Review of Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019) by Colginator — 04 Aug 2019

Hobbs & Shaw had some of the most notoriously troublesome pre-production drama in recent years. The film began largely due to an on-set dispute which arose between Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson during filming The Fate of the Furious, with Diesel and Johnson refusing to film scenes together, Diesel using his position as producer to cancel some of Johnson’s scenes and Johnson creating a long post on Instagram detailing his frictions with his co-stars on set. With this tension making production difficult and Johnson’s chemistry with Statham being a notable highlight during filming, studio execs just decided to go ahead and separate them by giving Johnson his own spin off. It’s like when two children are bickering over the same toy so their parents just decide to buy a new toy and let them play separately. Though with each new F&F film, it’s strange to think back to 18 years ago when this franchise was just a loose retelling of Point Break following an investigation into some street racers. Now these movies have gotten so big that they’re dealing with a virus which threatens the lives of millions and a genetically enhanced supervillain leading an army of terrorists trying to release the virus on to the world. With Shaw’s sister in possession of the virus and on the run from the terrorists, Hobbs and Shaw team up to save the world with their seemingly superhuman abilities and constant banter. It’s a ridiculous plot, filled with ridiculous action and ridiculous dialogue. But fortunately the cast knows how ridiculous everything is and are able to thrive in it. Johnson and Statham’s chemistry is definitely the main glue which holds the film together and most of the films best moments is just the pair trading insults. They’re both able to let their personalities shine through their performances and deliver on the over the top action sequences which play to their strengths, with Statham precisely striking enemies down whilst Johnson smashes through bad guys like a raging Hulk. They’re also both willing to share the screen without hogging the spotlight leading to a fun team dynamic. Vanessa Kirby is also a great addition, with the film never reverting to her being a damsel in distress and letting her hold her own with the rest of the team. Plus Idris Elba seems to be having the time of his life playing a villain so over the top that he literally introduces himself at the start of the film as being the bad guy.

Beyond the characters, this film has everything that fans have enjoyed about the recent Fast & Furious films. Funny action one-liners like Elba calling himself “black superman” or Johnson saying he’s about to open “an ice cold can of whoop ass”. Action sequences which sees characters perform superhuman feats like Johnson go full Captain America and holding back a helicopter with his bare hands. And the mixture of sprawling settings across the globe and high tech gadgets that give the impression F&F is trying to become an adrenaline filled version of Jame Bond. But the film still has the same drawbacks of the other F&F films too. Whilst Johnson and Statham are great at sharing the screen, they also have contracts that have been drafted so that they can never be the definitive loser of a fight. This causes a lot of the action to be too one sided with sequences lose any potential tension. I wouldn’t be too surprised to learn that the main reason they made Elba a superhuman was just so they would have someone they could both fight against without harming their onscreen reputations. Also as entertaining as these fight sequences can get, they do often go on too long which makes the film feel bloated. Plus whilst there are a few cool long take sequences from Statham who has been performing great action choreography since his days in the Transporter series, a lot of sequences here suffer from the same problem of a lot of modern action movies with the action being obscured by too many fast cuts and too few wide shots. Though when it comes down to it, Hobbs and Shaw is in many ways the ideal spin off. It has everything which people enjoy about the F&F franchise, whilst still being independent by setting up it’s own story separate to the main franchise. And with several surprise cameos clearly setting up a new crew for future films, it’s likely we actually will get 2 Hobbs 2 Shawious sometime soon.