Film Review: Hobbs & Shaw

Hobbs & Shaw, er, wait, I’m sorry, “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” marks the first spin-off of the wildly successful action franchise, so long as you don’t count Better Luck Tomorrow in hindsight, since that film does feature Han, who later went on to Justin Lin’s installments after the fact. I suppose one of these was inevitable, especially in the wake of the team up between Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw and Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs being the highlight of the film for a lot of people, myself included, even if the film not acknowledging Deckard having killed Han was a weird choice.

So, anyway, here we are two years later with Hobbs & Shaw, which is directed by David Leitch, of John Wick, Atomic Blonde, and Deadpool 2 fame, and written by Fast and Furious regular, Chris Morgan, and Drew Pearce. The story revolves around the titular duo having to keep a deadly virus that could wipe out humanity from the wrong hands, the hands in this case being those of Brixton (Idris Elba), a former associate of Deckard, who is now a terrorist mastermind filled with cybernetic enhancements. Caught up in this whole conflict is Deckard’s sister, Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), who took the virus during an MI6 operation and injected herself as a carrier so she could get it away from Brixton.

Of course, given the nature of Hobbs and Shaw’s relationship as displayed in Fate of the Furious, the film leans heavily on its buddy dynamic. The two are in no mood to work together, but because the fate of the world is at stake, they reluctantly team up. They’re banter is fun to watch, with a large chunk of it being petty insults that they constantly throw at one another. The two are naturally very charismatic action stars, and the filmmakers know how to put them in situations that allow for that charisma to shine in their own distinct way, while also feeling consistent with what we’ve seen from then in the main franchise.

Hattie is also an engaging character, if mostly through Kirby’s steely and slick screen presence. She owns every moment she has on screen, and she gets to be very involved in the action instead of getting a handful of token hits like you sometimes see with supporting female characters in these kinds of action movies. I do genuinely hope they find more to do with her in either a sequel to this, or in a future Fast and Furious movie. Elba is clearly here to look good while kicking ass, and on that level it works. He is definitely a formidable villain for our heroes, but he hardly has much going on under the surface, though, not for lack of trying.

As expected, Leitch delivers on the action. However, I feel like there is a bit of a missed opportunity here. Brixton is a part of this evil organization that believes in the idea of the next evolutionary step in humanity being through cybernetic implants. The tech very much reaches into sci-fi territory, which is a fun contrast to the old school buddy action sensibilities that Deckard and Luke are involved in. I wish the action reflected that more, putting a greater emphasis on practical action instead of CG, which would mirror these old school dudes taking on a futuristic force. That’s not to say there isn’t practical work, there are seemingly numerous car stunts, and plenty of extensively choreographed hand-to-hand combat, but it is mixed with shots of obvious CG and green screen work. It’s perfectly functional, and well executed for what it is, but when you know what Leitch is capable of, it does seem like a bit of a step down.

It’s a very simple and straightforward action flick that delivers pretty much everything it advertises (and I mean that literally, since the trailers did pretty much sum up the movie). It borders on greatness at times, but the one thing that really holds it all back in a significant way is the runtime. It’s just about two hours and 15 minutes long, and it feels it. The story isn’t one that would require so much time to tell, and while I wasn’t bored, there were moments where I found myself thinking, “of, this could’ve been trimmed, this could’ve been changed in such-and-such a way to be more efficient, and this could’ve been cut entirely. There’s a perfectly awesome 90 minute movie in here, but it’s a bit buried under extraneous details and unnecessarily extended action.

Having said that, I would still say Hobbs & Shaw is a good time. It’s not great, and it doesn’t quite reach the highest highs of the Fast and Furious film, but it is still a fun time at the movies. It’s so eager to please, and it goes about it in ways that are occasionally counterintuitive (I didn’t necessarily dislike them, but if the celebrity cameos here were axed, I wouldn’t miss them). Thankfully knows how to use its two leads, and there is a filmmaker at the helm who knows how to put together a clear, cohesive and exciting action set piece. If there’s gonna be more of these, there’s certainly room for improvement, but if you’ve been sold on this from the beginning, you’ll probably have a fun time regardless.