xXx: Return of Xander Cage review – An assortment of action scenes and silly dialogues

The third film in the xXx franchise, xXx: Return of Xander Cage comes 12 years after its last. And Samuel L Jackson pretty much sums up the plot of this offering in his one line from the film - "Kick some ass, get the girl and try to look dope while doing it." To this Xander Cage replies, "I could definitely make that work.” But does he?

A device called pandora's box, which controls every military satellite on earth, has fallen in the wrong hands. This device needs to be retrieved so that the world can be saved. Goverment operative Xander Cage (Vin Diesel), who is in a self-imposed exile, is called upon for this mission and he picks his own squad – in short a cast from all over the world is recruited, probably in an attempt to capture every movie market possible - Donnie Yen (Hong Kong) as Xiang, Deepika Padukone (India) as Serena, Ruby Rose (Australia) as sniper expert Adele Wolff, Khris Wu (China/Canada) as Harvard Nicks Zhou, Tony Jaa (Thailand) as Talon, Nina Dobrev (Canada) as Becky Clearidge, Rory McCann (Scotland) as Tennyson and Jackson (USA) in a cameo as Augustus Gibbons.

The film though still lies on the shoulders of Diesel, who employs his star power and charm to seduce you into this extreme sports meets spy thriller, but that’s not enough. 

Basically, this film is an assorted collection of action sequences strung together with a very thin story line and sketchy characters. Skiing in a jungle, riding a bike on water, hand to hand combats, gun-trotting good looking people, a couple of jumps off the airplane and lots more — xXx tries every trick in the book.

Yes, xXx is meant to thrill you with over the top action sequences but these needed to be used wisely and judiciously so as to make them enjoyable. Director DJ Caruso slickly executes several of the action scenes but his attempt to make every scene a thrilling action adventure leads to an overdose and ruins the high you could have got out of an action flick of this kind.

The cheesy dialogues don't help the cause either. Every character is sketchy and they are all trying to be so cool that they turn into these super uncool people who you always want to stay away from in life. Their introductions will either leave you in splits or make you cringe. Take for instance a DJ who "dated Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga in one night."

The writers also don't give you enough reason to root for each of the characters except because they are trying to save the world.

That brings us to Padukone. She looks great and kicks butt in the action sequences. She is an important part of this flick, but with no real scope to show her acting skills. The few dialogues she has are not very effective either. 

Rose and Yen try hard to elevate their parts.

Diesel, as a cheeky daredevil Xander who is always looking for thrills, seems to be having fun with the silly lines, ridiculous plot points and last but not the least his favourite fur coat. But I would rather watch him in a The Fast and the Furious movie than in this. This third part is probably the best version of what a xXx movie can be! So do we really need this franchise? Did the world really want Xander Cage to return? Don't think so. In fact, a spoof of xXx would work much better.

What xXx has to offer is some good-looking people from all over the world and a few fun action sequences. If you are not game for a silly action flick, stay away. 

Runtime: 107 minutes