F9
Year: 2021
Director: Justin Lin
Starring: Lucas Black, Jordana Brewster, John Cena, Vin Diesel, Nathalie Emmanuel, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Ludacris, Michelle Rodriguez, Charlize Theron & Bow Wow
Runtime: 145 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 30/06/21
Director: Justin Lin
Starring: Lucas Black, Jordana Brewster, John Cena, Vin Diesel, Nathalie Emmanuel, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Ludacris, Michelle Rodriguez, Charlize Theron & Bow Wow
Runtime: 145 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 30/06/21
The Fast Saga is twenty years old now and with a series that’s been going as long as this you have to wonder how it can keep things interesting. Well, clearly by gambling everything on action sequences so outrageous that you’re left dumbfounded as to how they even came up with it. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, F9 has jumped the shark and quite literally left the atmosphere in the process.
Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and Dom (Vin Diesel) have gone into hiding with Dom’s son Brian in order to escape their criminal lives, and hopefully avoid the gaze of any old enemies that are still looking for them. But when Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) leaves a message with Tej (Ludacris), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) to give to Dom explaining that cyberterrorist Cipher (Charlize Theron) has been kidnapped by Dom’s brother Jacob (John Cena), the crew must come together again on another mission to recover a technological item that can hack weapons systems in order to save the world.
Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and Dom (Vin Diesel) have gone into hiding with Dom’s son Brian in order to escape their criminal lives, and hopefully avoid the gaze of any old enemies that are still looking for them. But when Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) leaves a message with Tej (Ludacris), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) to give to Dom explaining that cyberterrorist Cipher (Charlize Theron) has been kidnapped by Dom’s brother Jacob (John Cena), the crew must come together again on another mission to recover a technological item that can hack weapons systems in order to save the world.
Whilst that plot may not sound like the craziest thing to come out of the Fast Saga, I can assure you that I had to use the Wikipedia page to give me a hand working out what I watched because the story is so disjointed and for the most part simply acts as set dressing of the bare minimum standard to allow the films impressive action sequences to take place.
The most in your face the story ever gets is the frequent flashback sequences to the events surrounding the death of Dom’s father in 1989. These sequences feel largely out of place in the story because of where and when they turn up, and they always house new information, which despite it being Dom’s flashback, houses new information for him ever single time and he’s able to then somehow work out what his brother is going to do next. It doesn’t make sense; I saw the film twice and it didn’t make sense. But I won’t lie, much like The Fate of the Furious, I had a fun time with it.
What you’ll really want to go see F9 for is the impressive (if also totally absurd and outrageous) action sequences, and the great comedy provided by Ludacris & Gibson. Starting off with the comedy, Ludacris & Gibson have always been the comic relief of the Fast Saga since their double act formation in Fast Five, but in F9 they’ve been given a whole lot more screen time and more time alone together. The result is a seemingly endless slew of brilliant one liners and continuous banter between the two actors. They also break the fourth wall at multiple points in the story to address just how absurd the action is becoming, and how particularly Roman believes that the crew have superpowers because they’re able to survive everything that happens to them. This is proven even further by the return of Han (Sung Kang), it’s no spoiler to say he survived his death as he shows up in the trailer, but this straight up fact that nobody stays dead in the Fast Saga is only proof to the pudding that our main characters are invincible (also I totally want Gal Gadot to return as Gisele in the next film now that Han has survived).
Watching the action play out it’s also very reasonable to agree with him on this superhero theory as the amount of times any single character should die in this film, but doesn’t because physics clearly doesn’t function the same way in the Fast Saga universe, is truly absurd. The truly outrageous stunts began in Fast & Furious 6, were most notably Dom launched himself from a car to catch Letty, and then lands on another car to break their fall, and they come away without a scratch. This trend got sillier and sillier until now with F9 having characters regularly have their fall broken by cars which act like comforting pillows. You also have countless examples where people will have their head rammed through solid objects like brick walls and metal road signs and they’ll act like nothing happened. But the action is inconsistent because punching people does a lot of damage but slamming them through a wall doesn’t. This is a problem a lot of action films have and is usually overlooked, but it’s a problem with F9 because it’s so hard to gauge what will or wont injure or kill someone when everything that should be lethal is just shrugged off like nothing happened, but a simple punch to the face will knock someone out cold.
