{"id":22986,"date":"2021-06-24T13:09:16","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T20:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=22986"},"modified":"2021-06-24T13:09:16","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T20:09:16","slug":"f9-the-fast-saga-takes-action-movie-absurdity-to-extreme-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=22986","title":{"rendered":"F9: THE FAST SAGA Takes Action Movie Absurdity to Extreme Heights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This film opens in cinemas on Friday, June 25th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll admit that I\u2019m not the biggest fan of the Fast &\nFurious<\/em> franchise, but after eight hit titles in series (as well as a\nspin-off), it\u2019s almost pointless to be too hard on the flicks. Personally, I\nhave always felt like the films could do with a heavier dose of realism that would\nmake the driving stunts and scenarios feel more dangerous and exciting. But the\nwriters and producers have chosen to go in the opposite direction. Instead, the\nmovies are very silly pieces of popcorn entertainment, many of which still\noffer impressive action sequences. F9: The Fast Saga<\/em> is the latest entry\nand one which leans even further into ridiculousness. Is it too much? It may be\nfor me, but series fans probably won\u2019t mind at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After the events of the previous film, street-racer\/covert\nops agent Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez)\nhave decided to retire to the country. Their plans are short-lived when team\nmembers Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Ludacris) and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel)\narrive to inform them that arch enemy Cipher (Charlize Theron) was captured by\nauthorities and then kidnapped by a second, mysterious figure. The sinister foe\nturns out to be a wealthy megalomaniac known as Otto (Thue Ersted Rasmussen)\nand his henchman, Jakob (John Cena), who happens to be Dominic\u2019s little brother.\nWe get an extended backstory about the falling out between the protagonist and\nhis sibling and soon learn that the villain intends to steal pieces of the\ndangerous Aries electromagnetic weapon. This device can be used to control the\nworld\u2019s computers and potentially cause worldwide chaos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The good news is that, once again, the action and driving\nsequences are well shot and edited. Some of the elaborate car chases involve\nflipping trucks and out-of-control cars that narrowly miss the protagonists. During\nthe climax, the use of magnetization as a weapon also results in some visually\nimpressive destruction as vehicles are thrown into the streets. The film also\nearns some goodwill from the comic relief, including comments from Gibson about\nhis suspicions that he might actually be invincible. The character\u2019s assertions\nare laughed off by his pals, but given what is occurring around him, there can\nbe no doubt that it\u2019s a reasonable assumption (and a way for the writers to\nacknowledge to craziness on display). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while the above sequences are all fun to watch, the\nover-the-top bits again diminish the potential for greater thrills and tension.\nIt all looks good, but little of it makes any sense. While the sight of magnets\nthrowing vehicles around on the road looks nifty, it\u2019s strange that they don\u2019t\nseem to have any effect on the heroes driving around. When the leads are caught\nin a crashing vehicle, they always seem to leap out and land on their feet like\nsuperheroes, without so much as a scratch or even a bruise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The significant subplot involving Dominic and his brother also begs the question of why this life-changing event hasn\u2019t been brought up previously and in more detail. And there are plenty of clunky speeches from the lead. They are not only about the importance of family, but also that driving is all about skill and not expensive gadgets. Like other flicks in the series, every important message or moral being delivered by Dominic is contradicted by his own deeds later in the story. As for the preposterous finale, it\u2019s rare that a James Bond movie from the late 70s like Moonraker<\/em> could come off as more authentic and believable in its depictions of science and technology. Yet somehow, that is what occurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movie is certainly nonsensical and the plot doesn\u2019t wrap\nany storylines up, only re-establishing the central foe from an earlier film\nand adding a long-lost character or two to the heroic fold. Still, one supposes\nthat this will not matter to the moviegoing public. And, it\u2019s hard to get to\ntruly annoyed by a movie that is farcical beyond words. F9: The Fast Saga<\/em>\nis as clever as a bag of hammers and will result in more laughs than actual thrills,\nbut it may still amuse franchise enthusiasts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This film opens in cinemas on Friday, June 25th. I\u2019ll admit that I\u2019m not the biggest fan of the Fast & Furious franchise, but after eight hit titles in series (as well as a spin-off), it\u2019s almost pointless to be too hard on the flicks. Personally, I have always felt like the films could do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":22987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[206,697,3943,4148,7250,7251,7252,7253,7254,10838,12774,12926,13875,14601,16577,18035,19251,22833,23456,23798,24059],"class_list":["post-22986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-206","tag-action","tag-cars","tag-charlize-theron","tag-f9","tag-f9-the-fast-saga","tag-f9-the-fast-saga-film-review","tag-f9-the-fast-saga-movie-review","tag-f9-the-fast-saga-review","tag-john-cena","tag-ludacris","tag-magnets","tag-michelle-rodriguez","tag-nathalie-emmanuel","tag-racing","tag-sequel","tag-stunt-driving","tag-thue-ersted-rasmussen","tag-tyrese-gibson","tag-vin-diesel","tag-weapons"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}