Furious 7 – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

Overview

The series sends off two characters with perhaps the most exhausting action movie you may find this year.

Director: James Wan
Writer: Chris Morgan & Gary Scott Thompson (credited for creating characters)

Trigger Warning(s): Heavy eye strain (I’m not saying it could cause epileptic seizures, but a warning is a warning)

Review (with Spoilers) – Below

Characters & Story

Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) is on a quest for revenge for his brother, thanks to the series’ veterans, is now a cripple. But while Deckard is after Dominic (Vin Diesel), and co., there are other storylines going down. Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is in the process of regaining her memory, Brian (Paul Walker) is trying to adjust to the domestic life, and then, once Deckard gets involved, the team is tasked with trying to save, protect, and use Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) to stop Deckard, as well as a frenemy of Deckard’s named Jakande (Djimon Hounsou) who wants Ramsey’s “God’s Eye” device to spy on the world.

Praise

It isn’t often I go see action films, but my goodness was this one to see to remind you of why the genre can be so awesome! For pretty much Furious 7 never lets up. If a car chase isn’t happening, someone is fighting, if there isn’t a car chase or fighting, then jokes are being cracked. Making it so you are constantly engaged with something going on, and there isn’t much in the way of downtime over the course of 2 hours.

As for highlights? Pretty much it is the fight scenes in which Statham is in play or the jokes which come from Agents Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) or Roman (Tyrese Gibson).

Criticism

First and foremost, like any action film, everyone has this insatiable ability to not end up dead no matter if they are within feet of an explosion, hunted by a drone, or their vehicle is sprayed with enough bullets to take down the largest of animals on Earth. Alongside that issue is the fact that while the movie benefits from the sentimental feelings which come from knowing this is Walker’s last movie, it doesn’t necessarily make Dominic’s talk about family, or seeing Brian’s, elevate the movie’s sense of drama or emotional depth.

This is mostly thanks to the generic type of dialog in which, even with the jokes, everything sounds like it can be placed in damn near any action movie in which the hero doesn’t work alone. And speaking of the jokes, be it that this movie didn’t fit my sense of humor, or maybe I was just too fatigued while watching this movie, I must say that a lot of what the audience laughed at I thought was corny. Be it because it played on Agent Hobbs’ masculinity, or Roman whining, there was just something which made it so while I did get a laugh or two, at times it seemed like the movie had a formula which they know worked for the last 6 movies, so they figured that changing things up now would be too risky.

Overall: Worth Seeing

Truly, the worse thing you can say about Furious 7 is that it never gives your eyes the chance to rest. For there is no downtime. As soon as one fight ends, a car chase begins, and pretty much the film goes in a constant cycle from one to the next. Plus, let’s be real, while we know the film was going to be bittersweet due to Walker’s death, the Fast and the Furious saga isn’t known for its writing and depth. So expecting Marvel level characters or story is a bit too high of an expectation to have. Leading to why the film was given a Worth Seeing label: It simply is fun to watch and, at the end of the day, when it comes to action films and comedies, you can’t really judge them by whether or not you get emotional, or even character development to a point. For, pretty much, 90% of all action films are the same. However, if it can make you laugh, lead you to wonder how the hell they did some things in the film, and leave you wanting a sequel, that is what makes it worth seeing. And, for me, Furious 7 hits all three points.

Things To Note

Brian doesn’t die in the movie, and it seems Walker’s death didn’t disrupt the film’s story that much. However, at the end of the film the writing is on the wall and the movie pays tribute to the character and ends things with “For Paul.”