Fast X

Tell you what I'm gonna do. And maybe people who haven't read a ton of my reviews will be surprised by it, but this is how it's done. I will not be discussing the pros and cons of the action sequences, or the soundtrack, or the cars, or any of the stuff that really endears the franchise to so many people. Mostly because I don't give a crap about those things, and I never really did. And no, it's not the themes of family which resonated with either. However, I believe when I give this film (it's mostly negative) review, the thing that I want to talk about is its subtext, and how I feel the franchise is working against itself at this point. So, yes, Matt is about to do a deep dive into a Fast & Furious' movie's themes and basically explore why this franchise is wearing so thin.

First of all, many people have raised their eyebrows at me reviewing these films to begin with. They are SO not my types of movies. Even more provocative is the fact that I gave all of the earlier films reasonably good reviews. I'm not taking those back or saying I was wrong. What I will say is perhaps I was a little lenient on them because critics have been so hard on them. When the franchise had a reputation for being super dumb, when I eventually get around to binging it and seeing there isn't really anything wrong with the screenplays, yeah, it gets credit for that because my expectations were low. This is the first of the movies I saw outside of the era when I first saw them, so a little time and distance means I am ready to judge it on its own merits, rather than the expectations of anybody else. And even though this review WILL be negative, I do need to point out that like all of the previous films, it's not actually bad. The films don't deserve the crap they get. They aren't great. But they sure as hell aren't terrible.

So yeah, I feel like talking a bit about the arc and the story and why it's just not working. This has been a problem for I would guess the last two or three films in the franchise. The main problem is I believe the franchise got it in its head that it needed to top each movie in having a personal and dire situation for Dom and the family. And a lot of franchises do similar things. The problem with THIS franchise doing that is the fact that it abhors killing off major characters. Letty being the most obvious example, but Han came back in the last film, and Giselle is in the tag here. If one of Dom's allies gets killed, it's never permanent. Jacob's death and sacrifice is a case in point. If Han and Giselle could survive their explosions and disasters, so could he.

Let me also put a provocative idea into your head. I think the fact that the franchise does NOT really dig killing off main characters and bumming the audience out is a good thing and selling point. Hell, they still refuse to kill off Brian for crying out loud! The problem is each dire and personal villain and scenario is just... not that. Dante describes destroying Dom's life and family. Regardless of what the cliffhanger showed does anybody think he did that? Does anybody think he'll wind up doing it in the upcoming final film? (Dom's son is undoubtedly going to have to be recast as the actor's strike will have aged the kid out of the role.) When Dom can do the crazy stunts he does and survive, with zero perspiration, and keep his family alive (more or less) for ten films, no matter how vicious Dante is portrayed as, the stakes are actually incredibly low.

And again I want to point out I do not begrudge the franchise for not killing off more characters. But the fact that they don't means the franchise would have done better instead of going and darker with worse and more personal enemies for Dom, to have turned into a bit of a romp instead. Remember how fun Fast Five was? Fast and funny heist pictures should have been this franchise's future. I think the movies should have been like THAT for the past three films and not worried about grand melodramatic betrayals or destroying Dom's life and family.

Honestly though, I think one of the reasons I dislike the film is because Jason Momoa as Dante sucks. I hate to say that, but the worst thing about the character for me is he's played as comical and kind of a joker. But because he is so violent and sociopathic and trying to hurt and kill characters we care about, he's not remotely funny. I seem to recall feeling the same level of hatred for Jim Carrey's performance as Dr. Robotnik in the Sonic The Hedgehog movies. You forgive Carrey's jerkishness in most of his other roles because he's usually the protagonist and giving LOUSY people the business. It's a LOT harder to like and find a Jim Carrey character funny when he's directing his brand of obnoxiousness on the heroes instead of the bad guys. Same thing here. Momoa's funny charms are utterly lost by the despicable things he is doing to the family.

Honestly, the opening scene sort of recalled the crappy alternate takes on Tokyo Drift the last movie tried to get us to swallow to retcon Han surviving. Saying Dante and Ames were around the margins of that previous movie smells like the cheapest of retcons. Not as bad as the Han thing. But ballpark. Annie Wilkes still would have stood up in the theater and yelled for sure.

Dom's allies (Cipher, Jacob, and Shaw) wound up killing a LOT of Agency agents. Even if Dom is found innocent of the crimes Dante framed him for, it seems weird the movie is acting like the Agency is just gonna let those murders slide.

I'll tell you what I liked. I did not predict Rimes being on Dante's side. And Dante gave a good excuse for Dom falling for it: It's outside of every other character Dom meets and teams up with. He always gets everybody else whether it is Hobbs, or Shaw, or Jacob, to come around. Rimes NOT doing that is one of the first genuinely surprising things in the franchise. The great thing is it's not even a surprise betrayal or anything. They already could barely stand each other. But it's outside of every single other person Dom appeared to have created an alliance with.

This is the first Fast movie I've seen out of context of the others, and sort of on my own instead of as a new viewer playing catch-up. And when judging it by my own standards instead of the unfair standards of snobby critics, I can say the franchise is losing its way and not really getting its real selling point. The Fast & Furious franchise should be a LOT more fun and enjoyable than it is. But it insisting on super dark plots while paradoxically refusing to kill anybody off for real is working against that. The subtext to the movies are getting darker and darker. Without the films actually ever really having the guts to show or go through with that darkness. That is a definite failing of not just this movie, but all of the later ones. **1 removed link