Vin Diesel headlines Fast X premiere outside Colosseum

Hollywood came to the Colosseum on Friday evening (local time) as Fast X, the tenth movie of the Fast & Furious, held a star-studded Road to Rome premiere.

Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, John Cena, Charlize Theron, Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno and others prancing on a red carpet rolled out in the Forum’s Temple of Venus, with the historical landmark as a backdrop.

The social media embargo expired after the Rome premiere, and people who were lucky enough to see Fast X a week ahead of its stateside theatrical debut on May 19 are calling the movie “stupidly entertaining”, a “visual spectacle” and declaring that it puts the franchise “back on track”.

Others praise Jason Momoa’s performance as the main villain, but admit there are also some “clunky elements” to the movie.

The choice of the Italian capital as the first city in the world where the 10th installment in the Fast & Furious saga would screen, honoured the fact that some of the film’s most high-octane action scenes were shot in Rome and its surrounding cities. “All the action scenes we did in Rome were real. When we rolled that ball in the streets of Rome, that was a real one-ton ball that we set on fire,” Fast X director Louis Leterrier said.

Diesel also waxed enthusiastic about returning to the Eternal City on this balmy Italian evening. He said: “I could not believe that there was a (Dodge) Charger and we were shouting: ‘Action!’ in front of the Colosseum. I never would have dreamed that happening 20 years ago.” The star, who also produces the Fast films, walked the red carpet in tandem with Gibson, posing for photographers and camera crews flown in from all over the world.