VIN DIESEL had his breakthrough role as Riddick in the sci-fi action film, “Pitch Black”, in 2001. This was followed by the first “The Fast and the Furious” movie in 2001 and the action flick “XXX” in 2002 where he played the extreme sports enthusiast-athlete turned agent, Xander Cage. He did a sequel to “Pitch Black” which bombed, “Chronicles of Riddick” in 2004. So he refused to do the sequels for “Fast and Furious” (2003, which focused on the late Paul Walker’s character instead) and “XXX” (where he was replaced by Ice Cube and was a dismal flop.)
Vin successfully revived his career with the hit action comedy, “The Pacifier” in 2005, then returned to the “Fast and Furious” franchise which has been a surefire gold mine since then. Now, 15 years later, he also returns to “XXX” in “XXX: The Return of Xander Cage”.
Xander was supposed to have died when Ice Cube replaced him, but here, it’s said that he just faked his death (just like Jason Statham in “The Mechanic 1 & 2”.) The killing of his former boss, Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson), makes him come out of his self imposed exile and he is tasked by a blonde CIA badass, Jane Marke (Toni Collette), to track down some uber bad guys who have taken a dangerous device known as Pandora’s Box.
Xander has to retrieve the box as it can turn military satellites into deadly weapons that can destroy the world. He then recruits his own back up team composed of sharpshooting sniper expert Adele Wolff (Ruby Rose), a DJ with other lethal skills Nicks (Kris Wu) and stunt driver Tennyson (Rory McCann.) Also giving good support is Becky (Nina Dobrev of “The Vampire Chronicles”) who plays a hilarious, bumbling but cute tech-support assistant and hacker.
Their adversaries are Asians: the Chinese Xiang (Donnie Yen), the Thai Talon (Tony Jaa) and the Indian Serena (Deepika Padukone). This gives the movie a multi-national cast and they all have their own individual skills shown in action set pieces with beautifully choreographed moves. But we later discover that they were actually commissioned by Gibbons himself.This makes it difficult for us then to determine who among them is a friend and who is an enemy. Also in the cast is UFC champ Michael Bisping. Ice Cube also shows up in a cameo and it is hinted that he and Vin might be paired in a possible future sequel. The action is almost non-stop. Xander first goes to (could you have guessed it?) the Philippines while searching for Pandora’s Box. It’s said he went to Caramoan Islands but we doubt if they really shot it there.
The hero faces all sorts of outrageously risky situations and figures in the most spectacular hair-raising stunts (like Vin jumping off an exploding truck in mid-air and from a plane without a parachute, and still coming out unscathed). Somehow we know that, just like 007 (and Vin’s Dominic Toretto in “Fast & Furious”), he is unkillable.
No doubt Director D.J. Caruso wants the movie to work both as an action-thriller and as action-comedy. He even makes anti-establishments potshots with lines like “Patriotism is dead. There are only rebels and tyrants now.” It’s up to you to agree or disagree. Honestly, though, despite all the hair-raising stunts, we feel that the whole thing is actually quite charmless as a popcorn actioner.