F9 (Fast & Furious 9) Review (Mild SPOILERS)

Director: Justin Lin

Cast: Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, John Cena, Charlize Theron, Sung Kang, Anna Sawai, Kurt Russell, Helen Mirren, Lucas Black, Bow Wow, Thue Ersted Rhusmann

We (the fans) have waited so long for this to come out after facing several delays, but now the wait is over. “F9” is the ninth Fast & Furious movies directed by Justin Lin who directed movies 3-6 and brings back returning franchise players Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, Sung Kang, Nathalie Emmanuel, Kurt Russell, Lucas Black, Bow Wow, Helen Mirren and Charlize Theron with names like John Cena, Michael Rooker, Anna Sawai and Cardi B joining the franchise. 

So, the movie opens with a flashback to 1989 where we are introduced to Jack Toretto, the father to Dom and Mia who is killed in a race, an event that was mentioned back in the first film which I thought was a nice way to open the film. Flashforward to the present day, we see Dom (Vin Diesel) now settling down with Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and their son Brian Marcos and the father/son bonding between Dom and Little Brian is very touching and one of the films highlights. However, their peace is short lived when their team – Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Ludacris) and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) arrive and inform them that Mr. Nobody’s (Kurt Russell) plane which was carrying a now captive Cipher (Charlize Theron) had was attacked by rogue agents and had crashed in a fictitious Central American county called Montecinto. Dom then looks at the distress signal and sees that his long-lost, never-before seen brother Jakob (John Cena) is involved. The team arrive at the crash site and investigate what had happened and find the first half component of a device called Project Aries (the film’s McGuffin), but they are targeted by a private mercenary gang including Jakob, cue action sequence which is something we have seen in the trailers. Following that, we see the crew travel to Tokyo, Edinburgh, London, Tbilisi and not to mention Space.

The movie is pretty good, but not as good as 5, 6, 7 or 8, but that does not stop the film from succeeding and Lin’s return is a like a return to form for the franchise with the return of old faces like Jordana Brewster (Mia), Sung Kang (Han) and Lucas Black (Sean) to name a few. Compared to other directors like James Wan or F. Gary Gray, Lin is able give each character something to do, for instance, as I mentioned in my review for “Fate of the Furious”, I said that Ramsey didn’t do much only to being side-lined to being just a team member who happens to be a hacker, but in this film Ramsey is given more to do compared to her previous outings, in the scenes in Edinburgh, they give the character the opportunity to drive a vehicle which worked, and she’s given a lot more to do in the climax as well. Aside from the return of “Tokyo Drift” characters like Han and Sean, we also get see the return of Twinkie (Bow Wow) and a side-character from that film Earl, to remind us that these characters should not be forgotten and that “Tokyo Drift” is not the black sheep of the series as some pointed it out to be and these characters are not used for fan service and are given something to do which is way better than the cameo Sean had in “Furious 7”. Thanks to Michelle Rodriguez’s message of her not wanting to continue with the franchise if they don't give other female characters much to do, Jordana Brewster’s Mia is given a lot more to do than she had in the past films and is not there for an “extended cameo” or giving the team support. There is even a great driving scene by Dame Helen Mirren which was something I wanted to see for a while. 

However, the film has it’s problems, I felt that John Cena’s casting Jakob, Dom’s brother was good but it was just an excuse of casting another WWE wrestler in the absence of Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs, and while I like Cena, he is better with comedies than action films (though he was good in “Bumblebee”) and his chemistry with Vin Diesel just feels almost non-existent, but hopefully it will get better in future installments. Also his fight scene with Diesel was weak and not a par with Diesel vs. Johnson in "Fast Five" or Diesel vs Statham in "Furious 7" and only a minute long. Charlize Theron returns as Cipher and she doesn’t do much as she did in “Fate” and it just there to taunt Jakob and the other villains including Eurotrash Otto (Thue Ersted Rhusmann) and some of the action scenes were cliché to put it best, maybe they shouldn't have shown too much in the trailers, and there are too many supporting characters with some being used as fan service unlike the “Tokyo Drift” crew.

Overall, I enjoyed “F9”, but not as much as 5-8, but that doesn’t stop me from getting excited for parts 10 and 11 and the film’s post-credits scene has me excited for more to come.

Rating: 7/10