A spin-off from the long-running, money-making Fast and Furious franchise, Hobbs and Shaw follows the two titular leads (Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Jason Statham) on their own adventure, away from the rest of the 'family' that they joined in Fast Five (2011) and Fast and Furious 8 (2017) respectively. Despite the fact that they are merely supporting characters in the main films, it may come as a surprise that they have been promoted to leads, though their adventure is both engaging, hilarious and entertaining. It all starts when Shaw's sister Hattie (Vanessa Kirby from The Crown) takes a biological weapon and goes on the run after an MI6 mission goes wrong, alerting the security services. They, in turn, recruit Hobbs and Shaw, who are so reluctant to work together, they throw hilariously brutal insults at each other, to the point where Hobbs throws a chair at a glass panel. What follows is an action-packed, fast-paced mission where the boys team up with Hattie to get the virus away from Idris Elba's 'black Superman' Brixton, a genetically and cybernetically enhanced former colleague of Shaw who sees the weapon as a way of fixing humanity, and wants to use bionics to help them evolve into something better.
The writing and development of Brixton, along with his history with Shaw, made the film feel fleshed out and allowed for his character to be well understood, as well as for one past character to finally gain justice. Add in a subplot regarding Hobbs' family, a few cameos, and several humourous (though a tad questionable) pop-culture references and we have a relatable, touching story that balances out all these threads and gives us not just the feels, but racial/cultural representation as well. Statham and Johnson, along with director David Leitch and writers Chris Morgan and Drew Pearce have done a great job of taking the audience on a well-filmed, meaningful journey that you will want to revisit further down the line.
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