Review: 'xXx: The Return of Xander Cage' is a non-stop action adventure ride
Secret ending? No.
Running time: 107 minutes (~1.75 hours)
“xXx: The Return of Xander Cage” is an action film that’s the third in the “xXx” franchise, and the second to feature Vin Diesel as the main character.
It revolves around crashing satellites and a global conspiracy that forces unorthodox government agent xXx to come out of hiding and face several new opponents who are as skilled as he is. But there’s more than meets eye to this series of unlikely events.
“xXx: The Return of Xander Cage” is directed by D. J. Caruso and written by F. Scott Frazier. It stars Vin Diesel (Xander Cage), Donnie Yen (Xiang), Deepika Padukone (Serena Unger), Kris Wu (Nicks Zhou), Ruby Rose (Adele Wolff), Tony Jaa (Talon), Nina Dobrev (Becky Clearidge), Samuel L. Jackson (Augustus Eugene Gibbons), Toni Collette (Jane Marke), Nicky Jam (Lazarus), Rory McCaan (Tennyson “The Torch”), Al Sapienza (CIA Director), Michael Bisping (Hawk), with cameos by Neymar Jr as himself. It is rated PG-13.
I’m going to confess that I didn’t expect much from “xXx: The Return of Xander Cage” since, well, it genuinely looked like the film would focus too much on stunts and action and not enough on story. But it turned out to be half-true (in a good way), in the sense that it focuses on action in the right way, and lets go of the story but still ensures that it all makes sense. “xXx: The Return of Xander Cage” is solid entertainment, and is just the kind of film you watch at the end of the week to unwind.
Highlights
Becky Clearidge is adorable
Becky Clearidge (Nina Dorbev) is so huggable with her geeky looks and nerdy enthusiasm. She’s even given a little character arc in which she overcomes her fear of artillery and ends up kicking butt with it. With her incredible intelligence, goofy tics, and endearing awkwardness, she could very well helm her own spin-off from the “xXx” franchise. And if I haven’t mentioned it, she’s just absolutely adorable.
Tongue-in-cheek
“xXx: The Return of Xander Cage” knows that its strength doesn’t lie in story, and makes no attempts to over-explain ludicrous situations that pop up. Instead, it just provides the set-up and then lets the action take over. It’s pretty self-aware of how over the top the stunts are, and doesn’t try too hard to pretend that all this is believable. It plays it straight and gives you reasons for people to fight, before letting them loose on each other.
Non-stop action and stunts
The film is literally one giant continuous action scene. If there’s any exposition, it’s sandwiched between fights or laid out amidst incredible looking set-pieces like massive cargo planes or towering glass skyscrapers. At some point it stops making excuses for action scenes to occur and you just take it for granted that they’ll take the most exaggerated route to wherever they’re headed. This glamorous action is extremely entertaining.
Exhilarating effects and sets
What makes the action even more fun are the exotic set pieces that the characters find themselves in. Yes, there’s the stereotypical Asian island paradise, but there are also crowded highways (with the requisite leaps onto speeding lorries) and skydiving stunts that round up the many locations that the characters find themselves in. It adds to the sheer sense of fun when you see them globetrotting on a minute’s notice. I believe they even head to London at one point.
Letdowns
No story
It’s not really a letdown in the sense that “xXx: The Return of Xander Cage” doesn’t need a fulfilling and cathartic story to entertain, but there’s only the barest semblance of a plot in the film. You could probably poke a few plot holes if you stopped to think about it, but you won’t, because you’ll be too engrossed by the action scenes to do so.
“xXx: The Return of Xander Cage” is one giant action set-piece.
Should you watch this at weekend movie ticket prices? Yes.
Should you watch this more than once? No.
Score: 4.0/5
“xXx: The Return of Xander Cage” opens in cinemas:
– 19 January, 2017 (Singapore)
– 25 January, 2017 (Malaysia)
– 18 January, 2017 (Philippines)
Marcus Goh is a Singapore television scriptwriter. He’s also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. He Tweets/Instagrams at Optimarcus and writes at marcusgohmarcusgoh.com. The views expressed are his own.
