FAST X

Spoiler free.

Published: 22/05/2023

Fast X releasing in cinemas worldwide this weekend makes for the eleventh instalment to the Fast and Furious universe. It brings all the elements Universal know the audience loves back to the big screen after two years since the release of F9.

Opening with a call back to an earlier instalment in the franchise, the plot for Fast X relying on events from Fast 5. The main antagonist of this film, Dante (Jason Momoa) the son of previous villain Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) from the fifth film. Momoa gave a standout performance in the film compared to the rest of the main cast. He brought a refreshing personality to the antagonist of the franchise and brought something new to scenes with his light humour contrasting with the seriousness and threat of the character.

What was letting the film down however, was the sloppy editing thought the film that was almost distracting, particularly in the early half of the film. Poor editing paired with the questionable quality of CGI in parts (such as the scene in Rome) slightly took away from the quality of the action sequences. But of course like in all pervious Fast instalments the car chases and stunts were the most impressive aspect. Audiences going into Fast X knew that it would be hard to top the events of F9, when having some of the team end up in space. However, the elaborate car chases and stunts in Fast X easily matched to the more notable stunts from the previous films. I think it’s due to the fact that many of the events in this film aren’t as far fetched as the space idea. While, they still weren’t completely unaided by digital effects they are more realistic and believable to be practical effects.

One the main flaws of the film I believe is it’s lack of use of many of it’s cast members. Previously, heavily used Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) was only used for a total of a few minutes which after his lack of presence in F9 was surprising. Statham is used more as a promotion tool rather than used for the film itself when himself and his character could be put to so much more use. As well as new comer to the franchise Brie Larson playing Tess, the daughter of Mr Nobody (Kurt Russell). Casting a talent such as Brie Larson with a lead actress Oscar to her name and giving her very little to do makes close to no sense to me. In her scenes Larson was captivating and I was always wanting more scenes from her throughout the course of the film. This now marking the fifth appearance from Helen Mirren’s character Queenie Shaw, we are still not getting more than a few short scenes from her at a time. Queenie being one of the more interesting to me in the films I’d love to see them explore her more as a character rather than relegating her to a minor role and we all know Mirren would be capable of a larger role.

The Fast and Furious films are not made to be a piece of art or critically acclaimed Oscar bait and they don’t claim to be. They are continuing to succeed in making tense and shocking action and stunts paired with humour that rarely falls flat. While also doing what the Fast films do better than many others in the genre which is pulling the heart strings of it’s fans. The tributes to past characters and cast members stay in the new instalment and despite becoming a running meme, at it’s core the film is about family more than cars… although the cars do come very close.

Letterboxd Review on Fast X

Fast X, dir. Louis Leterrier

Release: 19 May 2023

Lara Edwards.