F9: The Fast Saga
Jun. 26th, 2021 03:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleI saw my first movie in a theater since before the pandemic. Yes, that's right, I went to see F9: The Fast Saga in theaters on opening day. I went to an 11am showing. There were only about 15 other people there. I was one of the few people wearing a mask. Anyway, I was so happy to see it in a theater!
I can't wait for this movie to be out on DVD so I can rewind and pause it on bits, particularly some of the flashbacks. We get flashbacks to 1989 (the timeline of these movies makes precisely zero sense) and Dom's dad's last race. Helen Mirren is great, and Charlize Theron's commitment to terrible hair and scenery chewing continues unabated, but the greatest acting in this movie is from Vinnie Bennett, who plays Dom in the flashbacks. He's so good! He gets everything right as Dom, and I loved all the ways that his performance echoes (for the audience)/presages (in the timeline of the movies) the Dom we know from the series. One of the things I most want to be able to rewind and pause on (which I wanted to do even in the moment watching it on a big screen) is Dom's first race after he gets out of prison. He goes up against Jakob, his brother. But before that, he arrives, and it's so much like his arrival at the first race in the first movie. I picked out Mia and Letty from the crowd, but wanted to be able to rewind and pause to really look at them. IMDb also lists credits for young versions of Vince and Jesse, and I want to be able to go back and see them too.
If you've known me for a while, you know that I've written fic about Mia off and on over the last twenty years, and this movie did nothing to stop my fascination with her. I want to know everything about what it was like for her while Dom was in prison and what it was like for her to lose her dad and then both of her brothers (one temporarily, one seemingly permanently). I want to know all about her relationship with Letty. Letty, not Dom, calls her about Jakob. Mia tells Letty that she never told Dom but she stayed in contact with Jakob for a while after their dad died. One of the themes of the movie is Dom and Letty figuring out what their life is going to continue to be like (Dom: Brian and Mia got out of the game when they became parents. Letty: We're not them.), and when Letty talks to Mia about that in a way that read to me as Letty laying out a giant problem in her marriage, Mia says, "Dom's my brother, but you will always be my sister," which I read as her assuring Letty they'll still be family even if something happens with Dom and Letty's relationship. Tell me everything about how they became and stayed friends! I have so many unanswered questions.
Speaking of unanswered questions, we meet Dom and Mia's dad in the flashbacks, but we still know absolutely nothing about their mom. Buddy, who was part of their dad's pit crew, says to Dom, "The worst thing you can do to a Toretto is take away their family." Surely there's a story about their mom! It's so interesting how much the series is about family and is also very much about fathers and sons specifically more so than parents and children generally. It's like they offloaded all the mom feelings to Hobbs & Shaw where both Hobbs and Shaw's moms are key characters/plot points.
I loved meeting Dom and Mia's dad. It might be in the first movie somewhere, but if it was, I never really registered that his name was Jack, meaning that Brian and Mia named their first child after him. FEELINGS! I also loved meeting him because as he spoke, I thought, "Who does he remind me of?" and then realized that his speaking style/rhythm is exactly like Brian's. No wonder Dom and Mia fell in love with him. It's also interesting that neither Dom nor Mia have that same cadence, but Jakob does.
The movie ends with a barbecue at the original house, which is being rebuilt. I have all the feelings again! At one point when Dom and Letty are talking about their lives, she asks him if he misses their old life, and he says, "Every day." I love that the end of this movie is implying that they're rebuilding the house and are going to live there with Little B, as they refer to formerly baby now-toddler Brian.
Obviously Dom, Mia, and Letty are my favorites, but I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention two other things. First, Han! Aaaaah, I love Han. I'm so glad he's alive and back with the team, and with an essentially adopted daughter who he's taught to be a badass. Secondly, Tej, Roman, and Ramsey arrive together to bring news of what's happened to Dom and Letty, and now I really will go read the Tej/Roman/Ramsey Yuletide story I marked to read later years ago and never went back to.
