Review: F9: THE FAST SAGA Takes The Ridiculousness of the Franchise To Another Level
The Fast and Furious franchise gets more and more ridiculous with every film that’s made. It’s what I’ve come to expect, so when I go to see these movies, I go for the over-the-top stupid entertainment that they offer. When it comes to F9: The Fast Saga, it takes ridiculousness and stupidity to a whole new level! This is one of those “it’s so bad it’s good” kind of movies where you have to watch it with friends so you make fun of how absurd it is while you watch the film.
It’s funny that we went eight whole Fast and Furious films before we learned that Dom had a brother and all of a sudden from out of nowhere his bro finally shows up and they end up facing off with each other. The film even offers flashback scenes to give us the backstory of what happened between the two, and Dom and Jakob are played by a couple of younger actors that don’t really look anything like Vin Diesel and John Cena.
One of the things that I enjoy about these films is the crazy over-the-top action sequences and while this film was filled with them they weren’t better than anything we’ve previously seen in the franchise. One of the things played with in this film in the action scenes are big powerful magnets. In fact, it’s like every action scene in F9 involved these magnets, the title of the film should have been F9: Magnets because once those magnets were introduced, the film didn’t let them go. By the end of the film, I was kind of tired of the magnet action scenes.
There are also so many times in this film where many of the main Fast and Furious characters should have died! I know we see this in all the other films as well, but still! They even joke around about it at one point, teasing that they might be superheroes because they just can’t die.
Hell, as I watched this movie I noticed that no one was wearing any seatbelts! Why is no one wearing seatbelts in this movie!? For example, the scene where Dom and Letty drive off the cliff and completely smash their car. They brace themselves in their seats, but they don’t put on their seatbelts?! What is happening here!? Now I want to go back and see if anyone is wearing their seatbelts in the other films.
One of the other amusing things I want to point out is that Dom is wearing a white shirt through many of these action scenes and not only does he walk out of these situations alive, his white shirt isn’t even dirty!
As you know Han makes his big return in the franchise and it will be interesting to see how his story arc plays out over the course of the remaining movies. But, I was actually more happy to see Lucas Black return as Sean from Tokyo Drift. He’s one of my favorite Fast and Furious characters, and unfortunately, he was underutilized in the film. I really hope that he shows up in future movies and that they give him more to do.
Look, as stupid and predictable as the movie is, it’s still fun to watch, it’s a Fast and Furious movie, and I enjoyed it! I saw it with a couple of friends and we just poked fun at it throughout the movie. This is definitely not the best film in the franchise, though. In fact, it might be one of the worst.
Franchise writer Chris Morgan was missed in this movie. He always managed to bring some kind of heart and soul to the films regardless of how silly they were. This movie was missing that. This story and script came from Daniel Casey and director Justin Lin and it just didn’t have the same quality as the other films. I know that’s not saying much for this franchise, but I noticed the difference.
There is a post-credits scene in the film. I won’t spoil it for you here, but it’s sure to get fans excited for the story arc that it teases.
If you’re a fan of the Fast and Furious franchise, you’ll enjoy the film for what it is. If you don’t really care for the franchise, then you’ll most likely hate it.
If you have seen the movie, what did you think?