Furious 7

A review by HieiYYH2

As a fan of this franchise, overall I have mixed feelings on this installment.  On some levels it was great and unfortunately on others.  I found it bad.  But I shall delve into that shortly.  Let me first say that this movie was a very good send off for the actor known as Paul Walker.  He died in a car accident before the movie was completed a moment in time which rocked both the fan base and the cast and crew of the franchise.  Paul Walker like most of the cast had been in every installment of the series save for Tokyo Drift.  Paul Walker will be missed and the Tribute to him at the end of the movie was both fitting and moving.

FORWARD AND ONWARD

(If you do not want spoilers please skip to the second paragraph)

The movie opens with Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) visiting his now crippled little brother Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) in a London Hospital.  Vowing to take down the team who crippled Owen, Deckard proceeds out of the hospital as the opening credits roll with the destruction caused by Deckard getting to his brother.  Jump cut to Dom and Letty as they travel the dessert to reach Race Wars an event in which they created apparently together.  After a brief race and a reunion with Hector we jump to Brian who looks ready to get into a race only to pull out to reveal he is a family man driving a mini-van.  We are than taken to the office of Hobbs as he is filing away paper work or some such office duty with his really loud sounding stamp and the Brazilian beauty from Fast Five whom receives a letter of recommendation from Hobbs to transfer to another agency.  It is never really said as to what she will be doing.  Hobbs walks back inside to find Deckard Shaw at his desk.  And than begins in my opinion.  The Best fight in the entire movie.  You have two brilliant action heroes fighting each other and Deckard Shaw proving you don't have to be big to win a fight by dealing crazy damage with his martial arts skills.  When Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson layth the Rock Bottom on Statham it was a thing of beauty and I was hoping against hope Rock would roll over and get up and lay down the People's Elbow.  But alas we are not treated to two of Rock's finishers.  The fight ends with Rock saving his friend from an explosion and being blasted out the window and onto a car putting big bad Hobbs on the sidelines.  The movie progresses to the point of where we left off from Fast Six with Han's death at the hands of Deckard Shaw and an extension to it with 1327 in LA being blown sky high.  I will go no further as I have spoiled enough of the beginning.

While I can appreciate this movie on a certain level on another I feel that it should have waited another year or two and respect the wishes of the director who has been a major part of the franchise from the beginning.  Taking the Director's chair is James Wan the director of the Saw movies.  He does do somethings right in following Justin Lin's style for the movies.  But adding his own style just made the movie seem rushed and jumpy instead of flowing and smooth.  There was A LOT of jump cuts and cutting in of Stock Footage from the older movies to tie together the story but it just seemed out of place in say the scenes involving Lucas Black's character from Tokyo Drift you can clearly tell the difference nine years makes in a character.  I can apprechiate the homage to the older film but if you are going to continue it from that point like nothing happened..... just redo the scene cut the actors who didn't return (Shad Moss) and (Nathalie Kelley) use Moss's voice for the Challenge but just keep the camera focused on Black and than do the race between Sean and Dom and than have the part where Sean gives Dom the necklace.  You would have had a much more believable scene instead of having Black suddenly age nine years.  And you would have saved on budget from having to pay the other two actors royalties for their likeness in the film.  Now we move to the new element of the story...... Kurt Russel.  While from a stand point of Russel being a cinema icon he was terrible for the role and didn't take it seriously at all.  Russel felt very cartoonish and just a means to get another well known actor into your film.  Russel was a huge disservice to the film in general.  What was with the Beer.  Of all things promoting a Belgian beer made by monks and Corona in a supposedly serious and secret government agency is just disarming and highly unbelievable for the character and what it stands for.  There is product placement and then there is just straight up derailing a scene to promote your sponsor. 

I did however enjoy the aspect of the hunter program introduced while realistically it would be unbelievable but from a cinema stand point and what the characters deal with.  It isn't all that far fetched.  It adds a sense of urgency and importance to why the characters need to save the creator and gives them a way to find the person who is putting down their teammates.

Overall I have to say that this installment of the franchise does not make it into my top three favorites for this series.  It is near the bottom.  There is many scenes that feel rushed, out of place and down right foolish.  James Wan did a sub par job on this film and I feel he should go back to pandering to his Saw fans.  I also feel that this movie should have waited another year or two in order to give Justin Lin time to come back like he had planned too, and the movie would have probably been better.

Fan stand point this movie was fun and enjoyable.  I give it a 7 out of 10.

From a critic Stand point..... I give this movie a 5 out of 10.  It is a passable movie but it is clearly rushed even more so by the death of a main actor.  This movie could have been done so much better and it is a shame to see this Series knocked down so low after a much better 5th and 6th movie before it.

Thank you very much for reading and I hope you enjoy.  Despite my review I do suggest that you go out and watch this movie for some good mindless fun.