Detail Review ‘F9’: Making Fast 9 should have been a cakewalk for director Justin Lin. After all, he directed the first Fast and the Furious film. After this, he also directed the 5th and 6th film of this series. It is being said that after Fast 9, no more films will be made in this series, that is, this will be the last film and it had to be excellent. The film was released in theaters on 19 May 2021 and was the 5th biggest hit film of the year. Probably for this reason it took a long time to release it on OTT.
Surprisingly, this film has been the weakest compared to all the other films in this series. People rushed to the theatres to watch every expensive film released after Covid, so this film also worked. Now it has been released on Amazon Prime Video. Do not watch it expecting an action thriller film with amazing stunts, there is a possibility of disappointment. This does not seem to be from the Fast series.
As long as Paul Walker and Vin Diesel along with their gang members committed crimes one after another, drove cars in dangerous places and performed stunts, the thrill of watching this series remained intact. Even the dialogues of the film were on people’s lips. Ironically, Paul Walker died in a car accident due to which Fast and the Furious 7 remained incomplete. After some time, with the help of Paul’s brothers Caleb and Cody, using special effects and computer graphics, the remaining scenes of this film were completed and the film was released.
The subsequent films like “The Fate of the Furious”, Fast and Furious Presents Hobbs and Shaw and Fast 9, all three films are suffering from the absence of Paul Walker. Vin Diesel cannot carry a film alone and to support him, action artists like Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Alba and now John Cena were brought in but that fun was never there because Paul Walker’s calm nature kept the films of this series balanced in front of Vin Diesel’s angry look.
The story of Fast 9 also seems to have been written only to bring another anti-hero type character into the series and to make another sequel in this series. Gary Scott Thompson had created the main characters of the Fast and the Furious series. Thankfully, he is given credit every time in the films written on these characters. Chris Morgan, who was associated with the second film of this series “Tokyo Drift” as a writer, is not the writer of the film this time, instead Justin Lin has included Daniel Casey and Alfredo Botello to write. The biggest mistake has been made here.
The story goes into a flashback where Dominic Toretto’s (Vin Diesel) father dies in an accident at a race track. Vin, angry with the world, fights with his brother and throws him out of the house. Years later, the same brother Jacob (John Cena), who is on a mission, steals the world’s best hacking device “Project Aries” from Vin and his team. Vin’s own team includes his girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), sister Mia (Johanna Brewster), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Ludacris) and Ramsay (Nathalie Emmanuel).
In front are Vin’s brother Jacob (John Cena), Cipher (Charlize Theron) and Otto (Thue Rasmussen). Vin and his team roam around different countries in search of Jacob until they find Han (Sung Kang), an old friend of Vin who has been missing for years. Then there are the same car chases, blast scenes, pulling big cars with magnets fitted in the car, destroying cars on city roads, stunts that make fun of gravity, that is, everything that is guaranteed in the Fast and the Furious series is present in this one too. What is missing this time is the ability to involve the audience in the story.
Vin Diesel should think again about his character and acting. There is not much scope for acting in action series films but after giving new dimensions to the character, at least one can think of acting in a new way. He keeps overshadowing the character of Dominic Toretto in every film. Michelle Rodriguez has played the character and acted better than him. Be it action scenes or emotional scenes, she looks very natural. Sung Kang’s entry could have been better because he has appeared with the gang after a long time. However, he does not have any special work ahead. John Cena does not know how to act and he is an action star, yet why did he accept this role, is beyond understanding.
Charlize Theron is also a big actress, why did she work in this film for such a small role, whereas her role in Fast 8 in the same series was very big and important. The rest of the actors are fit in their roles, they are doing the same this time as they have been doing. Their characters were neither main before nor are they main now. Dwayne Johnson will probably not return to this series now because he does not get along with Vin Diesel. If Dwayne is not there then Jason Statham will also not return. By the way, the filming of Fast 10 has started and will be released in 2023.
Stephen F Windon, the cinematographer of The Gray Man and almost all the films of the Fast and the Furious series released recently on Netflix, has handled the camera this time too. Perhaps this time not much detailing was done in the action sequences and hence the camera could not do wonders. The scene of a car hitting a satellite in space looks ridiculous. A whole crew of about 250 people along with stunt coordinators Andy Gill, Gregory Barnett and Jeffrey Barnett were involved in the shooting of this film.
There were some amazing stunts but they were weaker than the previous films of the series. What could have made it fun here was the audience getting emotionally attached to the stunts but that was missing from the film this time. Fast 9 may have done wonders at the box office, but fans of this series will still consider it a weak film. Hopefully, something new and big will be seen through Fast 10 because this time the director of Fast 10 is not Justin but Louis Leterrier (Clash of the Titans, Transporter, Incredible Hulk etc.). Though if you watch it as a film of the Fast series, it will be fun but it is not the best film of this series.
Detailed Rating
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brian tyler/5 |
Tags: Film review
FIRST PUBLISHED : August 8, 2022, 17:50 IST