Fast X: Jason Momoa’s agent of chaos saves out-of-control caper from total self-destruction

648315443 With its stunts-before-story approach, Fast X feels far more like Brosnan-era Bond than the modern Mission: Impossible franchise.

Fast X (M, 141mins) Directed by Louis Leterrier ***

As Los Bandoleros gather once more for brews and a BBQ, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) is in a reflective, melancholy mood.

Now enjoying a more relaxed life with Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and Little “B” (Leo Abelo Perry), he’s happy to let Roman (Tyrese Gibson) lead the “family’s” latest mission for The Agency.

A stolen weapon needs liberating from an armoured vehicle in Rome and his main man promises he, Han (Sung Kang), Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) and Tej (Ludacris) can take care of it with just a golden Lamborghini, an ageing Alfa Romeo, a remote control toy car and 12 tanks of nitrous oxide.

But that’s before a warning comes from an unlikely source. Bruised and bloodied, the nefarious Cypher (Charlize Theron) turns up at Toretto’s suburban Los Angeles home to tell him it’s all a trap.

She’s had a visit from “the devil” and he’s got one name on his list – Dom’s.

Racing to Italy, he and Letty are able to save their friends, but at the cost of their reputations. Now blamed for what has been viewed by the world as a terrorist attack, all six of the “Torreto clan” are not only disavowed by The Agency, they’re targeted for elimination.

Turns out though that’s only step one of Dante Reyes’ (Jason Momoa) decade-in-the-making plans for revenge for the death of his father Hernan (Joaquim de Almeida) during one of the gang’s “sanctioned” heists in Rio de Janeiro.

Having essentially run out of road in trying to top itself last time out (it even sent a couple of players into space), it makes sense that the franchise should look to its generally regarded high-point (2011’s Fast Five) for inspiration.

The “reimagined’ scenes are smartly executed (even if it results in peddling the series’ somewhat bizarre continuing myth that Paul Walker’s Brian is still alive) and they help introduce its secret sauce, a deliciously unhinged Momoa.

Whether clad in a snakeskin jacket and shiny pants, or sporting pink-and-purple nail polish, his button-averse Dante chews the scenery, whenever he isn’t totally destroying it. Carnage and karma-geddon abounds, as this free agent of chaos channels a mix of Heath Ledger’s Joker, Cape Fear’s Max Cady, Bond’s Blofeld and Cats & Dogs’ Mr Tinkles with his unhinged villainy.

But that’s also where the wheels start to come off Fast X. It all feels like a full-blown cartoon – from the 20ft high location idents to the hilariously large subtitles and the Road Runner-esque approach to the consequences of explosions, gunshots and heavy landings.

Yes, this is movie that obeys only the rules of fizz-ics and as one character puts it “if it violates the laws of the good and the great, then they’ll do it twice”.

With its globetrotting narrative (here the team travel everywhere from Italy to Portugal, London, somewhere a little colder and North Yuma) and death-defying set-pieces, it continues to be clear that the makers want this to be the gas-guzzling (Dom even laments people not “listening” to their cars any more”), blue-collar answer to Mission-Impossible. However, with its stunts-before-story approach it feels far more like Brosnan-era Bond (heck it even tweaks a famous sequence from Golden Eye).

Part of the problem does lie in the increasingly crowded cast. As they’ve continually added to their star power, it has been harder to shoehorn them in. Characters flit in and out – a touch of Helen Mirren here, a soupçon of Jason Statham there – but only John Cena’s Uncle Jakob makes a lasting impression.

As for the newbies, they’re a mixed bag, all playing the usual bunch of suddenly discovered siblings and offspring. Brie Larson and Rita Moreno are woefully under-used, Pete Davidson dreadful and Alan Ritchson seems to have been merely brought in to annoy Tom Cruise. “You’ve got Jack Reacher? Well, we’ve got the more authentic guy who replaced him!”

Then there’s the OG – Diesel himself. Like the movie, he has two settings: sappy schmaltz and high gear. Unfortunately, there’s a little too much of the former, as he trots out portentous and pretentious “life advice” to his beloved boy like “no one starts at the finish line” and “sometimes fear can be the best teacher” from the opening minutes. It makes you long for a certain other franchise where he only repeats a select trio of words.

Less a spoiler, more a consumer warning: This is first part of either a double-feature or (as Diesel has recently teased) a trilogy, so it’s best to go in expecting un-resolution. Which really just confirms the Fast and the Furious’ reputation as the Harlem Globetrotters of the feature film world – the end result will be forgettable, so just set your brain to neutral and marvel at the movie magic.

Fast X is now screening in cineams nationwide.