xXx: Return of Xander Cage – Movie Review

It has taken Vin Diesel fifteen years to return to the role of Xander Cage.  Back in 2002 the action star followed up his break-out role in “The Fast and the Furious” with the extreme sports spy flick, “xXx”.  He passed on the sequel which starred Ice Cube before realizing years later that his audience will only pay to see him in sequels to his earlier hit films. Numerous box office bombs later (“Fast/Furious” excluded), Vin is back as xXx.

After Xander’s former handler, Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) is murdered, CIA director Jane Marke (Toni Collette) asks him to once again to join the xXx program.  Refusing to work with trained soldiers, Xander brings in his own team of outcasts.  Sharpshooter Adele Wolff (Ruby Rose), stunt man Tennyson Torch (Rory McCann), and professional party guy Nicks (Kris Wu). Each team member’s set of skills comes in quite handy when the time comes.

The mission of the xXx team is to steal back a piece of government tech that can’t fall into the wrong hands.  Xander and friends won’t have an easy fight. They must go up against martial arts masters Xiang (Donnie Yen) and Talon (Tony Jaa).  I can’t forget to mention their beautiful partner Serena Unger (Deepika Padukone).

I didn’t have high expectations for “xXx: Return of Xander Cage”. The trailers looked pretty idiotic and quite cheesy at best.  Then again, absurd stupidity doesn’t take away from the fun factor that the “Fast and Furious” series delivers.  Thankfully, the latest installment of “xXx” is quite enjoyable.  Director D.J. Caruso (“Disturbia”) hasn’t had a hit in nearly a decade and he does a solid here.

“Return of Xander Cage” does suffer from quite a bit of poor CGI.  I wish the motorcycles riding ocean waves sequence was cut from the film as it was way too cartoonish even for a movie like this.   The studio also made a major mistake by revealing the film’s biggest surprise in the latest trailers.  That moment still got a big cheer from the audience in the final act but it should have totally been left a surprise.

Although it’s not as good as the original, “Return of Xander Cage” is a vast improvement over “State of the Union” which was the 2005 sequel.  Fans of the earlier films should find plenty to enjoy here. Hopefully Diesel can find some box office success outside the “Fast and Furious” series.  This latest return to “xXx” is the best shot he’s got so far.

By: Marc Ferman