Grade: A-
Directed by James Wan (Insidious, The Conjuring), Furious 7 stars the usual players Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and Michelle Rodriguez. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson also returns as the delightful and sweaty Agent Hobbs.
This time, it’s personal. Again. Although it is set after Tokyo Drift (movie number 3) in the series’ continuum, Furious 7 follows after the events of Furious 6 where the crew was brought back together to take out an international terrorist.
Now his big bad brother is hunting down the Fast and Furious crew one by one. But he is an elusive man and an incredibly difficult one to defeat.
On top of having to deal with this new threat, alpha male Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) is approached by a vague US government figure named Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell), who wants to use his crew’s particular set of skills to rescue a hacker from a Somali terrorist, and retrieve a piece of facial recognition tech called “God’s Eye” that Mr.Nobody would in turn allow the crew to use to track down their new foe.
But none of that really matters. It certainly doesn’t matter to the writers.
The plot of Furious 7 is a jumbled bag of mixed parts. It feels as if two movies were chopped up and spliced together in hopes of making a coherent whole. However, much credit should be given to the writers and the creative team for completing the film in light of the circumstances.
Back in November of 2013, Fast and Furious star Paul Walker and a friend were killed in a high speed single car accident after leaving a charity event.
After taking time to grieve and weigh their options, the producers thought it best to move forward and have Paul’s brothers Cody and Caleb step in with the help of CGI to complete Paul’s scenes.
Although it is grim to consider, who knows what this movie would have been or if it would have been as widely accepted and successful if the tragedy had not occurred. All around, it is a labor of love from a cast and a fanbase that has been together for over a decade.
Finishing this film commanded the best performances from everyone. It is clearly some of the best acting that this franchise has seen since it first began in 2001. Makes you feel old doesn’t it? Like all good things, it has only gotten better with age. Particularly after Fast Five, it was able to find its footing.
How many franchises out there can you name where you get to say the seventh outing is the best? Not many.
Furious 7 is about 40 percent cars doing things they physically shouldn’t, 30 percent people surviving things they physically shouldn’t, 20 percent corny one-liners and 10 percent of Vin Diesel mumbling. Mix well and enjoy.
The first major clue that this installment of Fast and Furious will be absurd is the opening scene in which a slick and menacing Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) makes a vow of vengeance to his comatose younger brother–and Fast and Furious 6 villain played by Luke Evans–Owen Shaw.
As the camera pans out on as Deckard slips on his shades, we see doctors cowering, the broken bodies of special forces strewn about the place and a hospital in the type of disarray only a rogue black-ops veteran could cause.
We also have to keep in mind that this is a movie, so yes, Jason Statham can single handedly take out an entire S.W.A.T team without ruffling his trench coat.
This outing is just as enjoyable as the last two, and you can’t help the giddiness you feel at the thought of the action sequences topping their predecessors. And top them they do.
The eclectic cast hops from one exotic local to the next, skydiving cars out of planes in the mountains and jumping rare 13.4 million dollar sports car between skyscrapers in Abu Dhabi.
But that’s not even the half of it. While the camera work can be at times confusing, it provides some interesting angles that compliment the crazed pace of some fight scene. This is especially utilized when Jason Statham is involved in hand to hand combat with the walking muscles that are The Rock and Vin Diesel.
Yes, these scenes are just as outrageous as you can imagine. But we also have to keep in mind that this is a movie, so yes, The Rock can hulk bust out of his cast and single handedly take out a military drone with an ambulance and operate a machine gun despite having been laid up in the hospital with a broken arm and leg.
Furious 7 is short on dialogue but big on stunts. There are very few action films that can make that work to their benefit. Namely, the disaster that is the Transformers franchise manages to worsen with every installment.
The dialogue in those movies is cringeworthy at best and offensive at worst.
It makes the cheap lines of Furious 7 sound Oscar worthy. Even still, there are several people who should not get lines. To name a few: Tyrese, Iggy Azalea who makes a brief cameo, MMA fighter Ronda Rousey… Tyrese. It is said that an angel cries each time Tyrese cuts a check for every line of dialogue he gets.
It is troubling how difficult it is tell to whether someone wrote all of the awful things that he gets to say or if that is him going off the cuff. The sad part about it is he says every line with relish and you love to hate him just a little bit more for it each time.
Wildly entertaining, utterly ridiculous and at times heartwarming, Furious 7 is simultaneously the perfect action blockbuster and tribute to the late Paul Walker. With family man Brian O’Conner now retired, this seems to be the crew’s last job. Before the next last job, of course.
Zhana Johnson
Senior Features Editor
Photos Courtesy:comingsoon.net, movies.inquierer. net, imdb.com
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