FAST X - Mark Reviews Movies

Fast X, Universal Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 18, 2023

The most successful installments of the Fast and/or Furious movies are the ones that acknowledge and play up just how ludicrous this franchise has become. Somehow and—appropriately for a series that so routinely treats the basic laws of physics as ignorable suggestions—beyond any sense of logic, we're ten entries in to these movies (not counting a spin-off), so theoretically, Fast X has a lot of very silly things to reference and attempt to surpass. Thankfully, this new installment mostly accomplishes those goals in practice, too.

It's quite a bit of over-the-top fun, but that's as much for the willingness of Dan Mazeau and Justin Lin's screenplay to wink and nudge at just how ridiculous all of this has become as it is for the variety of setpieces. Here's a movie in which the action sequences start with a multi-layered chase through the streets of Rome, featuring assorted vehicles—including a truck with a giant bomb aboard—and plenty of destruction, yet that is somehow not the most elaborate and absurd thing director Louis Leterrier has in store.

The plot isn't quite a reset, since it features a villain who is re-written into the events of the fifth movie, necessitates that we have a basic understanding of these relationships and how the characters have somehow transformed from street racers to international spies, and hopes that there's at least some investment in the characters from those previous installments. Then again, though, there's something almost self-contained about this new film, because the actors have become so sturdy in these roles and the script is clever in its use of narrative shorthand to remind us of the many details we might have forgotten. It's enough, perhaps, to fill in any newcomers on the history of most of the gonzo things that have happened here.

For everyone else, we're reunited with Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), now the father of a young boy (played by Leo Abelo Perry) and married to long-time love Letty (Michelle Rodriguez). His friends and fellow super-spies Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges), Han (Sung Kang), and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) are set for a top-secret mission from the Agency in Rome. That turns out to be a trap.

The setter is Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa), the sociopathic, revenge-fueled son of the villain from the fifth movie who wants Dom to suffer as much loss as possible before finally killing him. That's it, really, but oh, does that simple setup blossom into a fairly impressive juggling act of characters old and new (probably too many to mention here), as well as action that's as straightforward as a no-holds-barred fistfight in an operating room with a laser-armed robot and as convoluted as a chase on an elevated highway that incorporates harpoon-wielding helicopters.

In other words, nothing here is very simple or straightforward. It's obvious that the filmmakers are continually looking for—and usually finding—ways for each action sequence to top whatever has come before it.

The film almost seems as if it might peak with its initial setpiece, which has the quartet in Rome discovering that Dante has planted a bomb on the truck they're trying to hijack, has Dom and Letty split up to stop the bomb and capture the villain, and sends the bomb rolling down the hilly roads of Rome. It's not enough, by the way, that the bomb is heading for the Vatican. At one point, the giant metal orb catches fire, and if that giddy spectacle isn't enough, Leterrier also gives us smaller moments of real stunts, such as when someone does a hopscotch jump on a motorcycle over an obstacle in the way.

There are more action scenes, of course (probably, again, too many to even suggest here), and they play like the stuff of some kind of live-action cartoon (with a lot of aid from visual effects, naturally). The filmmakers know it, or else, why would they introduce new Agency head Aimes (Alan Ritchson) by giving him a lengthy monologue about how unlikely the team's history is, how ridiculous it is that the Agency has let them cause this much chaos for this long, and the ease with which they defy the laws of physics in their shenanigans. Aimes is a solid addition here, as is Tess (Brie Larson), the daughter of former and absent Agency leader Mr. Nobody, whose entire character can be summarized by the fact that her shoes always have spikes on them.

Our main team is divided for the rest of the narrative, giving each one or group something to do—mainly to get into or find trouble as they evade Dante or attempt to save each other. Momoa, by the way, is an unhinged hoot as a villain who actually seems like the exact type who should be in a film as excessive as this one. Other cast members include Helen Mirren, Jason Statham, Charlize Theron, and John Cena as Dom's brother, who tries to hide his nephew in plain sight on a fake canoe trip while lugging around a canoe that turns out to be anything but.

Fast X gets right to the point of giving us outlandish action and keeps making that point in equally or increasingly outrageous ways (The film's multiple cliffhangers even promise future setpieces to kick off the next installment). It has been too easy to dismiss these movies as illogical, irrational, and inherently nonsensical, but there's a distinct feeling that this one takes such criticisms, not only as a challenge, but also a self-aware joke. It makes all the difference.

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