Too fast … too furious – but this is the wrong movie!
The first of many promising blockbusters in 2017 is, unfortunately enough, not very promising.
xXx: Return of Xander Cage is a non-stop rollercoaster ride with some amazing stunts and an impressive cast of sexy women and cool guys, but … once the loud banging noise of explosions wears off … you’ll notice just how empty and predictable this movie is.
Truthfully, xXx: Return of Xander Cage entertains from the first frame to the last. No complaints there. The problem however is that there’s little more than a flimsy story and paper-thin characters running around with superhero-abilities – despite them being all 100% human – making this movie as flat and stupid as a bag of popcorn …
Vin Diesel continues his run as the extreme sports athlete, but somehow his xXx-character is starting to look like a bad copy of Dom Toretto in the much-better Fast and Furious series.
The problem is, Xander Cage has no background, no real history. We know the guy loves sports and that’s it … but it’s not enough!
Xander Cage is too empty a character to fill an entire action movie. Also, the things he does in this movie are beyond believable … the guy is a freakin’ robot!! He never bleeds. He doesn’t have any bruises or gets hurt. I get it – he’s the hero – but it would be nice to see the guy is still somewhat human, get my drift??
The only really interesting person running around is actress Ruby Rose – she plays some sort of a Lara Croft-sharp shooter/kick-ass woman … and she has the looks to back up her performance too!
Of course, it’s always interesting to see two of today’s greatest martial arts actors. Tony Jaa is still quite young, but movies incredibly well.
But Donnie Yen has often been named the successor of Jet Li … and he gets to show a few rounds of how fast he can move his fists and feet … impressive!
One of the biggest weaknesses about the movie is the actual filming. It’s too wild. Too fast, too furious, and the director chooses to swing from one quick shot to another, making the action sometimes very hard to follow!
Two scenes stand out from the entire movie. The one where Xander is chasing the bad guy on a water scooter (though, truthfully, this scene is a bit of a rip-of from Face/off). And the big fight on the plane that’s nosediving after the pilot was shot.
But all in all, this action movie doesn’t have enough to stand out from the hundreds of action movies Hollywood makes each year.
You might remember it because of Vin Diesel being the hero of the story. You might remember it, because Samuel L. Jackson still kicks ass. And you might remember it, because the way the filmmakers created certain action scenes is professionally done …
But sometimes … just sometimes … it’s better to create less action and more substance. None of the characters have any deeper meaning. There is hardly any story – simply a group of bad-ass heroes trying to take down a group of terrorists.
And the action is so over-the-top that is loses all credibility making this movie a big, loud popcorn blockbuster … interesting to see once … but hardly worth remembering at all!.
Did you know?
Donnie Yen replaced Jet Li for the role of Xiang after Li dropped out for undisclosed reasons.
Give it to me short:
xXx: Return of Xander Cage is your typical loud-banging-full-of-explosives and over-the-top fist-fighting action movie … and that’s a bit of a shame. It could have been so much more. Whereas the very first xXx had an actual story to tell and interesting bad guys with an actual motivation why they were killing innocent people … this movie simply creates bad guys like paper-thin, one-dimensional puppets for the heroes to shoot at.
Vin Diesel is nothing but a shameful copy of his much-more interesting Fast and Furious-character. Toni Collette is so boring and stiff in her performance – you would think she hated being on set all the time! And despite the beauty of Ruby Rose and the phenomenal close combat-fighting of Donnie Yen and Tony Jaa … this movie seems to have NO real character of its own.
With so many action movies made over the years – of which Fast & the Furious, Mission: Impossible and Die hard are all much-much better – it’s not hard to enjoy this movie … but it’s nearly impossible to remember anything substantial once the movie is finished. Let’s hope next time around, the filmmakers actually create a story …
THE 4TH WALL 