REVIEW #285 Fast X (2023)

Dominic Torreto is forced to defend his family once again as a new foe, fuelled by revenge, vows to make Dom suffer for his past actions. But are his family strong enough to make it through their deadliest villain yet?

Fast X certainly exceeded my expectations, yes it still included the franchises trademark silliness, defying the laws of physics, but I felt like this instalment had much more going for it. Jason Momoa stole the show as Dante and his flamboyant portrayal of the latest antagonist felt like a breath of fresh air, a contrast from the grumpy, brooding villains that we have witnessed over the past few years. He still poses a huge threat, possibility the biggest yet but he also entertains and is one of those antagonists where you can’t help but like him, despite his actions. Fortunately Momoa was one of the few characters with solid dialogue, whereas Dom, Letty and a couple of others were incredibly cheesy, the dialogue was so poor that it actually made them look like bad actors. Tej and Roman still provided the enjoyable humour and even with a cringey script and a ton of dad jokes, Tyrese Gibson executed them very well. 

We had an abundance of new characters for the 10th film, Brie Larson, Alan Ritchson, Daniela Melchior all playing pretty significant roles and they actually done well to avoid that overcrowding feeling too. The new characters flexed into the story well and they even contributed to a great twist that concluded the movie, I didn’t expect it and it sets up the follow up film very nicely. Now I want to finally mention John Cena, his portrayal of Jacob switched up a lot here, we last saw him as quite menacing and serious but they utilised Cena’s humour and lightheartedness in this and although it was a drastic changed, I still enjoyed it. One thing that did make me chuckle was how they had tanned him up slightly, an attempt to make the idea of him being Dom and Mia’s sibling a little more believable!

Now the cinematography was okay, it peaked when the shots were kept simple with limited CGI and also within the compact action sequences because for the most part the combat choreography was nice and smooth. However some of the extremely large set pieces where CGI was needed for most of it, they did look a little questionable, which didn’t help an already unrealistic scene. The biggest joke of the entire film, was the last scene and I just don’t get how they are gonna justify this in the next film! I won’t reveal the spoiler here, but just be prepared because it makes absolutely no sense. It’s something that they have done before but that instance was actually justifiable and was a little more feasible. 

In conclusion, I couldn’t help but enjoy this movie, it’s one you can switch off to, sit back and just enjoy for the spectacle. It’s easy to moan about the unrealistic set pieces but at this point we all know what we’re gonna get with these movies, so I can’t complain too much. At the core of it all is a lot of heart and although the theme of family has become a laughing point of the franchise, in Fast X, it does contribute a lot to the emotional spine of the movie. So if you fancy a big blockbuster this weekend, this one’s for you.

Overall (6.8/10)

Thanks for reading.

Callan