Review:
"xXx: Return of Xander Cage"
Release Date: Jan. 20, 2017
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 110 minutes Welcome back to the Xander Zone. After sitting out xXx: State of the Union, Vin Diesel returns to the spy franchise he abandoned in favor of making 2005’s The Pacifier. xXx: Return of Xander Cage finds Diesel attempting to resurrect a franchise that assumed it could survive without its original leading man. The Fast and the Furious series managed to continue without Diesel because the first film established Paul Walker as a co-lead. xXx: State of the Union gambled that it could replace Diesel with Ice Cube and no would care. To blame the outright rejection of State of the Union on Diesel’s absence and Ice Cube’s presence is unfair. The xXx is built on the flimsiest of premises—it’s James Bond but instead the secret agent has a bad-ass attitude, street cred and tattoos. As if James Bond doesn’t have an anti-authoritarian streak. Or scars instead of tattoos. Take away xXx’s “hip credentials” and what’s left are films that are essentially capture the spirit of the absurd Bond romps of Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan. How could it not be given that Die Another Day’s Lee Tamahori directed State of the Union? The problem with the street-level State of the Union is that it strayed too far away from xXx’s globe-trotting, high-flying antics. Also, Diesel’s Xander Cage is a daredevil, one who doesn’t mind jumping off a bridge to make a point. He possesses a physicality that Ice Cube’s Darius Stone lacks. Stone may not be good with orders but he’s a soldier at heart and behaves like one on the battlefield. Stone would hang off the side of the building as a means to an end; Cage would do it for the rush. The difference is very much evident in Return of Xander Cage, as our “risen from the grave” hero wastes no time doing what he does best: looking good and having fun while staring death in the face. On skis or by skateboard, Cage does what he does with style and panache in the breathlessly executed sequence that reintroduces us to Cage. Turns out Cage wasn’t killed as part of the conspiracy that informed State of the Union. Instead, he left behind a profession that meant nothing to him. But he’s drawn back into the xXx program when a close colleague is killed. Under the command of Toni Collette’s handler, Jane Marke, he’s tasked with tracking down a weapon that can control military satellites. Cage knows better than to go it alone against a gang of brazen rogue operatives that includes martial arts masters Donnie Yen and Tony Jaa. So he assembles a team to help him retrieve the weapon. While Diesel is very much front and center in Return of Xander Cage, director D.J. Caruso and writer F. Scott Frazier ensure everyone gets their shot at glory, from Deepika Padukone’s one-woman army to Ruby Rose’s sharpshooter to Rory McCann’s stunt driver to Nina Dobrev’s techie. OK, Cage also recruits Kris Wu’s club DJ, which makes sense when the team goes undercover to a jungle rave, but he’s just dead weight from that point on. Even the “bad guys” get to show off their remarkable skills, with Yen stealing the show, just as he did in Rogue One. An argument could be made, though, that Jaa—who spends most of his time running and jumping—isn’t given enough to do. It’s an interesting idea to turn xXx from a one-man show into a team effort à la Mission: Impossible. And it works because Cage’s team is fully integrated into the proceedings with ease. It’s also encouraging that Return of Xander Cage emulates Diesel’s Furious franchise by assembling a rich and diverse cast with global appeal. That said, everyone know who is the boss in Return of Xander Cage. Caruso provides constant reminders that Cage is the man. This proves to amusing at first, with colleagues gushing about how thrilled they are to work Cage, but then becomes annoying its employed to have women all but throw their underwear at him. Not that Cage has many opportunities to bed them in the line of duty. Caruso doesn’t allow Cage and his team much time for rest and relax. If they are not taking on Russian mercenaries during the aforementioned jungle rave, they are grappling with U.S. soldiers in an airplane nose-diving toward the ground or chasing the bad guys on land and water. If Caruso lacks imagination when it comes to the action, he at least treats them as ludicrous Bondian spectacles. He also tries to bring some post-9/11 politics into Return of Xander Cage, which is a hallmark of the franchise, but he doesn’t get too deep into things. Of more pressing concern is filling Return of Xander Cage with callbacks to both xXx and State of the Union. It’s nice that a sequel to a major flop doesn’t shy away from actively acknowledging its existence. While Return of Xander Cage is nothing more than dumb fun, it does the job of reviving a dormant franchise. It also opens to door to future adventures of Xander Cage. That’s fine—as long as he brings his team along for the ride. Except the DJ. He can go back to spinning records. Robert Sims Aired: Jan. 19, 2017 Web site: http://www.returnofxandercage.com |
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