It’s amazing how much mileage The Fast and the Furious franchise has gotten over the course of 14 years. It’s latest installment, Furious 7, is a blast. It delivers everything a fan of this series could possibly want, with the added bonus of a tribute to the late Paul Walker.
Furious 7 assumes that you’ve seen the previous movies, so it would be wise to watch at least the previous two installments, Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6, before. We start things off with Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) vowing vengeance for his brother Owen Shaw, the antagonist of the previous film. Shaw gets things going by putting agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) in the hospital and blowing up Dominic Toretto’s (Vin Diesel) house. Later in the film, Toretto is approached by a man by the name of Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) who agrees to help him find Shaw if he and his team prevent a terrorist named Mose Jakande (Djimon Honsou) from getting a hold of a surveillance program named “God’s Eye” as well as rescue it’s creator, Megan Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel).
From there, it’s a crazy action sequence on top of another, each getting more ridiculous than the last. But man, are they something to behold. We got cars jumping out of a plane, jumping through buildings, and in fact, some of the action scenes just exist to use cars. We also got terrific bouts of hand-to-hand combat: The Rock vs. Jason Statham, Paul Walker vs. Tony Jaa, Michelle Rodriguez vs. Ronda Rousey, and Vin Diessel vs. Jason Statham. Lastly, we of course get lots of fast and furious car chases. Even if you’re not a fan of these movies and scoff at what transpires, you got to admire the effort put into each of these action set pieces. Director James Wan, who is mostly known for his work in the horror genre (Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring) adapts and fits the mold of this franchise perfectly.
Speaking of seamless, due to Paul Walker’s death during filming, several techniques were used to fill his absence, including his brothers Cody and Caleb to act as stand-ins, as well as the use of four other actors that match Walker’s body-type. CGI was also used for his face and voice. I’m happy to report that the results are hugely successful. The only exceptions where this method does’t quite work is during a climatic fight scene involving him and Tony Jaa where his face is obscured in darkness. Even in the final tribute portion of the film, there is something a little off about Walker’s face. However, the tribute to Walker at the end is perfection. The man would be proud.
Furious 7 is a worthy addition to this long-running franchise and an excellent Summer appetizer. Wherever this series goes, it would be hard to top this.
