Fast X Review

I saw this film two weeks ago.

I can’t remember a lot of it.

The main thing I do recall though is Jason Mamoa, who’s the best thing in this by an absolute Europe long runway. He’s loving it! I never would have thought of him as being able to pull a character that was Joker-esque, but here we are. The pure joy he finds in the absurdity of what’s going on, with an underlying nastiness. How his character comes into the franchise could be generously described as “a bit shonky”, but when he’s this much fun I don’t care.

Stunt wise it seems like things have been scaled back a touch. There’s more actual car stuff for a start. I prefer it this way.

Yet again the previous villains are now good guys, which is so damn jarring. With a proper arc I could buy into redemption once or twice. But it’s a joke now, and especially jarring when you have a former baddie high-fiving his young nephew when he manages to kill their pursuers. Big “hmmm” vibes on that front.

The ninth film was a real disappointment; Fast & Furious’s jump the shark moment. X can’t match going into space, but it quite rightly doesn’t try to. Unfortunately it all feel a bit tired now. Perhaps not a surprise consider we’re at #10, but I think it’s good that the series has one eye on wrapping up.

But seriously, they should have called this FasTen your seat belts, or something.

Looking forward to Mamoa becoming part of the family.