Fast X (2023) | REVIEW

Directed by Louis Leterrier — Screenplay by Dan Mazeau and Justin Lin — Story by Dan Mazeau, Justin Lin, and Zach Dean.

Louis Leterrier’s Fast X follows Dominic Toretto (played by Vin Diesel) and his team — which consists of family, friends, and former villains (all of whom Dom considers to be ‘family,’ of course) — as they are put in danger when an unknown crazy enemy from their past named Dante Reyes (played by Jason Momoa) seeks vengeance.

Once upon a time, I really cared deeply about this franchise. I’ve seen Tokyo Drift more times than I probably even realize, I had such a good time when I binged the first six films in the build-up to the seventh film, and the seventh film moved me to tears in the theater. But, I think, I have to admit that the franchise has lost me. I barely remember anything about the eighth film, and the ninth film, which I had hoped would be a return to form, ended up being a massive disappointment to me. 

Fast X is not a step up from nine, though I do like it slightly more thanks to one performance. In many ways, though, it is just as underwhelming as nine, if not more. While it is smart of the film to try to connect its new villain back to perhaps the most critically acclaimed film of the franchise, it is yet another example of an eye-roll-inducing retcon from a franchise that surely must have retconned aspects almost as many times as the word ‘family’ has been uttered in these films. The dialogue leaves much to be desired, as, I found, certain scenes to rely too heavily on proverbs and the like. Furthermore, I found that in early scenes Dominic Toretto was frustratingly saying — and hitting us over the head with — all of the fears that the film should’ve made more subtle. What the film is setting up in the first half-hour is obvious, the story ends unsatisfyingly, and, way too often, the lighting is off. 

The action is so insanely over-the-top that all sense of realism is missing and certain scenes lack simple logic from central characters as well as random nameless individuals interacting with the world (am I misremembering something, or were Italian police officers literally firing bullets toward a huge bomb rolling their way in that Rome sequence?). Now, admittedly, the lack of realism in the action is almost a selling point in this phase of the franchise, but the franchise has run itself into the ground with the number of character resurrections that they have made over the years so that every moment in which this film tries to make it seem as if there are genuine stakes and tension to be felt over crashes, explosions, and stunts end up completely unmoving. 

The film is also just bloated. The star-studded cast has gotten so huge by this point that the film has to create multiple different subplots to keep the actors busy. While I enjoy watching these performers, you could’ve genuinely cut out so many scenes with Charlize Theron, Brie Larson, John Cena, and Michelle Rodriguez (etc.) without harming the central storyline of the film significantly. Of course, there is also the utterly ridiculous and quite superfluous Pete Davidson scene.

It also doesn’t help that some of the actors in this film are acting as if they are in completely different movies. Vin Diesel is trying his hardest to add in some emotion and seriousness to certain scenes, but it doesn’t work because the range isn’t there. John Cena, whose character was way too serious in Fast and the Furious 9, is being tasked with correcting his character, as he is now more of a fun uncle than a former antagonist, and, while Cena is much better at playing this version of the character, it is a huge overcorrection because it feels incongruous with the film series. The final performer that I should highlight is Jason Momoa, and, frankly, he is the highlight of the movie. Jason Momoa — perhaps more than any other actor in the post-Furious 7 era — understood the assignment, as he has turned his character’s ridiculousness all the way up. Momoa gets to appear in arguably the most creepy and disturbing scene of the entire franchise, and, later, poke fun at the franchise. 

Perhaps I’m wrong, but I don’t think that this is just a ‘me-problem.’ The problem isn’t merely that I’m not connecting with the franchise anymore. Rather, I think that the problem is that the franchise has refused to grow or even return to its roots in the post-Furious 7 era, opting instead to double down on the ridiculousness and the retcons that have now broken the formula of the franchise. Movies are art and make-believe and they come in all shapes and sizes. The over-the-topness of it all here is a valid form of entertainment that seems to still be enough for so many people. But even though the franchise continues to try to up itself by adding in more and more well-known actors and throwing away money to build elaborate action sequences all over the world, I think the sequences now land with a thud, I think that they are now starting to make your eyes glaze over, and when you no longer believe that anything depicted on-screen matters, then what’s the point? That kind of film doesn’t need to be almost two-and-a-half hours long, and its story certainly shouldn’t have to be split into two or three movies. But, knowing me, I’ll probably still follow along to see what the, ahem, family gets up to once the next film reaches VOD.

3.5 out of 10

– Review Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.