Engage throttle, disengage brain. Mike Leeder says ‘The Return of Xander Cage‘ defies gravity and logic but is silly fun…
Fifteen years ago the original XXX film was unleashed, the second pairing of director Rob Cohen and Vin Diesel, with the two of them turning down the second chapter of the Fast & Furious series to launch what they envisioned as a new franchise, what they referred to as “an Extreme James Bond”…hey it was 2002! It introduced us to Xander Cage an extreme sports athlete turned super-spy recruited by Samuel L Jackson’s Augustus Gibbons to battle rogue Eastern European bad guys and romance the unorthodox beauty that is Asia Argento… making all kinds of mischief and wearing a fur coat. The film was a box office smash and plans for a sequel were quickly drawn up, only for Diesel to step away from the role and the franchise and Cohen and himself to part company on less than happy terms.
2005’s sequel was introduced with Cohen directing a short entitled The Death of Xander Cage, which saw Xander Cage laid to rest by Diesel’s stunt double dying it seems in a big explosion, one that results in the bad guys acquiring his tattooed skin – a pretty definitive statement on his demise. The short seemed very much a less than polite message to Diesel and a possible warning to all franchise players from the director and the studio, that anyone can be replaced! . XXX: State of the Union – directed by Once Were Warriors and Die Another Day director Le Tamahori – introduced a new XXX, in the shape of rapper turned actor Ice Cube who battled to save America from a modern day revolution. The film made money but was nowhere near the success of the earlier film and while there was talk of a potential third movie which would have introduced possibly a female XXX agent, the franchise faded into limbo.
Fifteen years later… with Diesel having returned to the Fast & Furious franchise and also shot two further adventures in the Pitch Back/Riddick universe, its time for XXX: The Return of Xander Cage… with NO mention of Death of Xander Cage).
This time he’s not alone: perhaps learning from the Fast & Furious franchise, XXX is now a team sport as Donnie Yen, Tony Jaa, Michael Bisping, Toni Collette, Nina Dobrev, Ruby Rose, Deepika Padukone, Krisz Wu and Rory Mccann join the action.
When a XXX team lead by Agent Xiang (Donnie Yen) goes rogue, it takes possession of ‘Pandora’s Box’, a device similar to the God’s Eye, the all powerful device from Furious 7, in that it has the power to crash satellites, make hot pockets and can probably allow you to illegally download movies without divulging your ISP! Spoiler……. Samuel L Jackson doesn’t make it past the first reel, so it’s time to track down the one man who can make a differenc:, the original XXX who is living in exile in the Dominican Republic with a very low-key lifestyle battling the government to bring free cable to the masses! (Yes, that’s what he is doing!) Drawn back into action by new boss (played by Toni Collette) she explains that Gibbons had always cared for Xander and kept track on his whereabouts. (Then why didn’t they call him back to service when America was facing a potential revolution in XXX: State of the Union? And what about the Death of Xander Cage?). Xander, who seems to have maintained his own network of contacts and retained his reputation in the years in hiding, , assembles his own team to find out what’s going on and save the world once more!
WARNING: This is a XXX movie, do not even try to place this film in the real world, its an extreme action movie in every sense: logic, fashion sense, gravity and more do not work in the way we might expect it to in this movie, just like the Fast & Furious franchise. Imagine if somebody in Hollywood gave Clarence Ford (Dragon from Russia, Naked Killer) Godfrey Ho (Ninja Terminator) or Wong Jing (in Mission Milano and From Vegas to Macau mode) the budget and freedom to make a Hollywood action movie their way!
It’s interesting to see Vin Diesel don the mantle of XXX for the second time – a lot has changed in fifteen years. While we’ve got to see the evolution of Dominic Toretto turn from street racer with a heart of gold to international man of mystery (as the Furious franchise itself evolved from ‘real world’ to a big budget franchise set in what feels like the gravity-defying universe of the Grand Theft Auto video game), the XXX character seems stuck in the early 2000’s and while Diesel does his best, he’s overshadowed and has his thunder stolen by his co-stars.
Donnie Yen – who plays Xiang – gets a great chance to showcase his talents once again, and, as with his role in Rogue One, he steals the show… not just through his physical prowess, but also through his performance. Finally Hollywood seems to realise you don’t need to take an Asian character and ‘castrate’ his performance and charm. He doesn’t need to be the shy silent type…he can kick ass, but he can also deliver dialogue, charm the audience, steal the show and not have to die in the final reel to save the Caucasian lead! Yen gets some very nice action beats, defying gravity with some high octane gun-play. While we know how much more he can do physically (and some of the action could be better shot) it’s still a great role for him and I’d love to see a Xiang standalone movie sooner rather than later. (Jet Li was originally attached to the project, and while I’m a big fan of Jet Li, this is a role better suited to Yen).
The rest of the cast? Tony Jaa is under-used martial arts wise. He gets to show a lighter side than we’re used to, but he’s more flips than kicks in this one. Michael Bisping gets a nice supporting role replacing Connor McGregor (who stepped away from the film just before shooting began). It’s a nice introductory role and shows Bisping has potential…but its not a ‘showy’ performance and I can see the role being very differently handled if McGregor had been involved. The lovely Ruby Rose gets some nice moments, as does Nina Dobrev as the agency fan of Xander Cage who offers support a la ‘Q’. Deepika Padukone and China’s Krisz Wu don’t really bring anything to the mix, though Rory Mccann has some nice moments. There’s some nice cameos and nods to the original film and the sequel when Ice Cube’s character makes an appearance to lend a hand.
The Return of Xander Cage is very much a popcorn movie, treat it as you would the recent Fast & Furious movies: it’s big, it’s loud and its great fun, but don’t be trying to discuss the rationality behind certain plot-pints and set pieces. At best it further heralds the continued international breakthrough of Donnie Yen to an even wider audience…
8/10
