Fast X - Turbine Collector Series 3D Blu-ray

They stole DVD players out of trucks at 70mph! They stole a 5-ton vault with two tiny sports cars! They drove away from a submarine and diverted torpedoes with their bare hands! They went into space with a rocket car! Is there nothing “The Family” can’t do? Well, apparently, they can’t quite survive franchise fatigue. It also doesn’t help matters when your original director, Justin Lin (who directed half of the franchise), quit mere weeks into filming due to creative differences, leaving the team to keep shooting while they scrambled to find director Louis Leterrier. 

Fast X is a smash of last-minute ideas and needless cameos and far too many new characters with previously unknown ties to the past films. Jason Momoa is our new bad guy Dante, “the previously unknown son of druglord Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), the guy they killed five movies ago.” Brie Larson is Tess, “the previously unknown daughter of Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell), who died (supposedly) off-screen in F9.” Daniela Melchior is Isabel, “the previously unknown sister of Elena (Elsa Pataky), who died two movies ago in Fate of the Furious.” Then there’s Alan Ritchson and Pete Davidson. Are they the sons, brothers, or cousins four times removed of someone who died six or seven movies ago? Maybe? We’ll find out next time.

The "plot" of Fast X is a bizarrely tangled improv game of “yes, and…” The Speedy and Angry franchise yanked a lot of goodwill rope with fans through increasingly insane sequels and stunts - including going into space - but Fast X is where things snapped for a lot of folks. As Louis Leterrier did his best to wrestle this beast into something watchable as a deep-into-production hire, fans ultimately didn’t show up like they once did. The most expensive film of the franchise with an estimated budget nearly double that of F9, Fast X was a box office lemon, earning less than the previous five films globally.

While the CGI stunts and explosions are all fun and good, the film’s biggest problem is that it’s only entertaining when Jason Momoa is on screen. Because he’s the only one who looks like he’s having anything resembling a good time, he gets the most attention, right down to a bonkers scene where he paints the toenails of his two dead minions. Everyone else seems to trip their way through one dead-end plot thread after another. The film finally finds a pace and sense of urgency for its big climax, only to reveal a setup for a future sequel that hasn’t started filming yet (at least not that I’ve found; it was supposed to start shooting this summer). 

In the deep archives of “turn off your brain entertainment,” Fast X isn’t the worst. But for a franchise that’s banked on audiences turning off their brains and just enjoying the ride, this film often struggles to shift out of neutral. Too long, too disparate and unfocused, Fast X is a nitrous-infused mess. Given how many great action films he’s made, my hope is that Leterrier and his multitude of credited and uncredited writers can get this franchise back on all four wheels for a grand final film… until they make another one. And another one. With a spinoff. And a sequel to the spinoff. Before they reboot it. And then make a legacy sequel when everyone is in their 70s. 

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray 3D
As the 17th entry in the growing Turbine Collector Series, Fast X revs up its Blu-ray 3D engines. As with previous entries in this line, Fast X is pressed on a Region Free BD50 disc, is housed in a clear case, and features reversible alternate German and English insert cover art. The disc loads to a 3D animated main menu; German is the default language, so you have to switch over to English. 

I guess it’s a mark of the film’s quality because I know I saw Fast X in theaters, but I can’t for the life of me remember if I saw it in 3D. I’m sure it was IMAX. Either way, I hadn’t really watched this film since then. Getting to enjoy Fast X at home in full stereoscopic 3D was a ride! I’m not one to usually hinge 3D as an essential asset for most modern films. Usually, they work well enough in 2D to still be enjoyable. In this case, the extra-dimensional visuals helped pull me into the big fun action sequences and successfully enabled me to shut off the brain and let the gray matter enjoy the sensory overload. Fast X is still a profoundly stupid film, but now it’s at least a fun stupid film in 3D! 

Squaring this with F9’s Blu-ray 3D release, I’d say these two films are pretty damn close for overall 3D depth enjoyment. Once again, there’s a great sense of distance and depth. It’s mostly a mid-range focused experience as a “window into a world” presentation. There are a few great moments of objects pointing at the screen, but they never quite breach that invisible barrier. The transfer maintains the 2.39:1 ratio, so no expanding screens, and there aren’t any depth-defying frame breaks either. But along the z-axis, we do get to enjoy a nice range of near, middle, and deep background objects. The chase sequence in Rome was a great bit of fun in that regard, and the film’s big, explosive climactic chase and fiery escape was a hoot in 3D. Even a dull moment like the Agency briefing scene between Larson and Ritchson looked good. A 360 circle of oddly spaced giant TV screens in a three-story room doesn’t make much sense to me on a logistical scale, I’m not part of a global intelligence agency, but that scene made for some great 3D object depth.

Colors are bright and bold, comparable to the 1080p 2D experience, but don’t match the gloss and splendor of the 4K Dolby Vision HDR edition. Details are as sharp and as clear as the digital trickery often allows. There are a number of scenes obviously shot in front of screens that can be rather flat or have limited depth, but thankfully, those moments are short and relatively few. The movie may be dumb, but the 3D is a lot of fun!

On the audio side, we have what amounts to the same excellent Dolby Atmos mix as the 4K version, with one small caveat. Overall I didn’t notice any sort of difference in terms of object placement and audio spread across the channel soundscape, but I did feel like I had to notch the volume up a tad. Not a serious problem, it’s something I’ve had to do off and on for a couple of these 3D releases from Turbine. It’s not an insurmountable task. Once that volume is back to where it feels like it should be, everything clicks with sonic vigor. Impacts, crashes, and explosions hit plenty of low end rumble. Dialog is clean throughout without issue. Imaging through the channels is constantly active so even if the scene is quiet and still, there’s plenty going on to keep the experience immersive. It’s a Fast and Furious movie so the term “quiet” is subjective and those moments never last long! 

As is the case for these Turbine Collector Series discs, there are no extra features included, as getting the film in 3D is a big enough get all on its own. 

Fast X is entertaining, I had fun, but it also wears pretty damn thin. Given the production turmoil of a director quitting and having to keep shooting while a replacement is found, this is about as good as we could have hoped. Somewhere, some odd choices were made for this story and the range of cameos. Who would’ve thought it would take a big dumb action movie like Fast X to have Oscar-winning ladies the likes of Brie Larson, Rita Moreno, Charlize Theron, and Helen Mirren all in the same movie... and none of them share any screentime! The quality of the film may be debatable, but I have to give credit where due for a very engaging and entertaining Blu-ray 3D experience, thanks to the nonsensical physics-defying action sequences. For the biggest and best action scenes, that sense of depth was a wild ride, complete with a thunderingly bombastic Atmos mix to match. If you’re a 3D junkie and need a reason to grab those glasses, this is a terrific A/V presentation. How you feel about the flick itself is subjective. Recommended for the 3D fans out there. 

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