Other than the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there aren’t many series that can survive to the 9th installment of their franchise. So there’s a level of respect that The Fast Saga deserves for its theatrical run. With each film, the cast expands, and the stunts grow to sometimes unbelievable levels of entertainment; and while they may appear extremely unrealistic, most audiences are able to suspend their disbelief just enough to walk away from each film satisfied. However, there are levels to the amount of ridiculousness that someone can handle without their brain melting. While this latest chapter is mildly entertaining, it’s saturated by immature set pieces. It’s as if the director, Justin Lin, is a child throwing his toy cars around the room as acceptable action scenes.
Out of nowhere, Dom (Vin Diesel) now has a younger brother named Jakob (John Cena) who has popped up from his past to come back and haunt him. The addition of Cena was fine, but the backstory that attempted to develop his character was subpar at best. The Fast Series has always had a decent level of acting, but this time around the cast used to explore the hidden history of Dom’s family was poor to put it simply.
What’s also disappointing is that there is no respect for the value of life within this film. It makes sense that the villains would not care about collateral damage and/or harming innocent bystanders during some high-speed chase, but that’s the mindset of our heroes who we’re supposed to be rooting for. Nothing matters to them except catching the bad guys. They’re running and driving around as if they’re the only civilians in a populated area, and the stunts they pulled off should’ve killed everyone in a near distance. This is disgusting and can easily clock the average person out of a film.
The level of physics that is not considered in the film is also shocking. Any physicist, scientist, or someone that has read any literature on common sense would be offended at the action set pieces during this film. It is as if the filmmakers didn’t even care if it was believable or not. You actually have characters shaking off explosions as if they’re water balloons. It wouldn’t be surprising if each character literally gained superpowers and started flying towards the end of this film with the film headed in that direction.
What has always made this series fun is the outlandish stunts and choreography. Most would always say to themselves, “Well maybe that could happen if they gained enough speed, and the conditions were near perfect.” That’s the point of escapism sometimes which can work for valuable entertainment. This Fast franchise set up the rules of their universe early in the first few films, but now has abandoned it with all logic and reason thrown out to space just to grab a few dollars and has dumbed down their audience. I’ll finish with this lack of a better phrase to describe this film, because if the series won’t put forth an effort to sound reasonable, why should I? In short, this film was STUPID!
4/10