"Fast 9" Review: Family, Action, Repeat

Vega
Jun 29, 2021
4 min read

Since the premiere of Fast Five, the Fast and the Furious franchise has grown from a street race focused action movie to a high tech, overly unrealistic blend of over the top action sequences and near superhero-like stunts. F9 takes that growth and pushes way past the boundaries of unrealism that Fast and Furious 6, Furious 7, and Fate of the Furious already established. While Fast Five, in my opinion, was a near perfect blend of the franchises values (cars, family, heists), everything since then has been difficult to differentiate from each other. Had I written a review about numbers six through eight, I am sure that most of what I would have said about them would apply to this recent entry.

This movie offers a dual-layered story that is welcomed by the addition of a new character that had to be retconned into the franchise's past: Jakob Torreto (John Cena). This aspect offers something different from the more recent films. Rather than offering background on whatever new character is introduced, it focuses on the first family of the “Fast” franchise and brings the first real expansion of the Torreto characters since the first film. Along with the flashback scenes that set-up and explain the Torretto family history, there is also the present day stoyline where the team is brought back together by a distress call from Mr. Nobody. They discover a new high-tech weapon, Project Ares, that they have to keep out of the hands of the aforementioned Jakob and his associate, Otto (Thue Ersted Rasmussen). Again, it is a very similar premise to the past four films, including returns by some of the key characters from previous films, such as Magdalene Shaw (Helen Mirren), Cipher (Charlize Theron), the Tokyo Drift crew: Sean (Lucas Black), Twinkie (Bow Wow), and Earl (Jason Tobin), and the biggest return that get touched on later.

As has become customary, this movie takes the crew all around the globe, from London and Edinburgh to Tokyo and Tbilisi. These were just some of the global destinations that served as the backdrop for the physics-defying action sequences the movie served up. While some of the stunts were cool, I particularly thought the use of the high-powered magnets was the best innovation of the movie, they all tried to push the action quota to 100. This kept most of them from feeling distinct from each other and lessened the wow factor of it all, coming off more ridiculous than impressive. Ironically, one of the lines from the movie was “as long as we obey the laws of physics,” which is far from what these movies have been doing. It was not just the vehicle stunts, though, but also the hand to hand combat that crossed the line from action movie to comic level impossible. During a fight scene between Jakob and Dom (Vin Diesel), their heads were taking out chunks of wall and it phased them zero. Sure, they're tough, but contrary to Roman's (Tyrese Gibson) ideas, they are not invincible and the lack of bodily threat plataeus the stakes at play. I disliked the way the movie had no real transitions in the movie, it would just play a city title card and boom, back to the action. Some time to breath with the characters, especially those returning, is something that has been used in some of the other Fast films to draw us back to the heart of these movies: the diverse cast.

It was not all cookie-cutter from the previous films, as the Torreto backstory and a number of retcons are strewn throughout the plot. As poorly as they could have written the history of Jakob Torreto, I though it was done pretty well and while he won't win any Oscars, Cena did a great job playing the part. The theme of family and support have always rung true in the “Fast” franchise, but these flashbacks made that theme a constant injection of NOS at different points in the film. The flashbacks helped humble the movie a bit, but also really highlighted how much the franchise would benefit from moving back towards its street-focused beginnings. I will highlight, though, that not having any indication of Mia (Jordana Brewster) in any flashback seemed like a big oversight considering her involvement in the film.

Now, my biggest gripe with the film is actually in the marketing and how they handled Han's (Sung Kang) return. That should have never been advertised or put in the trailers and should have been left as a surprise. The way he is revealed in the movie almost makes it seem as it was meant to serve as a twist and it would have had more impact that way. Unlike Jakob's story, the retcon for Han, and even Giselle, felt too much like a convenience for the plot. It was not terrible, but some further explanation would have been welcomed. There were quite a few conveniences throughout the movie, some of which were proved to be inconsistencies established in the movie. For example, using the magnets to pull down the electrical lines, which they had not done the entire rest of the times the magnets were used throughout the city.

You watch this movie knowing what you are going to ger, ridiculous action scenes with improbable circumstances all centered around stopping a global catastrophe. The movie does that pretty well, but there is nothing special to be found anymore. Even while appreciating the slower moments of the movie (the very few there were) and the Toretto family history, there is not much here to see that you would not have gotten from the past four movies. I love this franchise, but I love the characters more, and the direction the franchise has gone into has turned them into caracatures of action stars. Without that spark of individuality, this could have been any other action movie. At this point, it more closely aligns with the “Mission Impossible” title than “The Fast and the Furious”. It was an enjoyable viewing for mindless enterntainment, but offers very little to ever come back to. Where does this entry fall in my rankings of the franchise?

“Fast” Franchise Rankings:

1. Fast Five

2. The Fast and the Furious

3. Furious 7

4. Fast and Furious 6

5. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

6. F9: The Fast Saga

7. Fast and Furious

8. 2 Fast 2 Furious

9. Fate of the Furious