One of the oldest cinematic franchises around?  You would think that if you were me and had grown up watching Diesel and Walker flirt with the women and put a tough guy show that suckered my boyfriend into bringing me with him to the movies so we can share a few OMG moments that would lead into holding hands or romantic smooches afterwards. 

But you’d be sadly misled if you are a New Millennial, because both Star Wars, currently on life support and steroids, and the Rocky-Creed franchise started life earlier and have been re-tooled over and over for the past 50-some years.  By comparison The Fast and Furious franchise is barely a twenty-something yet it is showing massive wear and tear, not my words, I promise, just look around for a few movie reviews of F9 and Fast X.  Everyone is saying it, from Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone to CinemaBlend, “the Fast Saga is running on fumes”.

I don’t quite agree with them.  I went in to see this movie and was quite nervous.  What if I liked it?  My boss, Pierre Maertin, turned down review chores on this movie given to him by his boss.  He started out his career(s) as an automotive engineer before re-booting life as a Senior Editor and he was clearly steering away from a series he used to enjoy. 

He once remarked to Gomez (our Editor-in-Chief) that this circus show was done back with Furious 7.  And to make things more interesting, Louis Leterrier the director of Fast X who took over from superstar director Justin Lin, is French and this is his big break.

So Pierre was less than enthused to be the one to pour cold water on Leterrier’s first bona fide gig in the mega big spotlight.

Leterrier brings with him expertise from the school of Luc Besson and The Transporter series, Clash of The Titans and Now You See Me.  He is no stranger to action films but Justin Lin has been the signature name behind most of the sequels in the franchise.

Lin is said to have started production development on Fast X but dropped out because he felt the script was too outlandish for his taste.  In a sense, Fast X was already getting bad press several months before its premiere.  It is never a good sign when the original director bows out and Lin is not just any director, so the voluminous bad reviews this movie received may have been overstimulated by the behind-the-scenes going ons more than anything else.

Like I said I went in to see the film and I was already nervous at what I might have to look at.  Some of the comments posted that I noted from our review members were also less than encouraging.

Interestingly enough I didn’t notice much difference from the F9 movie in tone, emotion and texture.  Maybe Lin had already blocked out all the big pieces from the script and the studio producers had already outlined everything in synch with F9. 

Even though the press had claimed that Leterrier had re-worked the script and storyline when he came onboard.  Fast X feels like a continuation of F9 without any major stylistic bumps or drops.

Story wise it’s almost the same quality of character development as seen since Furious 6, the dialogue is almost cookie cutter perfunctory, the obligatory “family” lines, the hugs, the smiles, the nods, the tears.  It all feels as if it came out from the same McDonald’s family QSR.

Vin Diesel feels like he is barely pulling his weight, he has so many scenes squinting at his fellow actor, to denote a softer family man.  Paul Walker’s Brian is still very much part of the crew and scene, but it is getting tired, to me, that he exists only by reference, and not in any actual scenes. 

No leftovers or CGI enabled scenes of him driving his car evading some bad guys?  All you need is a stuntman and a crafty team of CGI techs to graft his face and eyes from previous film captures on top of the stuntman. 

“the fuel gauge is pointing to E and the engines are sputtering.”
Kyle Smith, Wall Street Journal | May 18, 2023

That would have gone a long way for believability because Brian was the center of the action and now he has been relegated to baby sitter while Mia is onboard seconding Dom and Letty.  Wow, I know the women in this film series are ass kickers but it’s getting thin with Brian and the kids arc.

How did I feel overall about this film? 

In high school and college they ask you to summarize the essay’s major arguments in the opening paragraph and then expand on these points in separate paragraphs and then wrap up with the conclusion.

English literature mechanics are not on display in magazines and present-day columnists’ fare.  It would blow the reason for anyone to read through the article, because we live in a world of haste.

For most of us, most of the time, we need immediate gratification and cannot wait to enjoy the scenery and the road trip, we want it immediately and we move on.