F9 Reviews: How the New Movie Ranks Against the Fast & Furious Franchise

Fast & Furious races back into theaters with F9, the ninth installment in the Fast Saga: here's [...]

By Cameron Bonomolo

Fast & Furious races back into theaters with F9, the ninth installment in the Fast Saga: here's how the new movie from five-time Fast director Justin Lin ranks against the rest of the 20-year-old franchise. Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), his ride-or-die Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), and their fast family reunite to thwart Jakob (John Cena) — a skilled assassin, high-performance driver, and Dom and Mia's (Jordana Brewster) forsaken brother. With his crew Tej (Ludacris), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), and the back-from-the-dead Han (Sung Kang), Dom will have to confront the sins of the past to save the ones he loves most.

2015's Furious 7, the James Wan-directed blockbuster installment that said "see you again" to Brian O'Conner after the death of star Paul Walker, remains the best-rated Fast movie with an 82% "certified fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes. In second place is 2011's franchise-reinventing Fast Five, the high-speed heist movie that added Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson as Luke Hobbs to the saga, at 77%.

Ranked third is Fast & Furious 6 at 70%. The 2013 film pitting Dom's crew against Owen Shaw's (Luke Evans) crew was Lin's final entry in the franchise before his return for F9. In fourth place is 2017's The Fate of the Furious, the installment from director F. Gary Gray adding cyberterrorist Cipher (Charlize Theron) to the franchise, at 67%.

The new movie currently takes fifth place with a 65% "fresh" score from 23 reviews ahead of its June 25 domestic opening. It's miles ahead of the 2001 original, The Fast and the Furious, ranked sixth with a "rotten" score of 53%.

Lin's speedy first entry in the franchise, 2006's The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, drifts into seventh place with a 37% "rotten." John Singleton's Diesel-less 2003 sequel to the original film, 2 Fast 2 Furious, takes eighth place at 36% "rotten."

The worst-received film of the Fast Saga is 2009's 28% "rotten" scorer Fast & Furious, also directed by Lin, which reunited Walker, Diesel, Rodriguez, and Brewster for the first time since the 2001 original.

"F9 is a culmination of all our work through the years. I like to think that my next movie is always my best movie — that's what I strive for," Lin recently told EW about his return to the franchise after eight years away. "But I also think that on so many levels with character, it was great to reconnect with everybody. Yeah, in my heart, I feel like F9 is the best film. It's part of our evolution. But that's until we do Fast 10, right?"

Vin Diesel's Dom 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, that threat will force Dom to confront the sins of his past if he's going to save those he loves most. His crew joins together to stop a world-shattering plot led by the most skilled assassin and high-performance driver they've ever encountered: a man who also happens to be Dom's forsaken brother, Jakob (John Cena, the upcoming The Suicide Squad). F9 sees the return of Justin Lin as director, who helmed the third, fourth, fifth and sixth chapters of the series when it transformed into a global blockbuster. The action hurtles around the globe—from London to Tokyo, from Central America to Edinburgh, and from a secret bunker in Azerbaijan to the teeming streets of Tbilisi. Along the way, old friends will be resurrected, old foes will return, history will be rewritten, and the true meaning of family will be tested like never before.

Fast & Furious 9 opens in U.S. theaters on June 25.

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