The most in your face the story ever gets is the frequent flashback sequences to the events surrounding the death of Dom’s father in 1989. These sequences feel largely out of place in the story because of where and when they turn up, and they always house new information, which despite it being Dom’s flashback, houses new information for him ever single time and he’s able to then somehow work out what his brother is going to do next. It doesn’t make sense; I saw the film twice and it didn’t make sense. But I won’t lie, much like The Fate of the Furious, I had a fun time with it.
What you’ll really want to go see F9 for is the impressive (if also totally absurd and outrageous) action sequences, and the great comedy provided by Ludacris & Gibson. Starting off with the comedy, Ludacris & Gibson have always been the comic relief of the Fast Saga since their double act formation in Fast Five, but in F9 they’ve been given a whole lot more screen time and more time alone together. The result is a seemingly endless slew of brilliant one liners and continuous banter between the two actors. They also break the fourth wall at multiple points in the story to address just how absurd the action is becoming, and how particularly Roman believes that the crew have superpowers because they’re able to survive everything that happens to them. This is proven even further by the return of Han (Sung Kang), it’s no spoiler to say he survived his death as he shows up in the trailer, but this straight up fact that nobody stays dead in the Fast Saga is only proof to the pudding that our main characters are invincible (also I totally want Gal Gadot to return as Gisele in the next film now that Han has survived).
Watching the action play out it’s also very reasonable to agree with him on this superhero theory as the amount of times any single character should die in this film, but doesn’t because physics clearly doesn’t function the same way in the Fast Saga universe, is truly absurd. The truly outrageous stunts began in Fast & Furious 6, were most notably Dom launched himself from a car to catch Letty, and then lands on another car to break their fall, and they come away without a scratch. This trend got sillier and sillier until now with F9 having characters regularly have their fall broken by cars which act like comforting pillows. You also have countless examples where people will have their head rammed through solid objects like brick walls and metal road signs and they’ll act like nothing happened. But the action is inconsistent because punching people does a lot of damage but slamming them through a wall doesn’t. This is a problem a lot of action films have and is usually overlooked, but it’s a problem with F9 because it’s so hard to gauge what will or wont injure or kill someone when everything that should be lethal is just shrugged off like nothing happened, but a simple punch to the face will knock someone out cold.
Then come the staple vehicular action scenes and F9 really does everything it can to top its previous outings. Basically, all the best moments are in the trailer, but seeing them play out in full is crazy. You got trucks being up-ended, vehicles equipped with super powerful electromagnets, using rope bridges to swing cars across canyons, and yes, even strapping a rocket to a car and going to space. Seeing that play out and in the back of my mind thinking about where the series started twenty years ago as a realistic portrayal of the L.A. street racing scene really solidified how much the Fast Saga has become a parody of itself and embraces all the crazy meme’s people have made about the series over the years. But it’s a total jump the shark moment and I don’t know how they’ll ever manage to top it.
F9 is stupid beyond all comprehension, and it’s going to be a film that a lot of people don’t like because the story is so threadbare and pointless. But like The Fate of the Furious I had a blast with it because everyone is in on the joke. F9 is not a good film, but it is a film I could laugh at with some friends, or just stick on in the background for a film that doesn’t require my full attention. But it does leave me wondering about how much gas is really left in the tank of this franchise now that they’ve done the most outrageous thing possible. So, if the next entry isn’t called FX and they don’t need to travel to the Andromeda galaxy to stop Space Nazi’s from another dimension by driving really fast then why does this series even exist anymore?
F9 is stupid beyond all comprehension, and it’s going to be a film that a lot of people don’t like because the story is so threadbare and pointless. But like The Fate of the Furious I had a blast with it because everyone is in on the joke. F9 is not a good film, but it is a film I could laugh at with some friends, or just stick on in the background for a film that doesn’t require my full attention. But it does leave me wondering about how much gas is really left in the tank of this franchise now that they’ve done the most outrageous thing possible. So, if the next entry isn’t called FX and they don’t need to travel to the Andromeda galaxy to stop Space Nazi’s from another dimension by driving really fast then why does this series even exist anymore?