Another GeNeric hollywood suMmer Blockbuster

Hollywood is show business. It’s not about making art, it’s about marketing. It’s show business, not show art. It’s about making a product. Films like Cinema Paradiso is a work of art. Some filmmakers are artists and they create art. Others just make movies. Fast and the furious is one of those movies. It’s just a product. Another promotion for toys, t shirts and convention tickets. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (also known simply as Hobbs & Shaw) is a 2019 American action film directed by David Leitch and written by Chris Morgan and Drew Pearce, from a story by Morgan. It is a spin-off of The Fast and the Furious franchise centered around the titular Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw, characters introduced in the main series. Starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham as Hobbs and Shaw respectively, the film follows the unlikely allies who are forced to team up against a greater threat who is threatening the world with a deadly virus. Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, and Helen Mirren also star.

Fast and the furious is like a major name brand like band-aid where Hobbs and Shaw feels like a generic store brand like wallgreen bandages. This film doesn’t do any justice for the original films of the franchise, it feels like it’s own thing. It feels disconnected and making up rules (and siblings) as they go along. It relies too much on jokes and switches the original genre to become a sci fi action comedy and triggers our nostalgia by showing us shots of nitro and flashing fast and the furious in the title but this film is no fast and the furious.

The visual effects and action was fun but nothing breathtaking. My biggest issue with the direction is that it didn’t know when not to be epic. So many unnecessary climactic shots! The direction seems like the director doesn’t understand film vocabulary. I hate it when I see it in amateur films like “I got the hook up 2” and I hate in in big budget Hollywood summer blockbusters! What supposed to be simple close up are these wide Spielberg/Micheal Bay style shots which usually means something amazing is happening (like when the scientists see the dinosaurs for the first time in Jurassic park or someone sees a transformer in person for the first time) but these shots happen while the characters just stand around explaining the plot.

This feels like the fast and furious amusement park ride at universal studios. It’s a straight to streaming spin off sequel. It feels like how high 2. It feels like the straight to dvd sequels to bring it on and honey. I’m going to see it again and try to completely turn my brain off seeing the epic action in imax but this is definitely the weakest fast film in the franchise and I can’t wait for fast 9 to come out and make me forget this was a thing (but oddly enough I want to see more spin off, like tyrese and ludacris get caught up in their own buddy road trip comedy). We’ll see where this franchise goes.