage, à la Infinity War and Endgame. Rodriguez gets paired and locked away with cyberterrorist Cipher (Charlize Theron), who returns seeking Dom’s help against Dante who proves to be way more dangerous than his funky wardrobe will make you think. Tej, Roman, Ramsey, and Han get separated from Letty and are on the run in a different continent, while Dom faces off against Dante who steals the God’s Eye, introduced in Furious 7, to locate the whereabouts of Little Brian who is off with Jakob Toretto (John Cena).

All this is accompanied by some delightful crazy stunts and goofy comic sidebars. In the climax of the film, we see the crew finally reunite in Portugal to face off against Dante, but in a twist, we are left with an epic cliffhanger as we see the possible deaths of not one but multiple characters, and Dom left in an impossible situation with his son at his side. With a disastrous fate resembling Inifitny War to end the film, fans in theatres were treated to a mid-credit scene with fan-favorite Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) returning to the fold.

Thoughts?

Diesel in the film is giving one of his best performances, if that’s saying much, in a dramatic storytelling of what family really means to him. But what is a good performance by Diesel is a bizarre, disorienting film that is flipping between tones and a plot that if you think too hard doesn’t make sense. Jakob, who spent most of the previous film trying to kill his big brother Dom and his gang, becomes some comedic relief character we’ve come to see Cena play in his other projects. Also, the movie just doesn’t hit the same when the Toretto gang is separated practically the whole movie. We get to see some interesting fun pairings because of the split, like Han and returning Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), but it also really takes away from the best parts of the franchise, seeing the gang come together to pull off some heroic effort.

That said, much of the spectacle in this film lacks compares to previous films. It’s hard to dazzle audiences when you do the impossible and get a car up into space, but the fast cars and stunts still do the trick. I’ve come to expect that much of this franchise. All I know is if the payoff of this slow-burn, two-or-three-part film ending isn’t an A.I. generated Brian O'Conner returning in Dom’s final moments saying “on your left” with all the characters of the franchise pulling up out of nowhere in their cars ready to defeat Dante once and for all, I don’t want it.