First off, cards on the table. I’m firmly, enthusiastically and, as friends who have suffered through my various rants will tell you, vocally of the opinion that the Fast & Furious series is the best thing to come out of modern-day Hollywood. It’s inventive, inclusive, hilariously over-the-top with the warmest of hearts – and when Paul Walker scrambles along the top of a bus teetering over a cliff-edge I put it up there with anything by Kubrick when it comes to cinema as a spectacle (also at the end of Fast & Furious 7 I was one of around half-a-dozen people who sulked off to the toilet for a quiet cry, because of course one of cinema’s most emotional moments stars a Supra Mk4).
Fast & Furious Crossroads reviewDeveloper: Slightly Mad Studios/Tigon StudiosPublisher: Bandai NamcoPlatform: Reviewed on Xbox OneAvailability: Out now PC, Xbox One and PS4
So yeah, I’m a Fast & Furious fan, and with the release of F9 now postponed until next year the prospect of getting an injection of nitrous, adrenaline and out-and-out entertainment the series provides was more than welcome. And Fast & Furious Crossroads is by some margin the most promising crossover yet – its development has been an open secret for years, with automotive experts Slightly Mad Studios teaming up with Vin Diesel’s own Tigon Studios, and with Diesel himself onboard as Dominic Toretto, bringing Michelle Rodriguez and Tyrese Gibson along for the ride as they reprise their roles in support of a new cast of characters. It should be brilliant.
But something here has gone horribly, horribly wrong.
FAST & FURIOUS CROSSROADS – Official Launch Trailer Watch on YouTube
First, though, it’s worth taking stock of what works – and there is a fair amount. Fast & Furious Crossroads’ story is incoherent, full of wild leaps of logic and completely, utterly mad – which is precisely as it should be. The two new leads are simply fantastic, Sonequa Martin-Green – Star Trek: Discovery’s Michael Burnham – fizzing nicely along with Billions’ Asia Kate-Dillon, the presence of a non-binary lead in keeping with Fast & Furious’ gently progressive ways. Peter Stormare does his Peter Stormare thing as the boss of the comically sinister criminal organisation you uncover and unravel, and Tyrese Gibson is as up for it as he ever is as Roman Pearce. Even Michelle Rodriguez and Vin Diesel seem game.
The cars are fantastic, as you’d hope, littered with the great and the good of Fast & Furious’ past – indeed, Crossroads is as big a fan of the series as anyone. You can even sense that in the nuts and bolts of Crossroads’ crunchy, combat heavy action – when it’s firing on all cylinders, it’s about getting a team of over-powered automotive superheroes to work together with their unique abilities to perform impossible tasks. Take down a tank! Jump on to a speeding train! Drag a wrecking ball across the deck of a well-stocked air carrier, leaving a trail of sparks and fury in your wake!