With its inception of mixed critic reviews, F9 has now fallen to a rating of 60% on Rotten Tomatoes. This new rating comes in as domestic critics take to the theatres to evaluate the film.
Owing to the fact that F9 is one of the major releases since the pandemic, the box office did well on its opening weekend, ushering in an estimated 70 million USD. Besides this, fan response also seems to be positive, as audience ratings account for 84% on Rotten Tomatoes.
However, after an initial critic score of 67%, F9 now sits on the border of being “Fresh” and “Rotten”. Here is the critic consensus:
“F9 sends the franchise hurtling further over the top than ever, but director Justin Lin’s knack for preposterous set pieces keeps the action humming.”
Rotten Tomatoes
Besides Rotten Tomatoes, F9 has also succumbed to mixed or average ratings of 58 on Metacritic.
The Fast & Furious franchise is known for rip-roaring action sequences, car chases and a timely dose of its brotherhood and family themes.
Even though achieving high critical fame in terms of storywriting has not been in the Furious books, Fast Five saw a turnaround when the franchise scored its first “Fresh” rating of 77% on Rotten Tomatoes. The same continued for Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious, which scored 70%, 82% and 67% respectively.
The fall in ratings comes despite the introduction of John Cena as Jakob Toretto, revival of Han Lue (played by Sung Kang) and return of Justin Lin as director.
The Furious crew also faces an old enemy in F9, as Charlize Theron reprises her role as Cipher, the cyberterrorist we met first in The Fate of the Furious.
If pleasing critics is not the franchise’s first priority, its formula for success may still keep working for the last two mainline films.
As critic Alonso Duralde from the The Wrap puts it, those who want to bank on the thrilling experience of returning to a theatre, F9 is just the movie you need, being, “exhilaratingly ridiculous, yes, but also ridiculously exhilarating.”
We hope for the same for the upcoming films.
About Fast and Furious 9
Fast and Furious 9 (or F9) is an American action film directed by Justin Lin. The film is a sequel to 2017’s The Fast and Furious and the ninth instalment in the Fast and Furious franchise.
The film will star Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Helen Mirren and John Cena, among others. The film was delayed for over a year due to the pandemic in March 2020. It is scheduled to release in the United States on June 25, 2021.
Dominic Toretto is leading a quiet life off the grid with Letty and his son, little Brian. But they know that danger always lurks just over their peaceful horizon. This time, the threat will force Dom to confront the sins of his past. His crew joins together to stop a world-shattering plot led by the most skilled assassin and high-performance driver ever seen: a man who also happens to be Dom’s forsaken brother, Jakob.
Source: IMDb
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