"Fast X" - Film Review
Fast X is a homecoming. This 22-year-long journey is packed full of stars and cars, with the loosest of plots tying it all together. As one watches Vin Diesel somehow manage to pull two helicopters behind his car in this tenth installment, it’s easy to forget that this franchise started out as an adaptation of a profile of a New York City street racer. Long gone are the simple days of Dom Toretto (Diesel) illegally racing through the streets of Los Angeles. Now Dom has a family and a (mostly) legal career helping out various law enforcement organizations via fast cars, races, and heists.
Throughout Dom’s saga, he has made some friends and a lot of enemies. One of those enemies is Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa), the son of a man who died at the hands of Dom in Fast Five. Dante and Dom are fueled by the same central idea: family. In Dom’s case, his love of his family is personified by his deep desire to act as a caretaker to anyone he cares about. Dante, however, has taken the loss of his father as motivation to not only watch the world burn, but to be the one who lights the match. Dante wants Dom to suffer because of what he did ten years ago, and will rest at nothing to make sure Dom experiences pain like he’s never known before.
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There’s plenty to love in Fast X. It’s quite impressive that the franchise has managed to make the car chases and fight sequences new in every installment. You want to see Vin Diesel knock a massive bomb through the streets of Rome like a real-life Rocket League? Fast X has that. Have you ever seen pictures of a massive dam and thought, how cool would it be to drive down the length of the dam? Look no further than Fast X. Sure, these stunts defy gravity, but this is also the franchise that sent a car into space in F9. The laws of physics are a little different for Dom and his crew.
Fast X desperately wants to be a fun popcorn summer flick. The film manages to achieve that status quite a few times, but the runtime is so sprawling, the script so nonsensical, and the action sequences so drawn-out that it cannot sustain the levity. At times, it’s almost endearing how much the film has doubled down on the idea that the love of a family is the single most important thing in the world. At other times, it’s comical how often Dom gruffly says “family” as the answer to any question posed to him. It’s like the film takes itself out of the goodwill it creates.
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There’s also the matter of the villain. Momoa plays Dante as if he studied at the Johnny Depp Pirates of the Caribbean school of acting. It’s clear that he’s having a blast, wearing clothes that look like they were stolen from Harry Styles’ wardrobe and gleefully skipping to and fro as he detonates bombs. Dante is the nastiest, most ruthless villain of the franchise, and it’s refreshing to see Momoa play against type and embrace this different style of masculinity. Strangely, the performance feels uncomfortably queer-coded. There’s a long history of film villains characterized with stereotypes of queer people that creates harmful misconceptions and perpetuates homophobic ideations. In a film where this queer-coded guy is against a bunch of traditionally masculine car dudes who are governed by their faith, something doesn’t feel quite right.
No matter what is said about Fast X, there are two more films in the franchise. Fast X ends in a blatantly unnecessary cliffhanger, but it’s unlikely anyone is on pins and needles about what the next installment will hold. As exciting as it is to watch these cars race through historic streets all around the world, Fast X is missing a feeling of tension. There are no real stakes in the franchise. People assumed to be dead can return (and have), so perhaps that’s why the cliffhanger doesn’t hold any water. In any case, as long as there are new and exciting ways for cars to race and explode, people will show up for Dom and his family.
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