If the Fast and Furious franchise is a pedal-to-the-metal machine, Hobbs and Shaw is more cart and horse. Albeit from the same stable. A spin-off from the still-growing F&F universe, Hobbs and Shaw takes the two antagonists and throws them together in a movie where they can measure manhoods, say ‘asshole’ a lot and send up their own, and each other’s, persona. Probably sounded better in the pitch. But thankfully this film is saved from being a complete car crash by the presence of Idris Elba’s almost Shakespearean baddie; and by stage-and-screen upcomer Vanessa Kirby (Princess Margaret in The Crown; and Mission: Impossible - Fallout).

When a programmable bio-virus goes missing, the spy-guys in LA and London reach for their ballsiest assets - lawman Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and shady operative Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham). That each guy hates the other makes for a messy assignment. Especially when genetically-enhanced villain Brixton (Elba) is also after the virus. But it’s about to get personal because Deckard’s estranged sister Hattie (Kirby) has implanted the virus in herself to keep it safe and - obviously – save the world.

With David Leitch on helming duties, hopes are high. Leitch, co-director of John Wick and director of Atomic Blonde, two of the best low-budget actioners in recent years, knows how to do action. He’s a stuntman after all. But in stepping outside the free-flowing F&F world, Hobbs and Shaw loses the light and the dark. For all the preposterous set-pieces, F&F still had an underworld edginess, main characters got killed, something was at stake. Johnson and Statham had a sparky antagonism that energised the films, Jekyll and Hyde-like, in a ‘who can you trust?’ world.

But here, clearly going for primary colours, somehow it comes out grey. Second-hand ideas don’t help. Baddie Brixton has been cyber-enhanced into a super-strong, bullet-defying, boundy-leapy person. You mean like Bucky Barnes the titular Winter Soldier in the Captain America and Avengers movies? Indeed. But they were superhero fantasies. Injecting the serum of sci-fi into this kind of fantasy – shiny cars and muscly violence – doesn’t work.

Elba’s fascist case for improving mankind through genetics is spoken with mellifluous cadences of real beauty. You hang on his every word. Whereas Johnson and Statham strand us on a plane with an unfunny, super-dull kiddie rant: ‘mine’s bigger, I’m tougher, you’re an a-hole’ blah-blah. The F&F films aren’t high art, but they certainly know the rules of cinema: show not tell, action speaks character.

And the action has its moments. A multi-motorbike chase through the London streets has an edgy verve with punchy, body-slamming results. Three trucks get hooked up to a helicopter, the tug-of-war taking place on the vertiginous edge of a cliff. But the screen mostly comes alive when Deckard and Shaw go at each other, or at bunches of bad guys. The choreography is 12A-lite but as inventive as you’d expect from Leitch, whose hand-to-hand combat scenes in Atomic Blonde are among the best in cinema.

Making the leap from smaller-scale action movies to bigger-bucks, mega-bang blockbusters is hard. It needs a vision and a visual style. Michael Bay, for all his detractors, has that in spades. So too John Woo; and Anthony and Joe Russo (Avengers). And James Wan, who stepped up from lower-budget creepy horrors (like Saw, The Conjuring) to Furious 7. But Hobbs and Shaw has all the hallmarks of a failure of vision – blurry special effects, noisy dialogue and characters who, cut out of their milieu, turn into caricatures.

Hurray for Vanessa Kirby, deftly blending the martial arts with wit and vulnerability, a 3D person in a 2D film. But Leitch ups the second-hand feel with déjà vu cameos from Ryan Reynolds, reprising his motormouth persona from the Deadpool movies (directed by Leitch); and Eddie Marsan, re-treading his foreign-accented geek-in-trouble persona from Atomic Blonde (Leitch again). And a non-funny Kevin Hart as an Air Marshall. Then there’s the climactic battle that starts in inky darkness and seconds later it’s broad daylight. Maybe Samoan sunrises are super-speedy, but it’s a jolting moment that wrecks the visuals.

Fast and Furious 9 is due out in 2020 directed by Justin Lin (the original F&F as well as the fifth and sixth instalments). Remains to be seen whether Hobbs and Shaw will return in that or in a sequel to their own movie. If the film gods were watching, let’s hope it’s not the latter.

The motley crew of street racers-turned-world savers have come a long way since their seemingly minor debut eighteen years ago. Eight entries in (which have earned a staggering amount of money), they now take on their greatest challenge yet: spinning the franchise off into a cinematic universe. Can they achieve this and lift audience members' spirits after a particularly lacklustre summer blockbuster season?

For the uninitiated (and I include myself in this, having never sat down for a The Fast and the Furious instalment) Hobbs & Shaw concerns the pairing of a burly cop (Dwayne Johnson) and a rogue spy (Jason Statham) to take down a super soldier (Idris Elba) and prevent a biological weapon from being unleashed on the world. At the same time these two former enemies (it's easy to grasp their animosity, don't worry) must learn to work together - a plot line ripped straight from the 90s!

Powering this blockbuster are the personas of Johnson and Statham. The film gains great mileage from steering into the public-facing personalities they've forged over their careers. Johnson is a loveable, hulking presence, skilled at a putdown but also given many scenes to show he has a heart, whilst Statham plays the cockney hard man with aplomb, at his most comfortable in a well-fitted suit, dispensing pain with a champagne bottle. Hobbs & Shaw is at its most successful when it places their relationship front and centre, eking out many a welcome laugh. There's even an interesting exploration of two competing forms of masculinity here that make portions of the film particularly interesting.

The rest of the ensemble are mostly effective. A trio of comedic cameos (thankfully unspoiled for me) lifted their individual scenes, whilst Vanessa Kirby makes a terrific impression as perhaps the only competently written female part (Hobbs & Shaw is nothing if not rather regressive in its gender politics). Idris Elba can't help but disappoint in his villainous turn. Initially, he oozes charm and danger, but his character soon becomes trapped, as a series of trailer-friendly one-liners in search of a personality. He becomes rather smothered by the lead duo's chemistry and fades away in the film's second half.

The action is comfortably over-the-top, with Hobbs & Shaw delivering the kind of easy thrills audiences will be seeking out this summer. There's none of the grounding and sense of danger that the likes of recent entries in the John Wick and Mission: Impossible series have, and there is a tendency for an over-reliance on CGI. But director David Leitch continues to show why he is such a good action director, no matter the quality of the material.

I never thought I'd watch a Fast & Furious film, and yet Hobbs & Shaw offers qualities that make it a welcome action sorbet in the blockbuster season. It's big, brash and silly, at times falling down due to regressive gender politics. And yet a cracking pairing of Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, as well as a terrific supporting turn from Vanessa Kirby make this an exceptionally fun night at the flicks.