I will be very excited to rewatch this on DVD, and excited about the fact that Vin Diesel at least has signed on to do a tenth movie.
I can't wait for this movie to be out on DVD so I can rewind and pause it on bits, particularly some of the flashbacks. We get flashbacks to 1989 (the timeline of these movies makes precisely zero sense) and Dom's dad's last race. Helen Mirren is great, and Charlize Theron's commitment to terrible hair and scenery chewing continues unabated, but the greatest acting in this movie is from Vinnie Bennett, who plays Dom in the flashbacks. He's so good! He gets everything right as Dom, and I loved all the ways that his performance echoes (for the audience)/presages (in the timeline of the movies) the Dom we know from the series. One of the things I most want to be able to rewind and pause on (which I wanted to do even in the moment watching it on a big screen) is Dom's first race after he gets out of prison. He goes up against Jakob, his brother. But before that, he arrives, and it's so much like his arrival at the first race in the first movie. I picked out Mia and Letty from the crowd, but wanted to be able to rewind and pause to really look at them. IMDb also lists credits for young versions of Vince and Jesse, and I want to be able to go back and see them too.
If you've known me for a while, you know that I've written fic about Mia off and on over the last twenty years, and this movie did nothing to stop my fascination with her. I want to know everything about what it was like for her while Dom was in prison and what it was like for her to lose her dad and then both of her brothers (one temporarily, one seemingly permanently). I want to know all about her relationship with Letty. Letty, not Dom, calls her about Jakob. Mia tells Letty that she never told Dom but she stayed in contact with Jakob for a while after their dad died. One of the themes of the movie is Dom and Letty figuring out what their life is going to continue to be like (Dom: Brian and Mia got out of the game when they became parents. Letty: We're not them.), and when Letty talks to Mia about that in a way that read to me as Letty laying out a giant problem in her marriage, Mia says, "Dom's my brother, but you will always be my sister," which I read as her assuring Letty they'll still be family even if something happens with Dom and Letty's relationship. Tell me everything about how they became and stayed friends! I have so many unanswered questions.
Speaking of unanswered questions, we meet Dom and Mia's dad in the flashbacks, but we still know absolutely nothing about their mom. Buddy, who was part of their dad's pit crew, says to Dom, "The worst thing you can do to a Toretto is take away their family." Surely there's a story about their mom! It's so interesting how much the series is about family and is also very much about fathers and sons specifically more so than parents and children generally. It's like they offloaded all the mom feelings to Hobbs & Shaw where both Hobbs and Shaw's moms are key characters/plot points.
I loved meeting Dom and Mia's dad. It might be in the first movie somewhere, but if it was, I never really registered that his name was Jack, meaning that Brian and Mia named their first child after him. FEELINGS! I also loved meeting him because as he spoke, I thought, "Who does he remind me of?" and then realized that his speaking style/rhythm is exactly like Brian's. No wonder Dom and Mia fell in love with him. It's also interesting that neither Dom nor Mia have that same cadence, but Jakob does.
The movie ends with a barbecue at the original house, which is being rebuilt. I have all the feelings again! At one point when Dom and Letty are talking about their lives, she asks him if he misses their old life, and he says, "Every day." I love that the end of this movie is implying that they're rebuilding the house and are going to live there with Little B, as they refer to formerly baby now-toddler Brian.
Obviously Dom, Mia, and Letty are my favorites, but I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention two other things. First, Han! Aaaaah, I love Han. I'm so glad he's alive and back with the team, and with an essentially adopted daughter who he's taught to be a badass. Secondly, Tej, Roman, and Ramsey arrive together to bring news of what's happened to Dom and Letty, and now I really will go read the Tej/Roman/Ramsey Yuletide story I marked to read later years ago and never went back to.
I will be very excited to rewatch this on DVD, and excited about the fact that Vin Diesel at least has signed on to do a tenth movie.
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Date: 2021-06-27 12:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-06-28 10:36 pm (UTC)