the beginning of the last tremor? 🏎

Do you like barbecues, family, Coronas, family, cars, family, frowning big-armed guys and family? So no doubt, you are, like us, those who have been following the adventures of Vin Diesel and his friends for 22 years (!) now. A bunch of years that saw all of Hollywood succumb to the franchise, for the big cylinders or for the money, from Dwayne Johnson to Helen Mirren via Kurt Russell, Charlize Theron or now Brie Larson and Jason Momoa. A casting that looks more and more like a meeting in Avengers mode over the episodes. A comparison that has become obvious with this Fast and Furious X.

First opus of a trilogy which will serve as conclusion to the franchise, Fast X marks the first steps of a Frenchman behind the wheel of the camera since Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk, Elusive) has the heavy task of succeeding Justin Lin. And the one who has already signed for the production of the eleventh episode does not hide it: he is a big fan of Fast and Furious 5, the first real film to have allowed the saga to move up a gear.

An assumed filiation since this feature film opens with flashback sequences drawn, or reworked, from its model, in order to introduce the new big bad: Dante Reyes, alias Jason Momoa. An enemy from the past to make Dominic Toretto and the Fast Family suffer, responsible for the death of his father, Hernan Reyes, and the loss of his money.

Menu maxi best-of

During an accomplice moment, Letty warns Dom that by dint of looking in the mirror, he prevents himself from living the present. A warning that works as much for the character as for the film he carries on his shoulders.

As if she were aware of having gone too far, even into space, the saga operates a realization: it will now be impossible for her to apply the famous formula that has always pushed her. It won’t get bigger, it won’t get heavier.

In a way, the feature film operates a return to basics: We stop nuclear submarines, or fights in a plane, we turn the wheels on the asphalt, foot to the floor. The franchise is trying to remember what it used to be, inhabited by the ghosts of those who shaped it and lost along the way.

And if the spirit of Paul Walker serves as much as it still handicaps the saga, which continues to pay homage to him (small appearance of his daughter, Meadow Walker) while failing to justify the maintenance of his character (alive ) away from the action, this Fast X feeds on others to stay on the road to personal business. Gone is the posture of saviors of the world, the Fast Family returns to the basics: a band of outlaws with a big heart who try less to save the world than to save themselves.

Multiplying nostalgic moments, the film functions as the beginning of a reunion of former students before the future grand finale. And as usual, too bad if for that, you have to sacrifice consistency.

Hybrid car

You will tell us, consistency has never been the franchise’s concern and that’s not really why we sign every time. Basically, we are aware that Fast and Furious will remain the best adaptation of Dragon Ball on screen: villains who join the barbecue team from episode to episode, dead people who are never really dead and a main character who is not human.

Our consented suspension of disbelief nevertheless reaches its limits when Fast and Furious X’s desire to put the license back on track comes into conflict with what it has become. Because the saga has taken so much care to push back the frontier of the possible that, paradoxically, seeing an episode set the bar lower instinctively provokes a slight disappointment. Certainly, Leterrier does not skimp on the bewildering sequences, whether in Rome or on a barrage, but nothing that seems crazier than what we have already seen before.

Especially since these same scenes constantly denote with the serious tone of a Vin Diesel now really convinced that he can crash his car through a bridge, a wall and an explosion and continue to drive without even a scratch. Embracing his superheroic posture with seriousness – which makes him all the more comical in spite of himself – he tries to bring realism where it has never existed. Fast X wants to bring the human back to the center of the story, but the latter no longer has its place there for a long time. This gives a film that sometimes has its ass between two chairs, trying to make real again what we had accepted as fantastic. To believe that after ten parts, Fast and Furious is still looking for itself.

Fast Family… get together!

We said it in the preamble, Fast and Furious is as well known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe when it comes to putting the stars in the cast like pearls. Problem: by dint of piling up the names and wanting them all to bring something back to the family barbecue, certain figures have so little presence on the screen that we could dismiss them without feeling the slightest difference in script.

We end up with characters only there so that the public does not wonder where they had gone and, worse, we add several new ones. At the next Corona tour, everyone should put on a badge with their name and role in the story.

Except for THE best added value of this opus: Jason Momoa. The guy plays around with delight, as if he were at home in this saga. Imagine a kid who has been empowered. Momoa imposes herself without difficulty within a casting where everyone has to play elbows. At this rate, Fast XI should sound like an Avengers gathering, hoping that Fast and Furious XII will indeed be an Endgame. But who really believes it?