Furious 7 - Liked It - DOUBLEFEATUREPREACHERS

Furious 7 - Liked It

9/6/2017

Starring: Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez
Director: James Wan
Runtime: 2 hours, 17 minutes
Action | Crime | Thriller | 2015

You can definitely tell that this movie is a different director, with all the camerawork and the way scenes are portrayed in this movie. The franchise has taken a turn from crime fighting and street racing, to vengeful Mission Impossible. Not only does Furious 7 include the original cast and Dwayne Johnson, but Jason Statham (who is seen in the final scene of Fast and Furious 6) comes to us as the revenge seeking brother of Shaw. Kurt Russell is added to the cast as Mr. Nobody, the person who helps Dom and his team seek and capture Shaw. And Djimon Hounsou, who is yet another foe for the team to vanquish.

This is the first movie in the series that has way too much happening. Like I said, they are going against Shaw and Jakande, who I guess are allies with each other, but not really. One wants revenge and the other wants the hacker device (God’s Eye) that allows anyone to find anyone in the whole world (kind of like The Circle, but the cameras do all the work, pretty neat if you ask me).

So I mentioned that this is turning into Mission Impossible. Well, there is a scene where they are in very tall towers in Abu Dhabi in the Middle East, where they are driving a car and flying across the buildings. Um, okay. It was still exciting to watch regardless of the impracticality of it all.

It was interesting seeing a bunch of people just added to the cast as supporting characters. Ronda Rousey plays one of the Prince’s bodyguards. T-Pain was the DJ at the Prince’s party. The Rock wasn’t in a whole lot of this film. He started us off with a fist fight against Shaw and told Dom to get him. Then he arrives again in the end sequence to finish the job. Honestly, I would have like to see him more. The scenes that he was in were comedic (hospital and his daughter). Even the dude from Tokyo Drift was included for a couple lines. Why do they keep coming back to that movie? Also, I still hate that we aren’t going in chronological order anymore. That’s annoying and really confusing for me.

The ending race sequence was both exciting and drawn out, as was the initial chase scene on the mountain roads of Azerbaijan. Missiles flying trying to kill Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) as they play keep away from the bad guy and God’s Eye.

I’m going to give Furious 7 a “Liked It” rating. The last scene was fitting: a montage of past footage to commemorate the passing of Paul Walker. The ending was my favorite part of the film, with a monologue from Vin Diesel saying goodbye to his co-star. They should have stopped the franchise here, but still I find myself excited to watch more. Here’s hoping it’s still good without Paul Walker. Rest in Peace. (4/5)