Do not Fast-Ten your seatbelts
A franchise once built around fast cars, racing and ‘family’, the Fast and Furious movie series seems to be now running on fumes
If there's one man in the whole wide world who knows about family more than all the family planning experts in the world combined, it has to be Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) from the Fast and the Furious movie franchise.
And yes, the guy's big on trying to end each movie with one of his many tacky catchphrases, "One last ride…"
Okay, hold it there. What "one last ride"?
Dom has been saying that probably since the fourth installment of the franchise, but the producers somehow insist he keep on hijacking entire bank vaults, through heavily populated cities. It's one of those jobs that poor Vin is just not allowed to retire from.
As 'Fast and the Furious 10' – cutely called 'Fast X' entirely for dramatic effect – hit theatres last month, not a lot of fuss followed. Why would it? Fans must've gotten tired of vibing with the same movie with the same plot again and again, with a couple of new faces being introduced in every instalment.
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Before watching Fast X on the big screen, I'd pulled a statistic about how many times "family" was said in it. 25 times! To verify the information, I really counted, and I found 24! So, understandably, not just me, Fast X's newest villain (and the movie's only saving grace) Jason Momoa retches and literally gags at Dom's family drama.
Dante Reyes (Momoa) is the psychotic son of Hernan Reyes, the antagonist of Fast V, who Dom and Brian were able to finish off together. Dante ballet dances when he is carefreely destroying Dom. After five not-so-brilliant movies apart, Hernan's son Dante comes to sting Dom in the 'back' like a scorpion whose head was severed. Dom's and Dante's motivation, however, is the same: hold on to family legacy. This movie is against Dom and not global annihilation.
But if I am to do any justice to the movie at all – because I can't say another good thing about it – it's Momoa's brilliant work as an eccentric, flamboyant and vengeful villain. He does everything in style. His villainy is also of the nonchalant kind.
Dante opens his villainous career in Rome, trying to destroy it with a 20 kiloton bomb, but Dom saves the day with his supercharged Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye. As Dom tries with all his and his car's might to divert the bomb, Dante takes a vantage point to 'fiddle' to see Rome burn, like Emperor Nero did once, proverbially speaking. Also, Dante barely plans any of his world-ending strategies ahead – he does almost all of them on the go.
But one thing I must admit is that fast car enthusiasts will get to see a lot of beautiful vintage and modern cars here as well, including a quarter mile drag race featuring none other than Dom in his supercharged 1970 Dodge Charger R/T. The last few movies were quite caught up with saving the world – with cars – and not much racing at all.
Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) is back with a MacLaren Senna, Han Lue (Sung Kang) with a beautiful 1971 Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV, Jakob with his 1967 Chevrolet El Camino (with rocket launchers).
How did a movie about cars, mods and family most importantly, become about vehicular warfare? Just how?
As Dom's son, named Brian Toretto, lovingly called Little B, is growing up in the background, the next few movies may as well be his legacy. But more than with his father, Little B is more chummy with uncle Jakob (John Cena); who by the way was Dom's sworn enemy just one movie ago.
Even Cipher (Charlize Theron), who was hellbent on wiping Dom's entire bloodline from the face of the Earth, is somehow in Dom's camp this time. Another enemy-turned-family-member added. How does Dom do it?
If you can watch the movie objectively and not draw parallels between this and over-the-top Tamil action movies, you may enjoy two hours of high-octane action. But do not expect proper application of physics here because in Fast 9, they had traveled to space in an unpressurised car with a full blown rocket engine strapped to its back. Go in with zero expectations, then maybe the ticket price will be somewhat justifiable.
Otherwise, DO NOT watch Fast X.
