Furious 7 ranks as one of the best action films of all time, at least 3/4 of the film, with the final confrontation changing in tone and action movie believability. 3/4th is of course better than most action films and makes it definitely worth watching. I’m not a heavy watcher of the Fast franchise, I saw Tokyo Drift, and the end of F&F 6. Still, it was F7 that got me to the theater. The film is directed by James Wan which led to him directing last year’s Aquaman! It was written by Chris Morgan who was the screenwriter for The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, (2006), Fast & Furious (2009), Fast Five (2011) and Fast & Furious 6 (2013).
Of course, this is the final film for Paul Walker, in all of his roles he had a charisma that makes the audience sympathetic to his character. F7 showcases his character, with the rest of the seven. The sequel, The Fate of the Furious (2017) directed by F. Gary Gray was ok. The film opens with the comatose Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), injured in F&F6, who is watched over by his brother, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham). Deckard is a ruthless, mysterious villain who suddenly appears, he will be in the upcoming Hobbs and Shaw movie spinning off of the Fast and Furious franchise.
Of course, this is the final film for Paul Walker, in all of his roles he had a charisma that makes the audience sympathetic to his character. F7 showcases his character, with the rest of the seven. The sequel, The Fate of the Furious (2017) directed by F. Gary Gray was ok. The film opens with the comatose Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), injured in F&F6, who is watched over by his brother, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham). Deckard is a ruthless, mysterious villain who suddenly appears, he will be in the upcoming Hobbs and Shaw movie spinning off of the Fast and Furious franchise.
We slowly get a pull back that shows this and also that Deckard threatens the doctors with caring for his brother and we roam the halls where we see unconscious guards and a hospital that looks like it went through a war zone. It is clear that Deckard is a one man war. This shifts to the Diplomatic Security Service office of Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) who was introduced in Fast Five. He is there with fellow agent, Elena (Elsa Pataky), and he walks her over to her car. Hobbs returns to find Deckard at his computer and it is fighting time. Statham vs. the Rock, it is a brutal fight, but I’m still not certain how Statham could shrug off a punch by Johnson. I also don’t get how Hobbs wasn’t alerted to an attack on Owen’s hospital and that Deckard was not captured by security cameras. Elena fires at Owen and he responds with a grenade that throws Elena and Hobbs out of a window and onto the roof of a car. Deckard escapes with the data on Dom’s crew. Hobbs doesn’t brush himself off and walk away, he ends up in a hospital with arm and leg cast, but injury doesn’t stop the Rock.
Now we get Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) racing through the desert until they reach Race Wars. They of course are the racing team from The Fast and the Furious (2001) with Dom as the ex-con who has formed his family of friends. It is clear that Letty has lost her memory from her near death in Fast & Furious (2009). She returned to the franchise in Fast & Furious 6 (2013). Race Wars is filled with slo-mo shots of women in bikinis and more than a few butt shots, and this goes on until the film finishes with Dubai. There’s a cheap cameo of Izzy Azalea greeting Letty. Dom tests Letty by having her race which she wins, but then Letty becomes overcome with memory flashes in a crowd and drives away. Then, we get the close-up of Brian (Paul Walker) at the wheel and this cleverly (spoiler!) resolves to Brian driving a mini-van to drop off his son. Brian is a former undercover cop turned FBI agent from the first film.
At Dom’s house, he talks to Mia (Jordana Brewster), apparently his sister, but this wasn’t clear to me being new to the franchise. He also gets a package from Japan. Mia reveals that she is pregnant with another child, but is worried that Brian isn’t adjusting to a suburban life. Then, he gets a phone call, teased at the end of F&F6 of Han (Sung Kang) who first appeared in Tokyo Drift and hit by Deckard, dies in a crash. Deckard calls Dom to threaten him. I don’t get how Deckard goes from L.A. to Japan when he already has the identity of most of the team in L.A. to go to Japan to kill one of the team. Dom notices the call is from Japan, looks at the package, and pulls Mia away. Brian at the mini-van with his son, slams the door, and is knocked into it by the blast. Dom goes to Hobbs’ hospital room and is told that Deckard is a rogue special forces agent. Dom then travels to Japan to return Han’s body for a funeral. In the background is Twinkie (Bow Wow) and Dom meets up with Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) from Tokyo Drift who gives Dom some personal items including a photo of Gisele (Gal Godot) who was killed in F&F6 (don’t worry she becomes Wonder Woman) and a cross necklace.
A return to L.A. with the funeral of Han attended by the rest of the family; Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Ludacris) from 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and then Fast Five (2011) to this film. Luda is actually appealing as a hacker, but Tyrese just gets annoying. Dom notices a black car and races after it. The L.A. streets are in the downtown area, but suddenly they get past the Staples Center. They smash their cars in a game of bull charge with Dom pulling out a large wrench, but Deckard pulls a gun. He is driven off by agents repelling down from the overpass. The agents are led by a character named Mr. Nobody played by Kurt Russell. It is great to see Russell as a leader in an action movie, he was of course Snake Plissken in Escape from New York (1981) and entered the MCU in the same year as Furious 7 as Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. He makes a deal to find Deckard through a device called the God’s Eye and its programmer, Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), she settles into one of the seven with a later bikini shot coming out of the beach water. Emmanuel was of course in Game of Thrones as Missandei and also the Maze Runner films as Harriet.
The crew set, it’s off to the car jumps from a cargo plane, a race down the Caucus Mountains to stop an armored bus, and then onto Dubai. The international setting, tux and dresses in Dubai, are all James Bond. The fighting scenes are some of the best with Brian facing henchman, Kiet, played by Tony Jaa. The fights are mostly close-up blurs with the fast movement by both actors and Jaa is able to inject acrobatic speed into the running and jumps. Also, there is the best woman fight scene with Rhonda Roussey vs. Letty (she took down Gina Carano in F&F6). What is surprising is seeing Roussey throwing some martial arts moves that look beyond what she does in the UFC rink (and in a dress!). The villain, Jakande (Djimon Hounsou) reminds me too much of Korath from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) with the beard. The problem with F&F6 for me is that the action scenes seemed to ignore physics and laws of gravity. This film keeps it within the James Bond realm of believability (of course enhanced with CG effects), but I think the credibility is stretched with a missile blasting drone through the streets of L.A. with an attack helicopter getting almost no notice from the police. The ending is fitting tribute to Paul Walker while also working with the story of the film centered around the theme of family.
Four NOS’ out of Five!
#Furious7, #JamesWan, #JasonStatham, #PaulWalker
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