FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS: HOBBS & SHAW: A Bombastic Blast Of Big Dumb Energy

The trajectory of the Fast & Furious movie franchise has been nothing short of remarkable. What began as a minor riff (okay, complete knockoff) of Point Break, only with souped-up sports cars instead of surfboards, has evolved into a mega-blockbuster, Avengers-adjacent monolith with ambitions to save the world. Not bad, considering the series’ greatest stakes were once “let’s see who can drive a quarter mile of street the fastest.”

Following a creative boom with 2011’s Fast Five (the franchise zenith, as far as this writer is concerned), which saw the addition of Dwayne Johnson’s merciless (and mercilessly sweaty) DSS Agent Luke Hobbs to the cast, each subsequent Fast sequel has strived to be bigger than the last. Following suit was 2015’s Furious Seven, which introduced Jason Statham’s British agent-turned-assassin Deckard Shaw as the villain, later reformed into a reluctant hero in 2017’s The Fate of the Furious, wherein he was paired up with Johnson’s Hobbs. Surprisingly, it was their scenes together that ended up being the sole highlight of the movie.

And now, due to popular demand (or perhaps, more realistically, due to some hostile, off-screen drama between Johnson and series’ lead Vin Diesel), the duo has been granted their own film: a spin-off sequel entitled Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. Jettisoning Diesel & Co. entirely (fret not: La Familia will return with two sequels in 2020 and 2021), Hobbs & Shaw aims to put the focus on its titular leads, forcing the pair of rivals to team up once again save the world.

While these ingredients would lead you to believe that this is a setup for an unqualified grand slam, the fact of the matter is Hobbs & Shaw is frequently found stuck in neutral, offering little in the way of excitement to its clamoring fans. Overlong, overblown, and painfully unfunny at times, Hobbs & Shaw is a misguided endeavor that struggles to offer a sense of fun.

New Model, Newer Parts

While on a covert operation to secure “The Snowflake,” a debilitating virus that liquefies the internal organs of all exposed, an MI6 team, including Hattie Shaw (Vanessa Kirby), is ambushed by Eteon, a radical terrorist organization with their own plans for the virus. Headed up by the commanding Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), a “terminator” of a man with a bulletproof bodysuit and cybernetic enhancements, all but Hattie are wiped out. She narrowly escapes, but not before injecting the Snowflake into her system.

With a mere 72 hours before the virus activates and becomes airborne, thus ensuring the decimation of the entire world population, DSS Agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and British gun-for-hire Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), the latter of whom also being Hattie’s brother, are called into action to safely remove the virus from Hattie’s system, and stop Eteon’s advancement. While Hobbs and Shaw are at odds with each other, the pair are forced on a globe-trotting mission to procure a special Russian device to extract the virus from Hattie’s bloodstream and shut down Brixton for good, leaving the fate of humanity in their bickering hands.

Hobbs & Shaw kicks things off by introducing its main heavy, showcasing the impressive skills of the implacable Brixton, who appears to be impervious to damage and also rides a Transformers-esque motorcycle with a mind of its own. An agent for Eteon, Brixton appears to be a socially-conscious terrorist, unwilling to let a world that has ravaged itself with capitalism and pollution to continue to exist, requiring a full-system reboot of the planet via the Snowflake.

The eponymous heroes receive grand introductions as well, demonstrating Hobbs’ abilities with severe blunt force trauma, and Shaw’s sleek, ass-kicking movement, reminding the audience why these men are the very best of what they do. When forced to pair up, the film becomes a battle of egos, with Hobbs and Shaw over-exerting themselves to consistently one-up and undermine the other man’s skillsets.

Rusty Storytelling

The guiding voice behind Hobbs & Shaw is screenwriter Chris Morgan (who, incredibly enough, has been credited as the sole screenwriter on every film in this series since 2009’s Fast & Furious), but he offers nothing innovative here. What’s offered is a derivative effort of the last four Fast films, which is a loose variation on the “Bad guy wants to destroy the world, good guys must stop him” template. There’s also very little credibility as to why Hobbs and Shaw need to team up in the first place, or why Shaw and Hattie are essentially depicted as twin brother (never mind that Statham is 52 and Kirby is 31).

What’s really curious is the decision to hire David Leitch as the director. Admittedly, this originally sounded like an excellent choice for such a project. While his last film was 2018’s Deadpool 2, Leitch also co-helmed the original (and fantastic) John Wick, and showed great care with the action choreography in 2017’s Atomic Blonde. Surely his professional experience as a stunt performer and eye for framing could lend to a striking looking film, action-wise, right?

Wrong. While Hobbs & Shaw habitually enters demolition mode, the hand-to-hand combat leaves a lot to be desired, with movements masked by overcutting in the editing room. Car chases are aplenty, but they are lost in a digital sheen of computer rendering, deflating any of the tension. For a series that has never been afraid to go over the top with its action set pieces (again, see Fast Five for a perfect example of a marvelous practical effects and stunt work), Hobbs & Shaw leaves a lot to be desired.

Another major detriment to the film is its over-reliance on humor. Since Hobbs and Shaw cannot stand each other, the pair constantly trades insults, which are little more than embarrassing schoolyard jabs in the vein of “You’re big!” / “You’re short!” jokes. Also deadly are the film’s big-name celebrity cameos. While I won’t spoil who shows up to the party, I will say that each occurrence grinds the picture to a halt, spending several minutes of screen time on incessant elbow-nudging and limp-wristed riffing. The comedy here is more headache-inducing than the explosions.

Hobbs & Shaw: Conclusion

The final act of Hobbs & Shaw takes place in Samoa, with Hobbs seeking assistance from his mother (Lori Pelenise Tuisano) and brother (Cliff Curtis) to save the world, circling back to the franchise’s central theme of family. The Samoa section is easily the best part of the film, with an army of warriors brandishing tribal weaponry against Brixton’s heavily armed soldiers, culminating in a “Moonshine NOS”-fueled car chase against a deadly helicopter. Leitch manages to inject some real excitement late in the proceedings, but it’s too little too late for this overstuffed feature, which certainly could have used more moments like it. Hobbs and Shaw may have finally received their own film, but it is not the one they deserved.

Do Hobbs & Shaw have what it takes to sustain their own spin-off series? Let us know in the comments below!

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