Fast & Furious 9 review: Action overdose can't save this predictable ride

Fast & Furious 9

English (Theatres)

Director: Justin Lin

Cast: Vin Diesel, John Cena, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson

2/5

For a fanatic fan of the 'Fast & Furious' franchise, the latest fair is partially a ‘fast saga’ as the film’s tagline suggests. Close to half of its 145-minute running time is reserved for its patented high-octane stunts, chases and explosions. But for the rest of the audience, there is the other half to deal with. That is the film’s major shortcoming.

In all fairness, 'F&F 9' is an unintended homage to one of the longest running film franchises which is getting into double digits despite looking to be running out of Diesel (fuel).

The plot, as usual, is thin and flimsy but director Justin Lin, back at the helm after eight years, gleefully exploits what he thinks is the explosive content – of preventing a top gun assassin from assessing a doomsday device and wrecking carnage across the globe – to eke out an easy-to-forget treat.

To add an extra layer of mystery to the protracted plot, the two parts of the doomsday device, called Project Aries, have to be made compatible and then a smart key inserted to trigger chaos across the seas.

To give the plot a family touch in typical 'F&F' style, the top gun assassin turns out to be the protagonist Dom (Vin Diesel) and his sister Mia’s own but forsaken brother Jakob (John Cena).

The rest of the narrative is predictable but, much to the joy of adrenaline junkies, punctuated with some unbelievable, and at times insane, action scenes shot over steep mountains (around the mesmerising mountain ranges in Tiblisi and Thailand) and deep valleys involving magnetic planes, extra-long trucks and trains and a car strapped to, believe it or not, a rocket engine.

Watch out for the wacky chase on the dilapidated rope bridge preceded by a hilarious line. “Please don’t tell me you are thinking what I think you are thinking,” says Dom’s wife and co-passenger Letty (cool and calculated Michelle Rodrigues) as he presses the pedal to the metal and off goes the turbo-driven car into a wild spin.

Even more mind-boggling are the scenes of electro-magnetic cars pulling parked vehicles onto the path of fast moving traffic or yanking out metallic hardware from shop windows and littering them on the streets as Dom and his team chase the bad boys across downtown New York and London during peak hour.

Director Lin, who also directed the third and sixth versions, tries his best to put the F&F franchise back on track after its two or three preceding projects, including the clumsy spin off 'Hobbs and Shaw', failed badly.

He succeeds to a little extent investing extra energy and verve into a project which seems to be losing its character and charm, unlike the much acclaimed and award winning (mostly in technical categories and one for its director David Cameroon) 'The Terminator', which excelled with each episode, before falling flat on its face once director Cameroon ditched the project.

Lin is to 'F&F', what Cameroon was to 'The Terminator'. The question is can Lin boom like 'The Terminator' ‘I will be back’, or be content with ‘It is nice to be back’, like one of his characters in 'F&F9' says.

Meanwhile, with so much non-stop action, no one frets or feels for the actors or their acting, which anyway is nonchalant for most part. Including the face of the franchise, Vin Diesel, who is seen with an unwavering grin right through the film. At one stage he says “There’s peace for me in the chaos” with a grim face.

Unfortunately, that may not ring true for many in the audience who are already confused by another equally quirky line in the film - “No one outruns their past.”