Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

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If there's one thing the 'Fast & Furious' movies have taught me, it's that they are the next big name in a long, proud line of action franchises that we watch because we wanna see things break, explode, get beaten up, and have a few laughs along the way.

'Hobbs & Shaw' provides us with a somewhat sci-fi spinoff from the franchise, combining those two characters we love to see fighting, Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Stathom). The pair form an unlikely duo here in order to track down a programmable supervirus called "Snowflake".

The stakes are raised when an Eteon (the terrorist organization holding the virus) operative named Brixton (Idris Elba) comes into play, as a protector of the virus. He's cybernetically enhanced to be almost superhuman, thus adding that sci-fi element I was talking about before. However, also caught in the middle of things is Shaw's sister, Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), an MI6 operative whose mission to retrieve the virus only got her framed for the death of her team.

It's about as basic a plot as any action movie gets, and to me is somewhat remeniscent of 'Bad Boys II' (when bringing in family members who one of them might have a thing for). As mentioned before, this is kinda the go-to this summer for a mindless, fun action movie to lose yourself in. It's not at all dull, it's funny to watch these two play off of each other, and there's absolutely no lack of action to be had.

One thing I particularly enjoyed about this one was bringing in Hobbs whole family, and that whole oldschool fight they have (which is seen in the trailer). It was a neat contrast to the sci-fi elements in this, and at the risk of reading too much into it, it may very well represent a statement that perhaps old fashioned can be better. In other words, maybe technology can just be a bit too much sometimes.

Or, if you like, it's just a fun action movie with no real hidden meaning, and some names they knew would put butts in seats. I'd say it's open to interpretation, like with a lot of movies, but I'd like to think that a bit of a message sunk in for myself. That's just me, though. As I said before, I might be reading too much into it. Any theories pushed aside, this is still a lot of fun, and an overall good time at the theater if you get the chance to big-screen it.

4/5

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