Movie Review: Furious 7
What We Liked
What We Didn't Like
A movie like Furious 7 has a special sort of appeal. It is a formulaic thrill-ride plain and simple. Furious 7 is directed by James Wan who is far more famous for his horror films, Saw (2004), Insidious (2010), and The Conjuring (2013), than anything involving high-performance vehicles racing at insane speeds. Yet I can’t help but applaud a valuable franchise that decides to bring in new blood showing no fear of rocking the boat. Of course, we 
still get slow-motion acrobatic car shots doing hugely impossible things; so perhaps that is all that matters.
The film is written by Chris Morgan who penned the prior installment in the series, Furious 6 (2013), along with three other earlier entries. The characters are based on work from Gary Scott Thompson, who is the only original writer left from the start of the series. In this seventh iteration of the franchise, someone is hunting the gang with a major vengeance axe to grind. The ending of Furious 6 left the furio-verse on a cliff-hanger after a stranger kills one of the gang and calls up Dom (Vin Diesel) to cryptically warn him that he is now coming for them all. As it turns out, the baddie that was killed in Furious 6 had a brother and now that brother is exacting revenge, a la Die Hard with a Vengeance (2006).
This film reunites most of the characters from the previous films, like the last couple of successful entries in the series has done, so the cast is a large one. Dominic Torreto (Vin Diesel), Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker), Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Mia (Jordana Brewtser), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Ludacris), Kiet (Tony Jaa), Gisele (Gal Gadot), Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), and Elena (Elsa Patasky) round out the known “good” guys in here. Additions include Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) – more on them in a bit. The other baddies include a mercenary named Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), who is not having a happy meal kind of a day. There is also a terrorist named Jakande (Djimon Hounsou). He is trouble. Pure and simple. Finally, we have Kara (Ronda Rousey) who plays a bodyguard that pounds on Letty – just like Gina Carano did in the last movie.
The story unfolds simply. Shaw wants to get his revenge. However, since he is a former special ops bad-ass and can travel anywhere in the world unseen, like a ghost, it ultimately takes another ghost to capture him – enter Mr. Nobody. He is an intelligence officer from an undisclosed agency who is willing to help Dom and his crew. Why you may ask? For the MacGuffin, of course. Mr. Nobody wants the gang to retrieve an all-encompassing super-web-enabled tracking device that can be a huge benefit to any alphabet soup-named agency looking for bad guys anywhere in the world. If Dom gets the device he can use it to put a bull’s eye on Shaw. Dom accepts the mission, but there is a catch. The device, and the hacker who created it named Ramsey, is currently en route to a terrorists’ black site run by Jakande. The gang cannot let him reach it. Its street racers vs ISIS wannabes. Time to ride!
Paul Walker in “Furious 7.” Photo by Scott Garfield – © 2015 – Universal Pictures.
It is at this point that the film’s stunts get good, but completely insane – Furious 7 is basically a live action cartoon from here on. The good news is that the trailer didn’t use up all of the film’s best action scenes. There is plenty left to enjoy in the theater. One of the real joys of these movies is the exhilaration derived from the unbelievable stunts, only to be topped moments later in the very next scene.
The actors in the core gang know their roles very well, wearing them like clothes at this point. All deliver solid performances but, as usual, it is the villain (and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson of course) that are the most fun to watch. To his credit, Johnson plays the part of a militaristic bad-ass with an incredible amount of humor. The villain this time around is Statham and it is interesting to see him be the bad guy. I would be remiss if I did not mention Kurt Russell’s portrayal of Mr. Nobody, which is completely awesome and hilarious. A spin-off movie featuring either Russell or Johnson would be welcomed by this viewer.
The action escalates until a somewhat predictable ending (the story is not the real draw here after all). The real suspense in the film, for me, was what would the filmmaker’s do with Brian’s character? Since Paul Walker passed away last year, it has been widely reported that the film would be completed with the help of his two brothers as stand-ins and the use of CGI. Honestly, I could not tell when the change-over occurred, it was handled that well. I must admit that the ending of the film, which includes an homage to Walker, was very classy and far better than I expected. It made me forgive the clichéd climax of the film. Overall, Furious 7 is what it is – popcorn fun.
Steven Gahm
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