Fast and Furious 9 is the ninth instalment in this franchise and once more Vin Diesel returns as Dom Toretto, car mechanic turned street racer now family man and quasi super spy and he and his makeshift spy family are out to stop what is known as Project Aries a powerful weapon that will control every satellite on Earth but Dom will also have to fight his long lost brother (John Cena) to get it back.
Fast and Furious 9 was not a movie I had high hopes for before seeing it mainly because the trailer I saw for it had cars heading for outer space and I began to fear that this franchise was starting to get too silly for its own good and Hobbs and Shaw in 2019 had been an over the top film plus the Fate of the Furious in 2017 was not a great entry in this series.
Happily this series does not jump the shark with this movie but nor does it reach the heights of Fast 5, 6 and 7 all of which I liked quite a bit, firstly the film has a number of fun action chase scenes that director Justin Lin who returns for this movie does a good job with, I particularly liked the opening chase scene in the Jungle and a late night one in London outrunning the police.
And also the cast now have a nice rhythm and flow to their moments together and there are a number of quiet moments with them together as a main group and with some of the splinter groups within that broader ensemble cast.
But there are times where regrettably this movie does get very silly especially in the third act and during those moments I just sat there going “What the fuck” and groaning not that much longer afterwards as I just didn’t get that on board with those moments now don’t get me wrong, this movie does not get that silly but it comes up to that wall very closely and hopefully Lin will not crash this franchise into that wall with the next film.
Another big issue with this film is John Cena, now I have liked him in other movies Bumblebee being one of them but here I thought he was terrible as in every scene he has with Vin Diesel he mugs and talks in a deep voice as if he’s either trying to compete with Vin or copy him and neither really worked for me and every time he came on screen I just lost interest especially with Charlize Theron coming back and is a much better villain than Cena is.
And so that was Fast and Furious 9 and it’s a mixed bag overall, I didn’t hate it but there are those moments where I groaned and it’s a fun ride for sure its better than the Fate of the Furious for sure but this series needs to pull back from the silliness like the Bond films did from time to time before they become a joke, 2 and a half out of 5.
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