Review:
"F9"
Release Date: June 25, 2021
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 145 minutes F9 is what happens when the creative forces behind an aging but relevant film franchise desperately want to show they are in the joke. In response to The Fate of the Furious' “car vs. nuclear submarine” showdown, we all had a good laugh about The Fast Sagainevitably going where no street racer has gone before: outer space. Unfortunately, franchise patriarch Vin Diesel, director Justin Lin, and screenwriter Daniel Casey run with this joke in F9 by blasting two of its longtime cast members into Earth’s orbit. In a beat-up sports car. Propelled by a homemade rocket engine. Why? Does it really matter? The Fast Saga has become increasingly more ridiculous since making a complete transition from a flashy street-racing opera to a spy caper of James Bondian proportions. Which regrettably makes F9 the Moonraker of a franchise that came to its natural end with Furious 7 and the untimely death of Diesel’s co-lead, Paul Walker. That F9 finds itself lost in space confirms once and for that this franchise has run out of ideas, that its future lies with such spinoffs as Hobbs & Shaw. The Fate of the Furious signaled this by introducing us to the young son Dom never knew had and a nefarious villain in Charlize Theron’s Cipher, a cyberterrorist less intriguing than any of the cartoonish bad guys Roger Moore faced during his time as 007. Now F9 brings into the fold Dominic and Mia Toretto’s estranged brother, Jakob, in another superfluous attempt to expand, to redefine, and to change the dynamics of the Fast Family. Was Jakob ever mentioned by name in prior installments? Honestly, I can’t remember. But Jakob’s presence in F9 seems less about pitting sibling against sibling but replacing one franchise big man in the sorely missed Dwayne Johnson with another big man in John Cena. As shown through clumsily staged flashbacks featuring younger actors, Dom and Jakob fell out after Dom blamed Jakob for the death of their father Jack (Mayans M.C.’s J. D. Pardo), a race-car driver. And, of course, decades later Cena’s Jakob is revealed as a former spy once handled by Kurt Russell’s Mr. Nobody. Now Jakob wants to get his hands on the high-tech device that can control every weapon of mass destruction in the world. And, of course, Mr. Nobody tasks Dom et al. to thwart Jakob. Looking ill at ease trying to convince us his Jakob is a bigger badass than Diesel’s Dom, Cena never proves to be as an intimidating presence as Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw or even Theron’s Cipher. Cena fills Jakob with the anger that comes with being the disappointment of the family but not the homicidal rage that prompts the plotting of world domination. There’s no doubt Jakob would drop his nefarious plans if Dom simply forgave him for past grievances and then hugged it out. So it is left to Theron to fill the role of F9’s true villain, which proves to be a difficult task considering she is onscreen for less time than it takes to fill an empty tank of gas. What’s most egregious about this tale of sibling rivalry is that it lacks emotional intensity. There is never a sense of a brotherly bond—even one that is broken—between Dom and Jakob, whether it is during the flashbacks or during the scenes Diesel and Cena share. Ultimately, Jakob is less blood relative than another anti-hero rogue. This seems all the more odd considering F9is directed by Justin Lin, who makes a less-than-triumphant return to The Fast Saga after sitting out Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious. Lin’s impact on the franchise is undeniable. He first directed the threequel Tokyo Drift, which seemed easily disposable at the time of its 2006 release but in hindsight set in place much of the mythology that drives the franchise today. He also moved the franchise away from its street-racing roots with Fast & Furious, Fast Five, and Fast & Furious 6, reuniting and bringing together past cast members and adding heavy-hitter Dwayne Johnson to the Fast Family. Oddly, though,, Lin’s love and enthusiasm for the franchise rarely manifests itself during F9. The increasingly preposterous action sequences are staged with maximum efficiency but lack passion and ingenuity. And the crazier things get on and off the road, the lower the stakes become. Do we really believe a member of the Fast Family is going to die driving through a jungle minefield or hurtling through space? In an enlightening moment of self-awareness, F9 requires franchise comic relief Roman Pearce—now played with a clarifying sense of invincibility by Tyrese Gibson—to acknowledge that no matter what nonsense they endure, the Fast Family will always emerge unharmed and triumphant. This is a running joke that not only carries through to the anticlimactic showdown between Dom and Jakob but changes how several characters view themselves and their role within the Fast Family. But where is there for the franchise to go when its characters believe they can cheat death? Kill off one or more, of course. But this is unlikely to happen in any subsequent sequel. Because director Justin Lin loves the Fast Family so much that any member he kills off never stays dead and bury. First Lin left Dom’s wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) dead in Fast & Furious, only for her to return in Fast & Furious 6. Now it is the seemingly dearly departed Han (Sung Kang), whom we all believed Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw murdered at the end of Fast & Furious 6. It’s nice to have Han back, mostly because Sung Kang is the very definition of a franchise glue guy. But Han’s rise from the dead feels more like fan service—a direct result of the #JusticeforHan campaign—than essential to the franchise’s evolution. If Han’s resurrection seems improbable, Lin’s gathering of many of the franchise’s past major and supporting characters unfolds as an exercise in nostalgia. Sure, it makes sense to bring back Tokyo Drift’s Lucas Black in light of Han’s return to the franchise, but other cameos serve little to no purpose. Where Lin succeeds, though, is bringing the female members of the Fast Family to the forefront. Michelle Rodriguez and Nathalie Emmanuel, the latter as computer hacker Ramsey, get to showcase their particular set of skills while Jordana Brewster—whose Mia Toretto has always been defined by her relationships to her brother Dom and Paul Walker’s Brian O'Conner—finally receives an opportunity to prove she is more than a a sister, a girlfriend, and a damsel in distress. Throw in Helen Mirren’s brief but energetic scene-stealing appearance as Shaw family matriarch Magdalene “Queenie” Shaw and F9 makes the perfect argument for a female-led Fast Saga spinoff. At this point, anything is better than having to watch a stolid Vin Diesel once again tear himself apart over more family drama. Yes, The Fast Sagais all about the family and its core values. But the franchise is stuck in a pattern of testing Dom’s extended family under increasingly preposterous circumstances. Sure, some fans may find a flight into space both endearing and in keeping with The Fast Saga’s continued willingness to embrace the absurd. But F9 pushes The Fast Saga so far beyond its limits that there is nowhere left for the franchise to go. Unless, of course, Dom next finds himself behind the wheel of a DeLorean … Robert Sims Aired: June 24, 2021. Web sites: https://www.thefastsaga.com https://www.facebook.com/TheFastSaga |
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