Review: Fast X – A Family Jumbled Around

Over the last few installments of the Fast and the Furious series, things have jumped off the ledge of common logic and consistency. The level of craziness that these movies have reached is staggeringly high, despite some good-natured messages of family and loyalty at the heart of it all. Fast X is the first installment to the ending of the Fast Saga, signaling the coming finale of what many consider to be one of the craziest action franchises of all time. However, that praise isn’t enough to cancel out the overwhelming amount of goofiness and mediocrity that the series has found itself in lately. While there are some good things that Fast X brings to the series, it also still highlights some of the biggest problems that these movies simply can’t get around. Family might not be enough for some viewers to be fully on board with the Toretto crew on this one.

Fast X brings in a new villain to the franchise, Jason Mamoa’s Dante Reyes, that aims to take revenge against Dominic Toretto’s family as we’ve seen grow throughout the Fast and Furious movies. Dante is the son of a drug lord that Dom and Brian O’ Connor (once played by the late Paul Walker) robbed a few years earlier, pulling out a vault of his father’s fortune with heavy-duty muscle cars. Dante was injured in the incident, while his father was killed. Years later, Dante amasses wealth and influence to make a return and systematically take down Dom’s family, placing targets on his loved ones and friends. The conflict takes the Toretto crew to multiple countries, separating them and bringing back old rivals and enemies into the mix, leading to a clash that is far from over.

The one major highlight of Fast X is the inclusion of Jason Mamoa, who fully commits to playing the part of Dante and appears to be having a great time. His villainy is as outrageous as a comic book villain, with a backstory that is as shallow as it can get. But Jason’s presence on screen and delivery of dialogue make him the one interesting thread throughout the entire film. He nearly steals the show in every scene he is in, including ones with the main cast of the Toretto crew. There are few standout scenes with him alone that push the envelope of the Fast saga, even though they are out of place compared to the rest of the movie. If the series needed an injection of something new and interesting, he’s definitely part of the formula to do so.

Speaking of being out of place, almost everyone who has been featured in the Fast and Furious movies shows up and is separated from one another. After the barbeque with the entire family in one spot, the plot forces everyone away. Characters like Han, Roman, Ramsey, and Tej are grouped together for the majority of the story, while the rest of the cast goes off on their own in relation to the plot. There’s some humor in it, but nothing big enough to make this change worth it. Letty, played once again by Michelle Rodriguez, is completely separated from everyone and sent to the northern hemisphere, while Vin Diesel’s Dom jumps from country to country as the plot gets crazier. Other characters introduced in Fast X are unfortunately forgettable, even with the few things they do that contribute to the bigger parts of the story, they don’t appear long enough or do enough to make them stand out like everyone else.

The most disappointing part of this narrative choice is how the crew never comes back together by the end of this film. It’s a payoff we never get to see after seeing everything that Dante puts the whole family through. It’s made all the more annoying when you realize this is only part one of the saga’s finale, which might mean we won’t see everyone reunite until another movie or two down the line.

But is it at least interesting to watch everyone go through their separate journeys in Fast X? Not really, only because this makes the movie feel so fragmented. There are so many references and nods from throughout the Fast saga crammed into the story that it often takes a side track from the tone originally established at the start. One part feels like Fast 9, another will harken back to the original Fast & the Furious, and then another will be like Furious 7, and so on and so forth.

For fans of the series, this might be a wild ride that seems fun, but for everyone else, this will make the movie feel like it’s going through a constant state of whiplash. It’s like the script just couldn’t have one tone to go with, so the filmmakers decided to just throw everything into this.

And yet there is one thing that every movie in the Fast saga gets right, and that’s the action. Whether it’s big explosions and cars racing on the road, or even shoot-outs and hand-to-hand combat, every action scene feels big. At this point in the series, the weight of consequences and logic of physics in most of the crazy action scenes has gone out the window. There’s a lot of convenience and luck for Dom in most scenarios he finds himself in, as well as near invincibility in some cases. Anyone that puts aside the absurdity of how most of the action is set up will end up enjoying more of the spectacle on screen.

There’s a car equipped with rocket launchers to help it jump over barriers, Dom drives a muscle car that pulls down two helicopters from the air, Letty has to avoid getting hit with lasers while fighting someone, and even more beyond that. If the fun factor of action sequences were emphasized more at the expense of common logic, then it worked out well for Fast X. You honestly can’t enjoy a lot of these action sequences if you get too caught up on how things should work normally. This series is nowhere near normal at this point.

Fast X is a little better than some of the previous entries of the series that weren’t good. But that doesn’t mean Fast X is a great film overall, nor does it overshadow any of the greater films within the Fast saga. The story is outlandish despite having one good new addition with Jason Mamoa’s character, and the rest of the cast play their parts just fine. The action is good if you’re willing to go along with the crazy ride, but it still won’t be for everyone who hasn’t invested themselves in this series. As the first part of a promised finale, it would’ve been nicer to have a more solid conclusion to the film rather than a cliffhanger for the next sequel. Things just end abruptly and leave everyone hanging. The unfortunate truth is that if you didn’t enjoy what you get in Fast X, you might not be coming back for the next one to see how it all ends.

Are you planning on seeing Fast X in the movie theater? Are you a fan of the Fast and the Furious movies? Share your thoughts about everything down below in the comments!