The reviews for Fast X are now in, with critics somewhat divided over just how outrageous the Fast & Furious franchise has gotten. Directed by Louis Leterrier, Fast X features Vin Diesel and his extended family of blood relatives and friends facing off against a new villain played by Jason Momoa. The film is expected to serve as the beginning of the end for the long-running franchise with either one or two more installments on the way to wrap up the story.
Now, ahead of the Fast X release date this week, reviews for the latest Fast & Furious movie are rolling in, with most critics seeming to agree that the film is exceptionally ridiculous and light on emotionally-resonant story beats. Where critics differ, however, is whether this absurdity is part of what makes the film fun or if it’s all starting to wear a bit thin and feel hollow. Check out excerpts from some reviews below:
Molly Freeman, Screen Rant
Fast & Furious is a franchise that has become known for its action and stunts and, in this regard, Fast X exceeds all expectations. However, the script by Lin and Mazeau leaves something to be desired, largely because it’s at odds with itself. Fast X wants to be a movie that smirks cheekily at its audience, letting the viewer know they’re in on the joke, but it also wants to have a grounded and emotional throughline. Unfortunately, it doesn’t pull off a compelling balance, waffling between nudge-nudge wink-wink jokes and soapy dialogue about family. It’s almost, but not quite, a parody of itself.
Scott Tobias, The Guardian
It’s the type of bone-stupid enterprise where locations are established first by characters saying they’re going to Rome, then by helicopter shots of the Colosseum and other major landmarks and then by the title “ROME” in giant, screen-filling letters. Fast X has enough joyful self-awareness that resistance becomes futile. At a certain point, it feels better to give in and smile.
Phil Owen, Gamespot
At the heart of this mess, you’ve got Dom, and you’ve got Dante. Dom is a full-on parody of himself at this point, a meme who doesn’t realize he’s a meme. If Vin Diesel were playing this character with any amount of irony, that could be fun, but instead, he’s just earnest and bland and a bad character.
Dante, by contrast, is a rare aspect of Fast X that feels fresh and new, and that’s primarily thanks to Momoa’s performance, which seems to have clearly involved a lot of improvising. Dante is basically doing a man-child version of Heath Ledger’s Joker–a delightful contrast to the very serious and business-like baddies that the Fast & Furious family usually face.
Peter Debruge, Variety
Most of the time, it’s hard to follow why Dom and company are doing what they’re doing, apart from the obvious point that they’re trying not to repeat themselves — which is ironic, since the movie opens with a six-minute rehash of the “Fast Five” climax, with Momoa inserted into the action. He gets blasted off that bridge in Rio, dies for a few seconds and then dedicates the next decade (off-screen) to studying Dom’s every move.
Tom Jorgensen, IGN
None of Fast X’s clumsily orchestrated car Rube Goldbergs manage much of an identity of their own either, and that’s a shattering disappointment for a series that has historically found new and interesting ways to move vehicles through time and space and explosions. Multiple action scenes feel like rehashes of previous movies – remember when Hobbs and Shaw played tug of war with a helicopter? Well, now Dom’s gonna do the same thing with two helicopters! Does it escalate things? Yes. Is it stunningly original? It is not.
Ray Greene, AV Club
These are blue-collar Bond movies now, scripted by your drunken uncle who is so impatient to get to the ’splosions and flying cars that he’s rushed past everything else to reach the “good stuff.” Gravity bends for Vin and his crew the way it obeys the commands of the flying sword fighters in a vintage Wuxia movie. So if you came for plausibility, you aren’t doing this movie right. You either go with it or you don’t.
Frank Scheck, THR
Momoa, it turns out, is one of the best things to ever happen to the franchise. He’s the best villain by far (not to mention that he does many of his own stunts) and thoroughly steals the film with his delightfully unhinged portrayal of Dante, who interrupts his nefarious activities to inform the ever-macho Dom that his “carpet matches the drapes.” Momoa is not exactly an actor associated with lightness, but here he practically dances the role as much as acts it, taking such frenetically gleeful delight in his character’s sadistic taunting that you practically root for him even when he threatens to destroy the Vatican
Dan Jolin, Empire
Cinema’s least-subtle and most-escalated series hits its sky-high-concept plateau. It’s a film that somehow finds new and fabulously silly things to do with cars, while — Momoa’s questionable villain aside — being exactly what you’d expect.
What The Fast X Reviews Tell Us About The Film
The Fast X reactions and reviews make abundantly clear that the franchise’s days of featuring more grounded action are firmly in the rearview mirror. 2021’s F9: The Fast Saga was the most ridiculous franchise entry thus far, and despite Leterrier’s comments about bringing the franchise back to Earth with more practical stunts, it seems like Fast X is very much more of the same. While F9 featured some new and exciting set pieces, however, some of the reviews suggest that not even Fast X’s action scenes feel totally new or fresh.
Momoa’s performance as Dante, the central villain, is a major talking point in the reviews, with critics divided over whether the actor goes too far or if he’s just what the film needs. One critic even suggests that the flamboyant performance may even verge on homophobia. While critics are divided on the effectiveness of Momoa’s performance, it’s clear that Dante is a villain the likes of which the Fast & Furious franchise has never seen before.
Most critics also seem to agree that Fast X’s story is definitely on the thinner side, with a plot feeling mostly like it’s designed to loosely string together the different set pieces. Essentially, then, the Fast X reviews suggest that audience mileage may vary on the new Fast & Furious flick. Some will surely have fun with the outrageous set pieces and star-studded cast while it appears like, for others, the franchise has started to outstay its welcome.
Source: Various (see above)
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