The world is always in trouble without good guys and uneventful without the bad ones. They almost kind of balance out the events to keep both sides busy. With the Fast & Furious franchise, we have seen plenty of new and old characters – characters who continue living in our hearts, and those we no longer remember. However, the last installment was an obvious winner in terms of the characters it invited that lead to the spin-off called “Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw”, the titular characters being Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, who make sure you will enjoy every minute of it.
The film follows a deadly virus with a cute name but with a disastrous impact, Snowflake, a programmable virus that can wipe out millions of people within a few days. A crew of MI6, led by Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), is sent to retrieve the virus, however, it was stopped by the terrorist organization, Eteon. Brixton Lore, Eteon’s most valuable and cyber-genetically enhanced operative, kills the entire crew. Having no other option, Hattie injects Snowflakes into herself, making her the most wanted target of Eteon. After learning about the events occurring in London, Hobbs and Shaw must unite to fight an enemy that is literally unbeatable and save Hattie, who happens to be Shaw’s sister.
The opening sequence of “Hobbs & Shaw” is as epic as the entire film. When we’re first introduced to Brixton, perfectly portrayed by Idris Elba, we get a sense of who he is. Apart from being a lead operative at Eteon, the man, or rather a robot, is clearly strong enough to not want to mess with him. Somehow, Hattie manages to escape the fate her team faced but the virus she carries with herself is no better. This is where the most rhetoric question in the entire film was asked by Brixton Lore, looking at the screen straight into our eyes, “Who on Earth can stop me?” the answer to which, as you know, is who else if not Hobbs and Shaw?
Both Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham find the perfect match in each other, on-screen soulmates rather who you will never stop you being amazed by. However, it is Vanessa Kirby who is the real star of the movie who shows men’s inability to think logically in situations where having lots of muscles don’t help if there is a lack of analytical abilities. If not for Hattie, we would’ve had no idea how the entire film would’ve turned out, and honestly, it was so perfect we would not even want to guess otherwise. Not to spoil the whole movie, it’s also worth seeing for the cameos from big actors who I would prefer you to meet them as you watch rather than after reading my piece.
Overall, directed by David Leitch, the film delivers mind-blowing action scenes that are equally beautiful and entertaining at the same time. Of course, calling it a masterpiece would be naïve of me, but that fact does not stop the film from delivering this year’s most intriguing comedy filled with action many films can’t even get close to reaching its mark. There are many takeaways from Leitch’s film, one being the screenwriters acknowledging the poor writing in the last season of Game of Thrones, or rather the last three episodes which were worse than bad. It was acknowledged on the big screen for those who are yet to watch it, as it could be an utter waste of time. But that won’t happen with Hobbs and Shaw because from the start till the end, the film knows what it had in its mind and never slipped from its plan, aiming for a target, we knew from the beginning, it would never miss.