I have never watched the Fast and Furious franchise. For me, “Fast X” was a fresh and new experience, and my takeaway was that the film had a pace that could make anyone sit for three hours.Despite having cartoonishly predictable scenes and goofy dialogue, it entertains the audience with its fast-paced action.
The opening scene of the film starts with a scene from one of the previous films, but it doesn’t have the impact as other scenes do. The film’s director, Louis Leterrier, has put in many heroic and mass pleasing elements that make the characters likable; this isn’t the kind of film fans go on expecting grey and shady characters.
Expecting anything other than ridiculously over the top action from the film would already be a bad idea. Thankfully, I’d already dropped this expectation before watching it.
The story has no significant moments. It’s a simple tale about a so-called good guy saving his family versus a so-called bad guy. The representation of a good guy thus comes in a stereotypical on screen fashion, and the performances understand the pulpy nature of the script.
The protagonist, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), is masculine enough to have that personality and can do anything to save his family. In one scene, we watch him share his fear about losing his family as he sets his primary motive for the whole film. Even the story’s stakes are based on his primary principle of life: “saving the family.”
The antagonist Dante (Jason Momoa) has all the psychotic traits that make him more lunatic and the best part about the film. His desire to make the protagonist suffer by taking his family feels straightforward, but it’s the performance that adds to the cheesiness. For once, the whole idea reminded me of the Indian serial drama where Adarsh Bahu is shown as a protector who always tries to save her family from a vamp who does planning and plotting to destroy her whole family. Afterall, that’s what the Fast films are. Soap operas with cars that go on making a billion dollars.
After a choppily executed action scene, the film starts by setting up Dominic’s life and establishing how he spends his time with his family. In his family, he shares some vulnerable moments with his wife, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), and his son, Little B (Brian Marcos). In those moments, it can be observed that the story is about protecting his son and wife. Letty is also an unhinged fighter, but her son is still a boy, so if danger comes, the two must save them. But the danger had not been seen yet until Cipher (Charlie Theron) entered in a wounded condition. It can be an inciting incident for the film, where the film grabs its pace.
Cipher informs them about their new enemy, which makes Dominic and his family her friends. But in retelling events about the new enemy, Dante, I find him more funny than dangerous. Dante blackmails Cipher’s men by abducting their children. And after that moment, Cipher’s men take the side of Dante, and in the whole film, they continue to take his side and be killed for him without any reluctance, which doesn’t seem more reasonable.
The most gripping scene is when Dominic’s family, including Ramsey ( Nathalie Emmanuel), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Han (Sung Kang), and Tej Parker (Ludacris), get trapped in Rome and they try to stop a giant rolling bomb that can destroy everything. After this action scene, Dominic and his family’s paths have separated. while his wife, Letty, gets arrested by “the agency”. The government agency is also against Dominic and his gang, which is rather obvious in these particular movies.
The film is full of lazy exposition. Everything is served on a plate, whether it be character motivations or their backstories. And, the dialogues are more filmy and showy, just like its scenes.
In one scene, when Dominic and Dante race together, Dante makes a setting in which he puts Dominic in a moral dilemma to save one between two of his friends. This scene doesn’t create any tension and serves much more than showy car race scenes. Because we already know that Dominic is a protector of people and he can do everything to save his loved ones.
The film has many such scenes that do not have any purpose other than showing car-chases and action set pieces. Despite the flashy editing, all the chase scenes feel fairly directed in a way that, despite having nonsense and illogical actions, they entertain the viewer.
The film lacks in making it an emotional experience. Jakob (John Cena) enters heroically, but his story and contribution, in the end, feel contrived and don’t move emotionally. Diesel fits in his place in a very comfortable way. There are also many other appearances from previous parts of the franchise as well as cameos. They all have justifiable parts to play in the story. It doesn’t look like they overlap with each other. They all have choreographed well without losing their outlines.
The most celebrated moment in the theater was when Dominic says, “My turn,” as he goes onto change the game. But all the turning points of the film look more forceful. Leterrier helmes most of the action well, but the scenes still don’t flow into one another that well. There’s entertaining hand to hand combat between two female characters, car crashes, bike chases, beating down the big guy like a punching bag, and cool gun fights that appear as fast as the movie’s title name suggests.
