'Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw' is about as Mid-Tier and Mid-Tier gets.

Story

Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw must put aside their differences to protect the world from a cyber-genetically enhanced assassin who threatening to unleash a super-virus on the world.

As far as plots in the Fast &Furious franchise go, this one isn't far-fetched. Hey, the last one had a cyberterrorist who was looking for an EMP device to disable a missile to trigger a nuclear war (Yes, I googled it cause I couldn't remember the plot) so a virus that could infect millions doesn't seem too odd. That being said, this story is nothing new. I've lost count of how many movies I've watched that have really similar plot points to this one and because of that, you know exactly how this movie is going to play out.

Acting 

Jason Statham and Dwyane Johnson are obviously the draw here. It was their chemistry that brought about the idea of this film. And they do have very good chemistry and I wouldn't be surprised if some of their lines were adlibbed. One thing to note about the two of them though is that they aren't really acting. Both of them play the exact same type of characters with every single role. It's a great example of knowing what you're good at and staying in your lane. That isn't to say their performances are bad, but there is nothing something special about their performances and to be honest, I was not expecting anything spectacular from a Fast & Furious spin-off. Hobbs and Shaw and very likeable characters played by likeable actors and because of that, you warm to them and their love-hate dynamic. It's a tried and true pairing that works.

The stand out performance was definitely Idris Elba. When you have Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson in a movie, your antagonist has to be charismatic and able to go toe to toe with the two of them and Idris has the charismatic part on lock. Brixton Lore (Idris' character) is genetically enhanced cause let's be real can anyone go toe to toe with Dwyane Johnson? I'd like to see it (no seriously, that man is HUGE!). Interestingly enough, Brixton is also my favourite antagonist in a Fast & Furious movie. He's likeable and though his motives are meh at best, I liked Idris' performance a lot.

Another performance I liked a lot was Vanessa Kirby's. After seeing her in Mission Impossible: Fallout, it made sense when she was cast in this. She's known as a dramatic actress but she kicks ass in this movie and can hold her own against the two leads. Hattie is funny when she needs to be and no-nonsense when she needs to be.  Her performance is by far the most layered.

Eiza Gonzalez and Helen Mirren are also in this movie, but you wouldn't know that cause they're barley used!!!! You have Helen Mirren and barely use her?! Make it make sense Lord.

Writing/Direction 

I guessed one of the biggest plot threads in the movie and my brother whispered to me "How did you know?" My response was the one sentence I used to describe this movie as a whole. I said "This film isn't that smart." and I stand by that statement. So much of this movie makes little to no real sense. And I couldn't help but laugh. Sometimes it was with the movie because it had funny moments but more often than not, it was at the movie and how utter nonsensical is it. This movie is the epitome of turn your brain off cause your eyes will roll into the back of your head if you try and read into what's going on. I can guarantee that.

One thing that did have me rolling my eyes was the sheer amount of exposition. Everything is explained to you and it takes the fun out of watching the movie because you can guess what is going to happen.

This movie was directed by David Leitch of John Wick and Atomic Blonde fame and when I found out, I knew that the stunt coordination was going to be A1 (I mean this man directed John Wick AND Atomic Blonde) and that aspect of the film did not disappoint. The direction as a whole was solid and I give David Leitch credit for that. The film flows and is easy to follow. Lord knows if this film was convoluted I would've been so angry.

CGI/Set Design 

The CGI is... fine. That being said, for a film that cost $200 million to make the CGI should better than fine. For the sake of comparison Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 has the same budget and looks better. However, one thing to note is that this movie was in post-production for 6 months,  which is shorter than your average blockbuster which takes about 9 months. In defence of this movie, it isn't VFX heavy but the CGI is glaringly obvious when it is used.

Score/Soundtrack 

When I watch movies I make a note to pay attention to the score and soundtrack but there are movies where I'm more likely to pay attention to the score than others and I was not checking for the soundtrack or the score. Tyler Bates' score doesn't do anything. It doesn't add anything to the film or make me feel anything. It just exists in the background being wasted. Same can be said for the songs used in the film, except for Getting Started which was used well. Other than that, the music in this film was 'meh'

One thing to note was how loud the music was. This could've been because I was sitting at the front (not my choice) but the music used was too loud, It took me out of the movie numerous times because all I could think about was how loud the film was rather than what was actually going on,

Overall Thoughts

If I were to describe this movie in one word, it would be ridiculous.  I watched this movie with my brother and we kept looking at each other because everything on screen was just so far-fetched and ridonculous. We kept looking at each other like this



One thing I've noticed is that the Fast & Furious movies are everyone's guilty pleasure. They're the kind of movies you watch when there's nothing to watch and you happen to come across it while flipping channels and in that sense this movie fits into that perfectly. However, this movie lacks the je ne sais quoi that other movies in this franchise have and that makes it feel hollow and inconsequential. This movie feels like a cash grab and because of that you don't care for it the way you do the other movies because the pre-existing attachment isn't there,

All in all, I didn't hate this movie, but that doesn't mean I liked it. It's not a good movie but I do have to admit that it is a fun one. It will have you laughing one minute and questioning why you bought a ticket in the next.