Fast X (2023)
Jason Momoa is doing something in Fast X, I'm just not entirely sure it belongs in this film. He's prancing about, cracking jokes, painting his nails, and chewing scenery like he's been told the cameras are rolling on an entirely different franchise. And here's the thing: he's clearly having a brilliant time. But "brilliant time" and "genuinely threatening villain" are not the same thing, and Fast X desperately needed the latter.
Louis Leterrier takes the wheel here with what feels like a genuine attempt to right the ship after F9 sent the saga careering into low Earth orbit. And fair play, there are no cars in space this time. The film does pull back from the most cosmic absurdity the series has offered, and the globe-threatening stakes feel, in the loosest possible sense, slightly more tethered to reality. But here's the problem with dialling back the madness: without sheer spectacle doing the heavy lifting, the storytelling has nowhere left to hide, and the cracks become impossible to ignore.
Dante Reyes is the kind of villain who could have worked. The set-up is there for something personal, something that cuts close to Dom and his family in a way that genuinely stings. Instead, Momoa plays him as equal parts Deadpool and pantomime dame, all flamboyant chaos and aloof charm. It's an entertaining performance in isolation, but it completely undermines the gravity the plot is reaching for. Think back to what made the antagonists in the series' best entries work so well. There was a menace to them, a weight. Momoa's Dante has neither, and the vendetta at the centre of the film ends up feeling like a quirky cat-and-mouse game rather than something that should genuinely frighten anyone.
And then there's John Cena's Jakob, who arrives here as a slightly awkward, lovable weird uncle figure after spending F9 as a cold-blooded super-spy. I understand franchises evolve and characters shift, but this isn't development, it's amnesia. The script simply seems to have forgotten who he was, and nobody's bothered to write a bridge between the two versions of the man. It's symptomatic of a wider problem: motivations shift without explanation, relationships reset for convenience, and emotional beats land with a thud because the groundwork was never properly laid.
The action is, as ever, technically impressive. Cities crumble. Cars do things that would make an engineer weep. Physics clocks off early and heads to the pub. But even the spectacle feels routine this time around, lacking the gleeful novelty that once made the franchise's excesses genuinely fun. When you've already sent cars into orbit, where do you actually go? Apparently, you go to Rome and hope a giant ball rolling through the streets will do the trick. It's fine. It's just fine, which for this series is a bit of a disappointment.
I've followed this saga from the very beginning. I loved Fast Five for finding a way to reinvent the wheel entirely, shifting into heist territory with real confidence, and I have a genuine soft spot for Fast & Furious 6 for keeping that momentum going with some properly daft, properly enjoyable set-pieces. Fast X doesn't have that energy. It's a film that's running on franchise obligation more than genuine creative hunger.
Two and a half stars, and I mean that honestly rather than kindly. There's enough noise and nostalgia here to power through if you're already invested in the family, and I'll keep watching because apparently that's just who I am now. But this is a series that once knew exactly how to balance heart and horsepower, and right now it's running low on both. Here's hoping the finish line, whenever it actually arrives, is worth the journey.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2023 | Watched: 2026-05-28
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
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