Fast 10 Your Seat Belts

Despite suffering from some well established franchise problems Fast X puts it's pedal to the metal to become one of the saga's best entries. No mean feat for a series 10 films and over 20 years in.

The set pieces are a tiny bit more grounded than F9 but still ridiculous and a lot more fun. Various members of the crew play live action Rocket League in Rome, drop out of a plane in a "canoe" and engage in a final chase that is much more satisfying than the turn magnet on and off showdown of the previous film. The film also benifits from an increase in star power and better use of its characters. John Cena returns but he plays the character of Jacob Toretto completely differently and is great fun as he embarks on a road trip with his nephew. Jason Statham is back as Decard Shaw, albeit only as a cameo with the promise of more to come. The film really belongs to franchise newcomer Jason Mamoa as Dante Reyes, son of Fast 5 villain Hernan. Leaving his imposing frame to portray the menace, Momoa camps it up like a 60's Batman villain and every time he is on screen the film is at its best.

Unfortunately his screen time is too limited. Partly down to the massive cast, partly down to Vin Diesel's insistence that everyone remember the Fast franchise is his toy. His desire for Dominic to remain front and centre is particularly jarring when he is a charisma vacuum compared to many of the characters on display. The completely straight way he play Daddy Dom has gone beyond any possible parody and creates a real disconnect with the rest of proceedings.

The movie also has an issue with the amount of plot to runtime. Some films try to cram too much plot into too short a time but here it's the opposite, a bloated runtime with very few of the on screen events moving the story forward in any meaningful way. There's an entire sub plot involving part of the crew trying to make it home that serves no purpose other than giving the cast something to do. In fairness this strand does tease out a couple of funny moments, provided you haven't grown too tired of the Tyrese Gibson/ Ludacris bickering banter.

Despite these reacuring issues Fast X is great, dumb fun and on this form it will be a sad day when this most unique of blockbuster franchises finally does run out of gas.

7 nails painted purple on 10 dead man's fingers.

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