Reloading - Furious 7

We’re almost caught up on reviews guys! I’m only a month behind instead of two or three! Luckily we’re getting to a point where there aren’t any new movies coming out soon, right? The summer slowdown? Oh… wait… I’m thinking of video games. Never mind. Well… shit… 

I suppose I should start this review with a disclaimer and state that I’ve never really been “into” the Fast & Furious films before. I know bugger all about cars. The plot seemed like it belonged next to the other generic action plots of the generic action films of the generic 80’s genre. And when the films first started, I really didn’t care for Vin Disel, but that’s because my only other experience with Vin Disel was Riddick, and I still found those movies unapologetically boring for films that take place in space.

So whenever I heard a new one of these were getting made, I usually ignored it. Especially getting past the third movie since most film franchises that survive past their third installment tend to be kind of shit with a few exceptions. But recent changes in my life have pretty much pushed me into watching these films and while my opinions on the first couple films really hasn’t changed, I’m surprised to say the later films in the franchise aren’t all that bad. Granted, they still have problems and aren’t my favorite action films, but giving them a solid chance, each one gets more interesting or fun as they keep going.

So the latest film the series, Furious 7, takes place after all the other films, most specifically, Tokyo Drift, which was the third film in the series. And here I thought it was only Avengers that it was difficult to keep track of when films take place in chronological order. The man the crew killed / fought in Furious 6 had a big brother who has come for revenge in Furious 7, killing off my favorite character (Han) and injuring the Rock out of most of the movie in the process.

Things get personal when he targets Vin Disel and Paul Walker by blowing up their house. So Vin calls together the team for “one last ride” to find and kill the son of a bitch, played by Jason Statham. In order to catch Jason, the crew needs to track him and a special government agent stops in to help with that in exchange for help from them. This results in a rescue operation of a super-hacker from an African terrorist in one of the most ridiculous but still cool action sequences in the series thus far with some of the more hilarious dialogue of the film (thanks Tyrese).

Unfortunately, the tracking device is eventually taken by the African terrorists (and Statham) in the third act, leading to a cat-and-mouse style chase through LA where they must then re-hack the device to stop the terrorists or die trying. I won’t go further than that, but let’s just say everyone gets a piece of the action and a badass moment going to the end. The action is right up there and if I were doing a top-action movies of 2015, this film almost certainly makes that list.

So now that we’ve discussed what was great, what doesn’t quite work? Well, Fast 5 and Furious 6 where both films that stepped up from their previous films by getting more ridiculous and insane with the action, dialogue, and pacing to keep them all interesting. Furious 7 feels like it didn’t really step up from Furious 6, which makes me wonder if the series will begin to plateau here or if this is just one stop-gap before the series ramps things up again with the next installment.

Of course, I can also point out how ridiculous the stunts get in the film, starting with the still fun but still more ridiculously illogical parachuting cars onto a mountain road. Or driving a car through three skyscrapers hundreds of feet into the air (which apparently a physicist spoke up saying that’s the most plausible stunt in the film). Or the way the parking ramp crumbled and Vin Disel’s narrow escape from it. It all gets so silly and preposterous that I have to stop for a moment to not laugh at just how impossible some of it is.

I let fantasy, sci-fi, and comic movies slide because there’s a degree of lesser realism implied when you have fake metals, light speed travel, and magic. But from what I am to understand, the Fast & Furious franchise is supposed to take place in “reality”. Granted, it’s still total fiction, but it takes place in a real world that you and I both know and live in. So when some stunts that take place should kill someone or completely not be possible, it does kind of kill the immersion a bit. You know, in the same way that immersion is killed in Call of Duty when shooting someone smears jam all over your screen.

But these nitpicks, again, do not imply the movie is bad. These are just things that are a part of the series and make it what it is. Good, mindless and ridiculous fun, like running through a level of Painkiller with the shuriken-lightning gun or crashing cars on purpose in Burnout Paradise. And we’ve had plenty of years (like last year) when the list of fun films was so small that it was embarrassing. The fact we aren’t even in summer yet and we’ve gotten our first big, expensive, fun film gives me the impression we’re going to have a good summer movie season this year and I’m looking forward to it.

All that said, I guess I need to talk about the ending. Not the spoiler plot-related ending. I’m talking about the homage to Paul Walker. As many of you know, Paul Walker, one of the central characters of the film, passed away recently due to a horrible driving accident. His brothers were put in to help finish this film as it was not complete at the time of his accident. Furthermore, the last scene of the film, which contains copious amounts of flashbacks, is all in memory of Paul Walker. It’s very touching, sweet, and shows good taste for a series I wouldn’t have normally expected that from. So I will applaud the creative team, cast, director, and crew for paying their respects to their co-worker, friend, and partner in the creative industry of film. I personally didn’t really know Paul nor was I necessarily a fan (having only seen him in these movies and not really considering him my favorite character anyway) but it’s always sad when a central figure of any work is forced to leave for any reason and death is certainly the worst of it. Here’s hoping they can carry on without him. He certainly did give us one fun last ride.

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