xXx: Return of Xander Cage - Another Franchise Revival Emphasizing on Mind Blowing Action

Finally after many years, a sequel to xXx had come back to the cinemas. I was excited to see this one as I remembered that the earlier movies were full of action and therefore should provide an exciting change to an otherwise months filled with more serious/heavy movies in theaters. Since my wife had returned from her trip on Tuesday night, she would be able to accompany me to see this on its premiere date yesterday. She even helped me to buy the tickets at Kota Kasablanka which was my first experience watching movie there. My wife had a friends gathering there and I thought it would be a good experience to try a different cinema for a change, especially since the 7PM show was in a cinema with Dolby Atmos. Alas, before the movie started, it showed that the sound system was Dolby Surround 7.1. I was a bit disappointed as the 21cineplex website clearly indicated that the 7PM show was in the cinema with Dolby Atmos. If the cinema operator could not show movie using such system, the website should not have put up this info. I know that most people do not really care for such things, but it mattered to me. Anyway, let us move on to the movie.

Brief Story Line

Movie started with few minutes of intro and a satellite which was circling the earth suddenly broke down and was pulled by earth's gravity to the city killing some people in the process. It was revealed later that the satellite's break down and falling to earth was done through an equipment called the "pandora's box". CIA Agent Jane Marke (Toni Collette - About A Boy, Little Miss Sunshine etc) found out about this dangerous weapon which she was able to apprehend from the perpetrator. However, the weapon was later on stolen by a team of people who were very dangerous and called ghosts.

This team was led by Xiang (Donnie Yen - Ip Man trilogy, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story etc) who was a very skillful martial artist. His team consisted of Serena (Deepika Padukone - Om Shanti Om, Chennai Express etc), Hawk (the UFC fighter Michael Bisping) and Talon (Tony Jaa - Ong Bak, Furious 7 etc). They managed to use their various ability to infiltrate the CIA headquarter and took this weapon from such high security place and even took out so many of the top agents in the process.

Agent Marke who knew about the Triple X program created by Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackon star of more than 100 movies) thought that in order to capture Xiang's team, they need to enlist the same type of agents. So she looked for Xander Cage (Vin Diesel - Fast and Furious series etc) and try to re-recruit him who all this while had been faking his death and hiding in various countries. Even though at first Xander was not willing to help, but since Agent Marke mentioned about Gibbons, he finally changed his mind.

With the information acquired from his friend, Xander found out that Xiang's team had been hiding in the Philippines. Agent Marke instructed Xander to go to there with the aide from her team of armies whom Xander jokingly referred to as G.I Joe. But Xander refused this team's help as he was worried they would not be able to keep up with Xiang's team. So he enlisted his own team that consisted of a sharp shooter named Adele (Ruby Rose - Orange is the New Black TV series), Tennyson (Rory McCann - Game Of Thrones TV series) and Nicks (Kris Wu member of EXO band). There was also a desk agent Becky (Nina Dobrev - Let's Be Cops, Vampire Diaries TV series) assisting Agent Marke who provide anything for the team especially weapons and equipment (kind of like Q in James Bond movies). When everything's completed, Xander's team would embark to the Philippines to capture Xiang's team.

So could Xander and his friends capture them? Who were actually behind the "pandora's box" stealing as it would seem Xiang was not doing it for himself? Find them all in this full blast, full action movie. 

End of Brief Story Line

Pheew, this movie was full of adrenaline pumping scenes, especially from the middle till the end. There was still the trademark crazy stunts involving extreme sport done by Xander (just like in the original xXx movie), but this time around, they were combined with the extreme action, fighting, guns shooting, bombing and so on. You know the drill. Good thing that the sound system of Dolby 7.1 was still good, though it made me wonder of how much difference it would make had it really been in the Dolby Atmos as advertised.

In addition to those action movie scenes, there were a bit of funny moments as well involving Tennyson or Becky and some cameo appearance of a famous soccer player, plus a surprise appearance of someone from the previous xXx film. The actions scenes in this movie were great. I was very much impressed during the scenes involving Donnie Yen's fights (Yes, I am a very big fan of him and his movies!) and also the scene of Xander chasing Xiang in the Detroit's highway/roads. D. J. Caruso was able to capture the action sequence nicely just like he did in his previous action movies like Eagle Eye or I Am Number Four but totally different from his work of Disturbia.

With the introduction of more characters, it appeared that the producer is hoping to revive this franchise and would like it to be commercially successful. My own personal view was the team members felt too many and did not make too much impression  or screen time. Maybe if they only had just to 2 or 3 per team. Now I am not a clairvoyant but this kind of movie usually would be received with mixed and divisive opinion. Some people who would be able to enjoy a simple movie with full mind blowing actions like me and my wife would just enjoy it as it is. But I am very sure that there are those who want to see intelligent movie with good pace, maybe some mysteries, plus good action every now and then, would not like this movie as it did not have a coherent story line (some scenes I felt unnecessary apart from just to show how good these people are in their actions). Whether or not the movie would be commercially successful, remains to be seen. My wife and I would certainly enjoy it if there is really a sequel to this, since the ending scene truly suggests it.

Anyway, I could understand if those latter type of audience would not enjoy this movie, or even if they try to watch it, they probably would say this movie was bad or similar thoughts. But for those who just want to be entertained with mind blowing actions (without worrying of the story line) should be impressed with the movie. It was pure thumping action with very colorful and nice soundtrack which should add to the excitement. The choice is yours. 

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars