F9 Review – Fast, Furious, and Too Familiar

You don’t make nine movies without running out of gas. It’s honestly impressive that Fast & Furious has made it this far on its frenetic absurdity. While this latest entry delivers more of the same, that familiar component is the greatest asset and disappointment.

More Family

The running jokes of the saga have been the blunt theme of family. The ensemble of street racers and hackers always ends up together in the end. F9 has the appearance of being the most family of this family-focused action franchise. After all, it involves the quarrel of estranged brothers.

But this aspect plays more like a soap opera than it should. Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) has just run into his brother, Jakob (John Cena). When questioned about this mysterious racer/terrorist, Dom reveals the dark history of how his brother murdered their father.

Jakob also shaped Dom’s life of crime and constant fleeing from bad guys who want him dead. This would be an interesting aspect worth exploring but the film rarely goes this far. We all know that Cena will be added to this cast as an ally because it’s John Cena.

Less Family

Remember Dom’s baby from Fate of the Furious? Well, he’s grown up a bit since that film. However, Dom Junior is reduced to little more than a bookend placement of a cuteness than a character worth caring for. Dom Junior is instructed to hide whenever visitors come to their remote home and it’s never answered just where he stays when Dom leaves for a mission.

This aspect of the picture bothers me because family is such an exaggerated and blunt theme to these films. Previous entries always found a way to make that focus on family present in some form, where there’s a danger placed on everyone. No danger for Dom Junior, however, because he safely placed off to the side…somewhere….maybe?

Same Old Action

Yeah, okay, so the family is not as strong but what about the action? Frenetic car chases are the bigger draw here considering how jokingly family becomes for the films in conversation. Does F9 still deliver on the big and loud action?

Well, yes, there’s still plenty of big car chases but that should come as no surprise. A ridiculous magnet system turns cars into gravity-defying projectiles. A landmine field makes speed a crucial factor in cars speeding fast enough to avoid explosions.

But these stunts are pretty par for the course. The magnet scenes are neat but it bears a striking resemblance to the zombie cars of Fate of the Furious. The vine-swinging car sequence is silly but something similar already happened in Hobbes & Shaw. This series is starting to repeat itself.

Going To Space

Consider that after The Fate of the Furious there was much speculation about the series heading into space. It seemed like the next logical wall to break in this absurd saga. Indeed, F9 does feature cars ascending into outer space for a crucial part of the mission.

But how exciting can such a move be when you can see it coming? The first mention of cars with rockets and the mind immediately jumps to space cars. This sequence is decent but also doesn’t contain many surprises, especially with an awkward commentary that goes unaddressed.

The Immortal Racers

The reactive Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) brings up something that has been bothering him. After surviving both a landmine and armored car nearly crushing him, Roman theorizes that their gang might be immortal. This is the closest the film comes to breaking the fourth wall of the absurd stunts.

Tej (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges), however, laughs off this notion that Roman keeps bringing up. Of course, this subject could be proven wrong by having one of the members die. This would not only make Roman realize they’re not indestructible people but take their job a little more seriously.

But F9 doubles down on this trait by bringing back fan-favorite Han (Sung Kang) from the dead. His return is rather clunky, however, and requires a lot of soap-opera style writing to get back into the series. There’s some cleverness to it but also a lot of other questions, like what role Shaw played in Han’s supposed death in Furious 7.

Too Many Racers on the Track

Another major problem for F9 is that it simply can’t sustain the glut of characters it has built up. Charlize Theron returns as the terrorist mastermind Cipher but does little more than hang back and watch the less-interesting billionaire antagonist take the controls. Kurt Russell comes back as Mr. Nobody but is spoken of only in flashbacks and mission debriefings.

Remember Helen Mirren as Shaw’s mother? She’s present for a very brief yet fun robbery. Remember Nathalie Emmanuel as the expert hacker added to the team? Enjoy her 30 seconds on screen in the finale as the film forgets about her.

There’s so little time to develop any character that it honestly didn’t surprise me Cardi B’s cameo was awkward and dead. Michelle Rodriguez also doesn’t get much of any development past being more of a moving beacon for Dom’s support. Also, Michael Rooker is present for exposition.

Conclusion: F9

F9 proves that Fast & Furious hasn’t crashed but it’s not exactly zooming with innovation. It’s more like it’s coasting on its own success and notoriety. Audiences will pay to see a Fast & Furious movie and F9 gives them more or less what they paid for.

But when a series becomes so predictable and expected, how much worth does it have to continue forward? The series producers have stated that this series is nearing its end with the final films in development. That’s a good move considering that the series is currently running on fumes and needs to end soon before it’s dead in the water.

Did you see F9? Was it exciting or is the series past its prime? How does it compare to something like Black Widow? Let us know in the comments.