IT'S been over a decade since The Fast and The Furious franchise started. While the first inception burst onto the scene and spawned six sequels, the franchise has come quite a way from its humble beginnings as the movie that made street racing surge in popularity.
From street races to skydiving cars, the series has come a long way, and the chemistry between the cast shows it. After working together for more than over a decade, the cast members complement each other well. One in particular being the planning scene, early on in the film, where Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) tries to take over proceedings and some great banter between the characters ensues.
Additionally, I'd like to give a shout to Tyrese's performance in this installment. His character's stupidity used to annoy me but in this installment I feel like he's finally hit the right notes as the comic relief in the series. I feel like it's also due to his character somehow being written to embrace that "comic relief" role. Nevertheless, in an over-the-top action movie such as this, Roman's moments are a welcome addition to help move the story along when the action takes its foot off the gas.
The action, however, almost barely lets up. There's something to be admired about how the franchise finds ways to top its crazy action sequences from the previous installments. By now, the truck hijacking scenes of the first Fast and Furious movie pale in comparison to what the characters do nowadays. They could seriously start a trend with how outrageous the stunts are, like, "Jumping a supercar from one skyscraper to another. #JustFastAndFuriousThings."
I admire how, despite the non-stop action, there are still enough snippets of drama here and there to keep it from completely being a mindless action movie. A few things bother me about the dramatic parts though.
The Lettie-Dominic dynamic is one of the more interesting stories that takes place in the movie, and yet it's not really accessible to newcomers to the franchise. Yes, it may be pretty obvious what Lettie is going through, but unlike how each installment in the series has their own story which begins and ends there, Lettie's story is one that spans five movies. Without seeing how it's been built up, it may be difficult for people to care about her story if they're new to the franchise. Even then, however, the way it's resolved seems just too convenient for me, especially since it kind of just happens out of nowhere, with no real explanation as to how it happened. Even though drama isn't the strong suit of the franchise, I would have appreciated if they tried a little harder to resolve that arc.
I also have a few bones to pick with the writing in the movie. Seven movies in and they still write cheesy one-liners into the script. Sure, "I don't have friends, I got family," is fun to quote on Facebook, but it still sounds incredibly corny, with or without the context it was said in. It's always annoying when the characters try to sound deep at inappropriate times.
Ronda Rousey is another problem I have with the movie. Her presence in the movie is nothing more than a cash grab by the producers, in my opinion. She only has one real line in the movie, saying, "Thank God you showed up. These parties bore me to death." The only line her character delivers by herself is a horrible one-liner. On the flipside, at least that's the only line she has, because she cannot act at all. It would have been much better if she just barked instructions in a foreign language, then I wouldn't be able to criticize her delivery. Of course, as a fighter, she does best in her fight scene with Michelle Rodriguez.
Other than that, she's pretty much just there because the producers want to capitalize on her popularity, and to appeal to a certain audience.
Another useless appearance was that of Iggy Azalea. Seriously, what was that about? To balance it out, however, there are still some nice cameos for longtime fans of the series.
For people who’ve been around since the first movie, Hector’s appearance, albeit short, is a nice nod to the older films in the franchise.
Lucas Black, who played Sean Boswell in Tokyo Drift also makes an appearance in this film. Although he’s aged since playing the character nine years ago, I think they did a pretty good job of making him look as close as possible to how he did back then. I am very disappointed, however, that there is no race scene when Dom is in Tokyo. It’s something that people have been hoping to see ever since being teased about it at the end of Tokyo Drift, and looked like it was going to happen since we finally knew that Dominic was going to head to Tokyo. All we get, however, is the recycled footage from Tokyo Drift, then we immediately cut to their post-race conversation. Really disappointing.
One thing I like about the writing is how they managed to keep it open for more installments, especially with the introduction of Mr. Nobody, portrayed by Kurt Russell. Personally, Mr. Nobody is my favorite addition to the series, and also shows how the franchise is moving forward in terms of its action. He’s such a mysterious and yet powerful character that plays a huge role in the plot of Furious 7, but makes an early exit that somehow tells that it’s not the last we’ve seen of him. If an eighth movie ever comes out, expect Mr. Nobody to be in it.
Another thing I liked was the camera work during action scenes. The way the camera is quickly rotated in certain action scenes – like when The Rock lands a Rock Bottom on Jason Statham – help add some sort disorientation for those high-impact moves.
Still on the technical side, I have to say that the CGI work to “graft” Paul Walker’s face onto his brothers is pretty well-done. There are certain scenes where I can guess that Paul Walker is merely CGI because of the cinematography and how shots seems to avoid focusing on his face too much, but I can’t be too sure unless the studio reveals which scenes were actual Paul and which were CGI Paul.
Speaking of Paul Walker, I feel like the ending was a great send off to him and handled really well. Aside from that, however, I find it somehow poetic how his stint in the Fast and Furious franchise ends in Los Angeles, right at the same place where the whole series started with him.
To put it short, Furious 7 is more of its usual formula. They continue to crank up the action and still find ways to top the already over-the-top feats of previous installment, but the film is still a victim of its usual blunders; some bad writing and one-liners. It’s been like this for so long that you know already what you’re going to get from the movie, and as long as you know that you should be expecting just that, it’s yet another fun ride from the adrenaline-filled franchise.
Furious 7 score: 8.7/10