xXx: Return of Xander Cage – movie review

Vin Diesel leads a cast of renegades to try to save the world from destruction in xXx: Return of Xander Cage. Yes, I know it is a well-worn plot, but I found this sequel surprisingly engaging and entertaining for the first half, even though I had no idea who was fighting whom and which sides they were on.If you are looking for kick-ass action and special effects, this will satiate you. It has a great look about it. But, as far as a storyline that really makes sense and hangs together – forget it.

The start is impressive and captivating, as Samuel L. Jackson playing NSA Agent Augustus Eugene Gibbons, tries to recruit a new member of his xXx team. Jackson has the swagger and glint in his eye to pull this off seamlessly in a Chinese restaurant. That is before we see a satellite hurtling towards Earth … and suddenly we are in a CIA boardroom, where Toni Collette is holding court as Jane Marke. Marke has a permanent scowl on her face and clearly she is less than happy because things have gone pear-shaped.  Extreme athlete turned government operative Xander Cage (Diesel), was thought to be long dead, but clearly he is not. Marke recruits him to lock horns with villain Xiang (Donnie Yen) to recover a powerful weapon known as “Pandora’s Box”. It can control military satellites and with it cause catastrophic damage. Ladies man, and man of the people (which is established early on in a super sequence set somewhere off the grid), Cage solicits the help of a group of thrill-seeking colleagues that he knows he can trust. Before you know it, he is caught up in a deadly conspiracy.

Diesel may be knocking on 50 this year, but he still has the look and the attitude to be able to pull off this tongue-in-cheek badass character. Clearly he doesn’t take himself too seriously and that is the only way he can get away with it. Consider that he last played xXx in the original (xXx) in 2002, before passing up the sequel, xXx: State of the Union, that came out in 2005.

Cage’s cohorts are a motley bunch and by the end of the movie their numbers have expanded from three to significantly more. Among them are Ruby Rose, who plays sharpshooter extraordinaire Adele Wolff. Let’s just say that like Collette she, too, scowls a lot and features in a couple of dynamic scenes. In one, she frees a lion and in another, she shoots up a whole posse while going back-to-back with another action heroine of the piece, Serena Unger (a role filled by Deepika Padukone), who also doubles as Cage’s love interest. Ice Cube, who played the protagonist Darius Stone in the second film, also makes a late appearance.

In the second act, I was particularly conscious that the dialogue became a series of virtual one-liners, which served to move along the story, as best it could, in between highly choreographed, intense and exacting fight scenes. DJ Caruso (Disturbia) directs from a screenplay by F. Scott Frazier (Autobahn). Much of it is by the book, but there are a couple of surprises.

Overall, xXx: Return of Xander Cage still manages to send pulses racing and there is already talk of the franchise continuing with Diesel in it. Rated M, it scores a 6½ out of 10.

Director: D.J. Caruso
Cast: Vin Diesel, Ruby Rose, Toni Collette, Samuel L. Jackson, Nina Dobrev, Donnie Yen
Release Date: 19 January 2017
Rating: M

Alex First