Living a peaceful life in the middle of nowhere is the life Dom and Letty have chosen, but how long can the quiet last? Queue an S.O.S from Mr Nobody and the team is once again united to search for what he was hiding, and why. But all is not as it seems when the familia is confronted by... another Toretto?! And then there's the return of Han; which is long overdue, so let's get into it!
Fast & Furious as a franchise was becoming a little tiresome. But throw into the mix a pandemic, a severe lack of action movies and some familiar faces we've been yearning for, and this could just be the best thing to hit the big screen in 2021. Yes these movies are over the top, unrealistic and a tad samey, but they're ENTERTAINING. This movie has action, comedy, car chases, a great cast, a mostly viable storyline and gives us a new insight into the Toretto family history. John Cena stars as Jakob, brother of Dom and Mia, and also the black sheep of the family. Unbeknownst to Dom he's also been working as a secret agent type operative, in a similar circle to his own. When the team go to find the source of the S.O.S they received they find a device in the ruins of the plane that crashed with Mr Nobody onboard (who is nowhere to be found). Without knowing the full extent of it's power, with intentions to take it from the crash site to safety, we see our fam moving out of this highly hostile environment and towards their bunker. As Dom tries to escape a blast from the past makes sure he's unsuccessful in his mission. Jakob is now in possession of the mysterious device and the team have to work quick to discover it's origin and what type of weapon they're up against. But Jakob isn't working alone, with assistance from the eccentric Otto and a well known villain who they might have retrieved from Mr Nobody's plane, the typically elusive Cipher.
So let's pick up on a few of the things I enjoy about the Fast & Furious movies. Firstly, the comedy - I always find myself feeling bad for Roman, the lovable dummy. I think the back and forth between La Familia throughout is so funny, as usual, and it's really not hard to see why these movies have captured a generation of movie-goers. The action! I love explosions, I love chases, I love fight sequences, and I get all of those things in F9. All of them! Nice cars on this occasion were a little lacking, but the fancy little number that Helen Mirren was having her way with was my kinda colour. The cast was impressive, with the exciting return of my personal faveeeeeee character, Han! What an unexpected turn of events that was, and you'll have to watch the movie to see how his "death" developed both his character and the storyline we seem to be so deeply engrossed in. I thoroughly enjoyed the flashbacks to Jacob and Dom in their youth, and their scenes with their dad. The actors chosen as the younger versions of Vin Diesel and John Cena were really good. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked John Cena too; he was pretty funny in the Daddy's Home movies but I wasn't expecting a performance like this! Makes me look forward to Suicide Squad now.
I'm pleased Michelle Rodriguez' acting skills were reignited for this one, after her last few Fast movie appearances had been pretty disappointing. Vin Diesel seemed to be putting a little bit more emotion into his character this time around too. Could it be that he knows something that we don't about the franchise? Could this movie have done with some Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson? I certainly think it could have, but it wouldn't say it was absolutely essential. Helen Mirren's Queenie came out of the woodwork to give a helping hand to Dom, and we had unexpected appearances from Lil' Bow Wow, Michael Rooker, Cardi B. In terms of plot I did enjoy the general gist, typical bad guy plot with weapon that can destroy x, y and z, and the writing was sound too. So where did this movie lose a point? Partially because of the whole flying a car to a satellite which was in orbit. I mean... for real? Just when we thought gigantic destructive magnets weren't extreme enough, we decided to fly a car into space. The origin of the device and the connection to Han is super interesting, and one of the pivotal parts of the story. This was definitely the tie-in we needed to warrant Sung Kang's return and the introduction of a potential new team member, Elle. But does the team need to expand? I felt as though there were a few too many to focus on, and not all of the characters seemed to contribute much either. Ludacris felt wasted this time around, sharing a lot of the time that would typically have been dedicated to his character with Nathalie Emmanuel's Ramsey. I'm not sure when she edged her way into main cast - I thought she'd be like some of the other actors who helped out in the past and then went and did their own thing. The music isn't really up my street... I would have much preferred the whole soundtrack to have been done by our the talented Vin Diesel - click here for an absolute banger!
So! Should the next movie be a Hobbs and Shaw sequel? I'm thinking it should be. Please can we have another one of those between now and Fast And Furious 10, pretty please with a cherry on top?
Back to F9 - make sure you get out to your local cinema and enjoy this film. You might not rate it as highly as I did but I can assure you, you WILL be entertained!
Review by CB
Bình luận