In the 20 years of its existence, The Fast & the Furious franchise has upgraded itself several times over the years. What started as a story about illegal street racing transitioned to heist thrillers with Fast Five and with every next sequel inflating the action set pieces & discarding physics, the series now enjoys the same status as comic-book blockbusters, glued together by its sermons about family. F9 continues this new tradition by taking things to preposterous heights and is another dumb entry in the saga.
Directed by Justin Lin (Fast Five & Star Trek Beyond), this ninth instalment simply looks at all the ridiculous premise & over-the-top action the last few instalments employed and just tries to take the next big leap. Logic & gravity left the saga a long time back so viewers expecting any of it now are only kidding themselves. Brainless entertainment can be fun when it's done right but it's all executed so terribly here that along with common sense goes its sense of joy. The action & drama just feels bland, soulless & uninspiring.
If you thought that Dom & his so-called family taking on planes, trains, tanks & submarine in the previous chapters was a tad too much then you will be amused by the places this sequel ventures to. And yet, none of it feels even remotely surprising. It's full of setups, twists & dull action that never for once stimulate the senses and are predictable from afar. Performances don't deserve a mention just like the schlocky writing on display here. Its 143 mins runtime is strongly felt and even its attempts at humour fall flat this time around.
Overall, F9 is as forgettable as it is formulaic and isn't even enjoyable for the most part. The ridiculous action sequences dialled to extremity is just hollow from within, and fall way short of delivering the desired payoff. From beginning to end, it is an absolute chore to sit through. Despite the glaring shortcomings, fans of the saga may still manage to scavenge something out of this big-budget garbage. A lifeless & lacklustre piece of blockbuster filmmaking, F9 is one of the weakest additions to The Fast Saga and is no less than an utter disappointment.
