Just watched the latest fast and furious movie, F9. I wasn't particularly excited for this given my two favorite actors/characters Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham wouldn't be in it. Sure, I didn't have those guys for the first two movies, but I always really liked Brian O'Connor, who of course departed after Paul Walker's tragic death. This would be the first film in the franchise where I didn't really like the main characters. Vin Diesel simply has never been good or likeable in any movie outside of Guardians of the Galaxy due to his lack of acting ability or charisma. Went to see in theaters anyway since I did watch the whole franchise (interestingly Hobbs and Shaw and Furious 7 are the only ones I've seen a second time).
In the end, F9 was a great movie. It hasn't had great reviews and a lot of people seem to think it's one of the weaker films in the franchise, so this may be an unpopular opinion. I really liked this one though, which took me by surprise as none of the actors here I'm a big fan of. The two major fantastic positives of the film are awesome, fast moving, explosive and highly enjoyable action sequences and great supporting characters. Every action sequence is really great and combines humor, spectacle and stunts to create thrilling set pieces. On the characters side, this is an ensemble film and most everyone delivers. The standout is the comedic duo of Roman and Tej, and I thought Ramsey was a good edition to the group as I haven't really noticed her before. Han was great, Helen Mirren was fine, Otto was fine, and the trio of Tokyo Drift guys were a funny callback. While the story was a bit rough and had some low moments, I found the flashbacks to be the best acted portion of the story and the younger versions of Dom and Jacob made for a compelling storyline.
Not everything in the film was great as there were several flaws. The two biggest issues are the story is kind of whatever, there isn't really a story. The villains aren't really there as there's several of them and isn't much of a buildup or development of what they're doing and why. The biggest issue for me is that the three main characters of Dom, Letty and Jacob are incredibly bland, have no emotion and aren't even remotely likeable. Why Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez, two people who have no acting ability were chosen to head to a major action franchise is beyond me. John Cena has been funny before, but the decision to write him as a mirror of Dominic Torretto was a huge mistake because it just feels like there's a second vin diesel in the film. Fortunately these issues never really derail the movie since the supporting cast as well as the flashback cast are great and there's few scenes just with the three main characters. Also when it comes to fast and furious, 90% of the importance is the action which shines here so it's easy to forgive the other shortcomings. I'll note Cypher and Mia are both mediocre/forgettable, neither are good or bad.
I'd also like to note the scene where Dom tries to sacrifice himself for no reason, then has a weird seeing death moment in the water, then is saved by Letty is just awful and probably one of the worst moments of the franchise for me, which has plenty of bad moments.
My franchise ranking:
1. Furious 7
2. F9
3. The Fate of the Furious
4. Fast and Furious 6
5. Fast Five
6. Hobbs and Shaw
7. The Fast and the Furious
8. 2 Fast 2 Furious
9. Fast and Furious
10. The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift
(top 7 are at least good)
I'll have to see them all a second time before making a definitive ranking.
