F9
universalComing as the 9th main entry and 10th overall entry in the Fast and Furious saga, Justin Lin's F9 has the hard task of evolving the franchise to continue to remain interesting while also keeping the core fanbase happy. Whilst it would be totally reasonable for such a late entry into a franchise to turn out as a disaster, F9 sticks the landing, providing one of the most fun and emotional Fast and Furious films to date. Picking up where The Fate of the Furious left off, the gang is once again drawn to action when Dom's (Vin Diesel) brother Jakob (John Cena) threatens the world by seeking out the most dangerous weapon on Earth while in cahoots with the rich Otto (Thue Ersted Rasmussen) and the ever-dangerous Cipher (Charlize Theron).
With the overall theme of the Fast and Furious series being family, it was only a matter of time until a character like Jakob entered the race. Having a very troublesome past with his brother which stems back to the death of their father, Jakob is the catalyst for some of the best character work and emotion seen in the franchise so far. Specifically when it comes to the character of Dom and breaking down the anger within him, F9 actually creates a genuinely moving image of tragedy and grief that elevates the character. Over the course of the film's 145-minute runtime this emotional power is eventually traded for more cliched and predictable action, but it does overall help the film stand out and carry a surprisingly powerful bite especially when looking at the series.
To say that F9 ultimately lives and dies as a drama, however, would be a criminally false statement. Being a Fast and Furious film, of course there are out-of-this-world action set pieces and battles that attempt to evolve from what has previously been seen. For the most part, the action within F9 is quite solid and enough to get the adrenaline pumping. Using solid CGI and effective editing, F9 will provide nearly any action fan enough to get their hearts racing and be able to enjoy the film on the most basic level possible – at the very least. However, especially knowing that there will be at least two more sequels in the franchise, there are a couple of dangerous games starting to be played.
The first is simply how crazy the action can realistically get. F9 opens a can of worms that the franchise will have trouble one-upping in future editions and holds the venomous potential to make future action scenes feel lesser and not as interesting as before. Eventually when climbing a ladder, one gets more and more comfortable with higher and higher steps. Once you reach a certain height, coming back down to what was once powerful suddenly loses its impact, and F9 threatens to have this effect on the franchise moving forward. The other is the concept of stakes. Though the film is clearly aware of this issue and attempts to make a joke out of it, eventually these characters lose any sense of being in actual peril, which also can lessen the drama of the various action scenes. No matter how crazy an action set piece is, we have seen these characters survive so much on such a large scale that the concern that they might not make it out alive suddenly starts to fade. While F9, overall, is still able to overcome these issues, moving forward they very easily could become major problems for the final couple films in the series.
The other major letdown of the film has to be John Cena. Not only is his casting quite problematic when viewing the racial identity of his character, but his performance feels rather awkward and stiff. Cena normally comes off as a master of charisma – as seen in films such as Blockers or even Bumblebee – but in this role, which requires him to be more serious, he loses quite a bit of his charm. This is only elevated by the flow of the actors around him, which have such well-defined dynamics that they can feel effortlessly natural and personable.
Even with these issues and concerns, it is hard to imagine anyone who was a fan of the previous few sequels in the franchise having many issues with F9. At heart, this still carries everything this franchise is known and loved for and continues to show that there are more miles left in this already impressively long franchise.
