F9: The Fast Saga fell to a rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes after originally being designated as fresh, pushing it lower than many of the franchise’s past entries – but why? The franchise is certainly known more for its bombastic action scenes and heavily memed family values than for its critical merits, but many of the Fast and Furious films have still received favorable reviews. That’s been less consistently the case with F9, however.
The critical history of Fast and Furious is a bit all over the place. The best-reviewed entry on Rotten Tomatoes is Furious 7, which holds an impressive certified fresh rating of 82 percent. Next comes Fast Five with 77 percent, Fast & Furious 6 at 71 percent, and Hobbs and Shaw and The Fate of the Furious, both at 67 percent. The ratings then drop to rotten for The Fast and the Furious (54 percent), The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (38 percent), 2 Fast 2 Furious (36 percent) and Fast & Furious (28 percent).
At the time this article is being written, F9's Rotten Tomatoes rating is 59 percent, putting it just barely in the rotten category. However, that rating has oscillated quite a bit, shifting from fresh to rotten and back again several times. There are a few reasons for this. First, it’s worth noting that F9 opened in China and some other international locations before it premiered in the U.S., and since the franchise has historically performed better outside the U.S., the film’s first reviews may have skewed more positively. After the U.S. premiere, many more reviews poured in, pulling the overall rating down.
As for why the film keeps changing between rotten and fresh, that’s mainly due to the particular score it holds. Rotten Tomatoes categorizes any film at or above 60 percent as fresh, and any film under it as rotten. Since F9 has wound up right at the 59-60 percent spot, any additional review can change the overall consensus on the site. One positive review can knock it back up to fresh, then a negative review or two can bring it back down, all because of how RT chooses to categorize fresh and rotten.
Ultimately, F9’s fresh/rotten rating doesn’t really matter. The film has succeeded commercially, and the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes sits at an impressive 82 percent – markedly higher than the 72 percent held by The Fate of the Furious. Dumb action franchise like Fast and Furious will never be critical darlings, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t successful at what they set out to do. And according to the fans, F9: The Fast Saga is one of the better entries in the franchise to date.