Fast X: Another nonsense yet commercially successful heist franchise film

Fast & Furious has been a widely successful franchise since 2001. Illegal car racing that turns into a huge heist mission where Vin Diesel's 'family' sticks together till the end entertained action genre-loving fans for decades. 

The franchise peaked in 2015 with Furious 7, the last film to include Paul Walker after his fatal car accident. 

With an emotional ending to this major character, this franchise should've ended then. But director and screenwriter Justin Lin thought to elongate this series more and more, subsequently disrespecting Paul Walker's legacy by including Brian O'Connor in sequels using old footage. 

More supporting characters and villains were added, more previous villains turned into allies, and more supposedly dead characters came back to life. How will the latest sequel, Fast X, be?

The new villain for this film is cleverly retconned from Fast Five, released in 2011. In that film, the villain Hernan Reyes is seen defeated and killed at the hands of Dominic Torretto and his allies, but Hernan's son is never seen. 

But in Fast X, it is revealed that his son, Dante Reyes, was with him all the time, surviving the accident where his father died. He vows revenge on Dom and plans an elaborate plan not to kill him but to make him suffer continuously.

After the events of Fast 9, Dom is living with his wife Letty and son Brian in peace while the rest of his gang are on a mission in Rome for Mr Nobody's agency. Cipher, having escaped from Dom in the previous film, comes back for his help in an injured state. A war is coming; Dom will lose everyone he loves, and the warmonger is Dante Reyes.

In the Rome mission, Dante frames Dom and his family by exploding a neutron bomb at the heart of Rome and making them fugitives in public eyes. Finding no other way, Dom, Letty, Roman, Tej, Han, and others shake hands with Deckard Shaw, who gave them quite a headache in Furious 7. 

With millions of bounties on their heads and Dante still behind trail, will the Dom family go through this ordeal? Can Dom save his family from the wrath of Dante? Fast X is 141 minutes long and answers them with a plethora of action sequences fans could all want.

The characters received little to no development for several films, so character development was out of the question for this film too. 

Roman and Tej still banter with each other; Dom, Letty, and Han are still the heart of the action in this franchise; most of Vin Diesel's dialogues are still about family, but the new characters bring little flavour to the plot. 

John Cena as Dom's brother Jakob made no sense, and Brie Larson's character became irrelevant. But the action sequences were fantastic: car chases through the streets of Rome, playing tug of war between cars and helicopters— fans loved them.

The most applaudable part of Fast X is the villain. Jason Momoa as Dante Reyes was a great casting choice, and Momoa tried to go against the villain stereotype. He is jolly, flamboyant, and cold-headed, and he doesn't shy away from showing his feminine yet ruthless side. 

With him still leading Dom by the nose, how will he take on the next Fast & Furious sequel in 2025? Fans can only anticipate.

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