F9: The Fast Saga

Starring: Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, John Cena, Charlize Theron, Nathalie Emmanuel, Kurt Russell, Finn Cole, Sung Kang, Anna Sawai, Helen Mirren, Lucas Black, Shad Moss, Shea Whigham, Michael Rooker, Jason Statham (uncredited)
Directed by: Justin Lin
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
2021

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Dom (Vin Diesel) and the crew face their greatest threat yet, when they face off against his brother (John Cena).

Review:
Tim: I think the Fast and Furious franchise (or Fast Saga as it's referred to in this film's title) has been going downhill for a while now. The ambitious craziness of the franchise has mitigated this somewhat, but I think this 9th film (10th if you include the spinoff) is where it finally falls apart. This movie continues to ratchet up the insanity of the stunts and the movie moves further and further away from any kind of logic or reality. I can't remember how many times someone "catches" someone else with the roof of the car, but it doesn't work like that. That's not how any of this works.

This franchise has long depended on the audience's willingness to suspend all disbelief and just go on this ludicrous journey. I think my patience ran out here. There was simply too much, the ask was too big. This obviously involves the ridiculous stunts) including some of the crew going to actual space, but it also involves something like Dom and Mia having a brother that has never once come up in 9 previous movies. I mean, come on. I know this franchise is all about "family", so you think that would have been discussed previously. It's things like this- creative liberties taken that don't need to be taken that have ruined this film and hurt this franchise.

Honestly, the weight of this franchise is crumbling the foundation. The cast continues to grow and not always in good ways. I love Charlize Theron, Helen Mirren, Kurt Russell, and in an uncredited role, Jason Statham. None of them needed to be in this film. The movie tries to pull in from the past and it ends up overwhelming. I liked seeing Lucas Black (wow, I apparently haven't seen him in a long time), but it was unnecessary, just a callback to the third film. SPOILER- Sung Kang makes his unlikely, absurd return in this film. For a franchise that has far too many characters, you'd think they would let the dead stay dead. Jordana Brewster plays a much larger role in this one, which 1. doesn't make sense and 2. hurts the movie. And, these are just the returners. We've got John Cena now, who gets a ton of screen time. I liked seeing Michael Rooker in flashbacks, but again, there's just too many people.

The story is buckling under all this as well. The plot felt vaguely familiar with multiple other films in the franchise. There's these bad guys who want to do something on a worldwide scale. For whatever reason, this gang of car thieves and hackers are the only ones who can stop them. There's a lot of unnecessary chase scenes. There's explosions and gunfights and posturing. Truly, none of it made a lot of sense or felt unique in the least. I wasn't overly invested in any of it because it felt like I'd seen this movie a bunch of times already. The stunts continue to make no sense.

I'm definitely down on F9: The Fast Saga. It's not terrible, but it's the worst film in the franchise since Tokyo Drift. That's really bad. The naming conventions continue to frustrate me, but more than that, it's the bloated quality of these films. All these flaws are bad enough, but when you add Tyrese and Lucacris' forced banter and the ridiculous run time of 2 hours, 23 minutes, it gets to be too much. I sincerely hope the franchise ends with the next movie. When you think about it, this is Vin Diesel's movie and I didn't even have time to talk about him. This is not good.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7, The Fate of the Furious