It feels redundant to review Fast X.
Who cares what I think of the film? Who cares what anyone thinks of the film? Certainly not the people making them.
While Fast X is the 10th mainline entry in the Fast & Furious franchise, it's very much a sequel to Fast Five (the best one). The bank heist pulled off in that film was at the expense of Hernan Reyes, and now his son Dante is out for revenge.
Dante has been touted as the series' most deadly villain, out to break Dom Toretto and his family, with a plan so evil it needs to be split over two movies.
From there, like all the other Fast & Furious films, the plot is surprisingly convoluted but also quite dumb. There's bombs and car crashes and double agents. Everything you'd come to expect.
Jason Momoa carries the film as Dante Reyes. It's a chaotic performance, one that you can tell he's having an absolute ball bringing to life. It's a side of Momoa we haven't really seen before, playing a flamboyant, almost Joker-like character.
Fast X started in a rocky place. Louis Leterrier replaced Justin Lin in the director's chair after Lin had been filming for a week. He quit due to creative differences, allegedly with Vin Diesel. Leterrier does a fine job, the action is mostly cohesive and exciting, and he's recently signed on to helm Part 2 of the finale.
The franchise's ever-expanding 'family' is almost at the point of critical mass. It does make for some clunky storytelling, there are moments where you realise you haven't seen one of the main characters in 40 minutes, but again... why even bother complaining?
I was a latecomer to the Fast & Furious franchise. The first one I saw in the cinema was the spin-off Hobbs & Shaw after marathoning the first eight.
I fell in love with them instantly (well, from Fast Five onwards). I love the chaos of never using the same titling scheme more than once. I love every stupid physics defying stunt. I love that every villain is inducted into the family in the following film. But most of all I love just how hard Vin Diesel is trying.
I was so blinded by my newfound love for this series that when I saw F9: The Fast Saga. I gave it five stars, I couldn't see how fans of the series thought it was one of the weaker entries. I saw it in a hotel room a few months later and now I get it.
Fast & Furious defies every instinct I have about filmgoing. I don't care if I watch a film on IMAX or at home. I hate when people refer to a film as a "turn your brain off" movie. With this franchise I want to see it on a big screen with a big audience, I do think that you don't need to think so hard about it. Something about Dom Toretto and his family has broken my critical brain and I just want more. I hope this franchise never dies!
It was supposed to die with Fast X Part 2 due out in a couple of years, but at the red carpet premiere Vin Diesel said it now might be a three parter. Make it a four parter! See if I care! Go back to space! Travel back in time! This franchise hasn't been bound by the laws of logic so far, why end in a logical place?
But fair warning, the film is very much part one of a two-part film. It ends right in the middle of a...
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