Fuze (2025) || Movie Review
Most movies are predictable these days but we watch for the fun of it and probably learn a thing or two. I saw Fuze (2025) yesterday and it took me by surprise with an unexpected twist. First, I watched because of the cast. Seeing Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Sam Worthington on the poster was enough to get me to watch the movie.
Fuze is a British heist thriller written by Ben Hopkins and directed by David Mackenzie. The movie begins with a construction crew at work in central London digging up a street when they are forced to stop because of a big bomb buried deep in the ground. Major Will Tranter (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his bomb disposal team are called to the site. He identifies that there are two bombs, remnants of World War II, and one is ticking. The police led by Superintendent Zuzana (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) immediately moved in to resolve the situation. She ordered the entire street to be cleared out and locked down.
The residents living within that area are evacuated by the police and made to stay at Hyde Park until the bomb is rendered dud. One of these residents is a young man pushing his aged father in a wheel chair while his aged mother follows.
In one of the apartments close to a bank, there are men hiding inside who don't vacate the building. As the bomb disposal team works on the bomb, these men use the situation as a cover to drill holes through the walls and rob the bank. These robbers are led by X (Sam Worthington) and Karalis (Theo James). Is this a normal heist? Why did these men carry out their operations under the cover of the bomb emergency?
My Review And Rating
This movie took what would have been a normal, predictable heist and turned it into an hour and thirty-five minutes of suspense, action and shocking twists. That's what makes Fuze stand out from recent crime thrillers. You would not see the twists coming. The plot is brilliant—an unexploded bomb forcing an evacuation of residents which seems natural only to be revealed that it's a clean and clever cover for a heist. But the real question would be: how did the robbers know that the evacuation would take place? This is what creates the suspense and twist in the movie.
The storytelling is fast-paced and well-done for the most part until towards the end when things go sideways which, I believe, is the movie's flaw. The director guides the cast to tell the story in a way that is easy to follow until viewers are thrust into a drawn-out flashback that confuses us and feels like a different movie. It doesn't even immediately clarify things until another scene pops up with the caption “10 YEARS EARLIER”. I was disappointed at this point. The positioning of the flashback disrupts the flow of the movie.
Also, the cast is solid and their performances are outstanding but I feel the scriptwriter and director didn't give them much to work with. Aaron Taylor-Johnson's presence as the bomb disposal expert enhances the movie and he doesn't really say much but his actions do. Theo James is charismatic as an actor and really played his role well as the heist leader who got close to dying many times but somehow always escapes. I love seeing Gugu Mbatha-Raw in movies but she doesn't do much in this one beyond drink coffee, give instructions and stare at screens.
My disappointment is much more with Sam Worthington. He's made a nameless (X) robber who doesn't do much in this movie and I wonder why someone of his profile would take the role. I think director Mackenzie was simply after putting popular names on the poster to draw attention. Still, the suspense and twist is what makes this movie worth watching.
The cinematography is neat and smooth. The editing and transitions are sharp and well done making it easy to sit through and watch.
Rating this movie, I'd give it 7 stars out of 10. It's a fast-paced, compelling heist that starts strong and loses its way in the end. The cast is solid but the characters are flat and unforgettable.
All images above are screenshots from the movie
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