To understand why I love Fast 9, first you must understand the circumstances in the media I was in.
As an avid social media user, I’m constantly exposed to pessimism and negativity. I can’t explain how a show or a movie is great for another to say how that show is “mid”, or “shit”. Everyone is self-serious, and everyone wants to prove how smart they are by their tastes.
And that’s fine. Honestly, I’ve been through that phase before, I would know. It’s okay to want to prove yourself, but as a human and a man (I can finally say that :)), hearing the constant negativity and comparisons gets you down after a while. You just get tired of all this, “mid”, “bad”, or “good” talk and you just wanna enjoy the damn movie in peace.
Fast 9 was supposed to be that for me. I just wanted to watch a fun movie with big explosions, fast cars, and superhuman feats that defied every one of Newton’s laws. I wanted to enjoy the salty popcorn and savor the sweet taste of the theater coke while watching explosions on the silver screen. What I didn’t expect was the emotions I felt when watching the very first explosion.
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It’s 1989, Jack Toretto participates in a prestigious race, with his sons Dom Toretto and Jake Toretto in his pit crew. So far, things have been all the Fast and Furious that you expect to see, cool cars, the iconic lens flare, only this time with a more vintage tint that suits the throwback environment. And then things slow down. You can clearly see the shift of the tires, the driver bumping purposely into Toretto’s car as it flips into the air, and then erupts into fiery debris.
He’s dead.
It’s this moment, this one devastating scene, that wholly captured my attention. 3 films away from Paul Walker’s tragic death, the effects of that can still be felt today. For such a stupidly impossible franchise, you find that these are the moments that people are fans for, the devastating moments, the moments of pure sadness and agony that still haunts the Toretto brothers even after so many years.
And so even during it’s self-aware humor or during its cheesy fight scenes, it never shies away from the main theme of the story, of Dom and Jake’s trauma
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The relationship between the two brothers is the beating heart of this movie. If the previous episodes of the fast franchise was about family, this episode was about whether you should forgive family, even taking into account the terrible actions that they’ve committed. The revelation that Jake was the one that planted the explosives on Jack Toretto’s racing car throws the whole story into a loop. You understand Jake’s actions, and throughout the movie, all you want is to see Dom get his head out of his own ass and take the time to understand Jake, understand the pain of the shadow that Dom created.
It’s a great idea to go off of, and while F9 doesn’t have the most mind blowing of cinematic techniques nor the most coherent of stories, that relationship between the two is handled with so much care and heart that no matter how ridiculously stupid and formulaic the film gets, the heart, that main message burns into your mind.
It’s a beautiful retelling. John Cena’s acting is actually surprisingly good, as well as Vin Diesel’s. And while the fact that Jake immediately 180s and helps Dom the moment he gets betrayed is ridiculous, and yet I’m still willing to believe in that fantasy, that secretly, all Jake wanted was his brother’s approval, that all he wanted was his brother, his old rival, his old friend to save him from the endless pit of his self doubt.
And in the end, when Dom faces his brother once again, he’s able to move past that anger, and when faced with the man that basically murdered their father, accepts him as a brother, as family.
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Let’s talk about twitter for a moment here, because I feel like there’s something big that needs to be addressed. Fast 9 is by no means one of the greatest movies ever created. It’s no Paddington 2, nor is it a Shrek 2, but I feel like so many people completely misunderstand the point. I think now, people will still look at me funny for loving this movie so much, but for me, I can’t understand how you wouldn’t love this movie for what it is and what it tries to be. We’re in an environment where every movie is scrutinized for every single decision that a director makes, to scrap together why your favorite movie is better than someone else’s favorite movie, that we forget the magic that we fell in love with in the first place.
And I think that’s sad man, that films like F9 are thrown aside only because of how ridiculous it is, that a lot of people won’t take it seriously purely for the reason that it’s the Fast franchise.
I’m all for the “family 9” memes. I’m all for poking fun for it’s ridiculousness, because that’s what F9 at its core is, ridiculous. But, hidden beneath that ridiculousness, is a genuine and heartfelt story about the relationship between two troubled brothers.
Maybe it’s time we appreciate that.
