Sommerleigh Pollonais, Senior Writer
Plot: Dom and the crew must take on an international terrorist who turns out to be Dom and Mia’s estranged brother.
Review: Question: Which one of the Fast and Furious movies was the one where you realised to keep on enjoying these movies you were going to have to pretend the laws of physics no longer applied? For myself it was Furious 7, when they jumped a car from one skyscraper to another and then another in Dubai. Yes, there was ridiculousness long before that but somehow THAT was the moment my brain checked out, and all that was left was my love for Vin Diesel and the family that made up this wonderfully wacky world.
F9 (also known as F9: The Fast Saga and Fast & Furious 9) makes no apologies for the nonsense you’re about to witness and therein lies the strength of this movie. Every stunt is more unbelievable than the next. From cars that drive over bridges while said bridge is collapsing, to magnets powerful enough to toss cars around like children’s toys, director Justin Lin returns to the franchise he helped create with the kind of crazy energy usually found only in movies where guys wear capes.
Vin and friends are back again to do what they do in every movie. Nothing about these characters have changed in all these years and even if they’ve thrown an actual toddler into the mix (figuratively speaking) it’s still all about family. And this time we have the addition of John Cena as Dom’s long-estranged brother Jacob. I have to say Cena makes for a solid addition to this franchise and my only real complaint is he doesn’t have as much screen time as I thought he would. Returning we also have Charlize Theron as the villainess Cypher, Helen Mirren as Shaw’s Mom Queenie freshly sprung from prison and, of course, the elephant in the room, the character with his own hashtag, the one the only, the absurdly still-alive, Han.
Once again for non-fans walking into Fast and Furious for the first time, the almost soap opera-like story will make little to no sense. But to be fair, I don’t see anyone randomly deciding to jump in on this series from Part 9, so the fans are the ones left with the difficult task of accepting everything we’re told about Jacob’s absence and Han’s return from the dead as canon. It’s easy to go off on a tangent about Han and Jacob, so I’ll just finish up by saying I accepted one more than the other.
The stunts are heavily CGI-ed but the actual stunts that were done in real life were impressive as hell and I commend anyone and everyone crazy enough to pull them off. The pacing (for the most part) was good enough that I never got bored. And the actors, who at this point could play these roles in their sleep, still manage to bring energy to their parts. Roman (Tyrese Gibson) even managed to make me laugh a couple of times and I absolutely detest Roman.
Your ability to enjoy this movie will depend heavily on how much of a fan you are. The craziness of the Fast and Furious franchise is at a point where most of us watch the films just to see what insanity they’ll come with next! Nine movies in though I can still find myself looking forward to what comes next. And if that doesn’t count as a win, I don’t know what does.
Sommer’s Score: 6 out of 10
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Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes.
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