‘F9’ Review

What started out as a franchise about street racers pulling off heists has now evolved into one of the most popular action franchises of all time. Several of the films in this franchise have reached $1 billion at the box office, meaning that millions of people look forward to these ridiculous movies. Each movie has crazier stunts and more logic-defying action sequences than the next one and that’s no different in F9. 

Now, we are at the ninth installment in the franchise and the filmmakers continue to look for ways to get more ridiculous than the last one. However, have they officially gotten to the point where it’s too much? Yes, but that may be on purpose. 

Premise

In F9, Dominic Torreto (Vin Diesel) and his family regroup for another mission to save the world. However, this mission becomes tricky as it’s discovered that Dom’s brother, Jacob (John Cena) is involved and is on the hunt for a dangerous weapon capable of destroying the world. With a bunch of impossible stunts involving cars, planes, and magnets, the Fast and Furious crew will try to save the world. 

Review

First off, if you don’t like these movies, why are you even here? If you think these movies are stupid and can’t buy into the physics-defying stunts and characters who are basically superheroes now, then you’ll think the same thing about this one. It doesn’t take the franchise in a new, more serious direction. 

However, if you are a fan of these nonsense movies (like I am), then you will probably get a kick out of this one. This contains some of the dumbest scenes in the entire franchise, and some of it worked for me while other times, it was hard to not think of this as a cartoon. Characters are bouncing from cars and taking on whole armies by themselves. It’s a lot of fun, but at times, even I checked out for a second. 

Everyone who’s back is good in the movie. It’s the same cast as usual and everyone falls nicely back into their characters. I especially liked the dynamic between Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson. They had the funniest lines and the best chemistry together. Cena is decent here, but I wish they did more with his character. It’s predictable where his character will end up and it doesn’t go beyond that. 

Sung Kang returns to the franchise as Han and while it’s nice to have him back, the explanation for how he’s alive doesn’t work. The writers came up with the most convoluted way for him to come back, but explain it poorly. I’m happy Han is back, but the way he’s back is a misfire. 

One new thing in this film is the use of flashbacks. We see why Dom and his brother have such a strained relationship and while those scenes aren’t terrible, they’re way too melodramatic. The two actors are fine, especially Vinnie Bennett as young Dom, but it creates a soap opera situation that’s hard to take seriously. F9 is trying hard to make the family stuff work emotionally, but I almost started laughing at various parts. In a movie where cars are propelled by magnets or launched into space, it’s hard to become invested in this family drama that F9 is taking so seriously. 

Yes, I did say space, They did it, They sent the cars to space and to be honest, I enjoyed it. If you can just sit back and accept that you’re watching them go to space, you can enjoy it too. However, I don’t blame you if you watch it and say to yourself, “nope, this is too much for me.”

On a technical level, director Justin Lin, who has directed 5 of these movies, creates great action sequences. They’re a ton of fun with good choreography and capture the adrenaline of the scenes. The CGI is good for the most part, however, there are moments it’s noticeable, especially when the characters are falling or jumping across things. The movie is also around 2 and a half hours, but I personally never felt the long run time since the pacing is very fast. 

Final verdict

F9 does tend to suffer from franchise fatigue. It’s the ninth entry in a franchise that has no business being this long but here we are. While the action scenes are a lot of fun and the characters are likable, the family stuff with Dom felt out of place. It was like a daytime soap opera with car chases in between. It does also go too far in terms of what is believable, even for a Fast and Furious movie. The franchise has officially checked out of reality. It is an entertaining movie, but it may be time to park this franchise in the garage. 

Final score: 3/5