Off Into the Sunset

Furious 7

Well, Universal Studios is at it again. The movie studio has given the world yet another Fast & Furious movie. As the title indicates, this will be the seventh time the world will catch a glimpse into the world of fast cars and attractive women. This will also mark the last time that audiences around the world will see Paul Walker on the big screen. What started as a street racing franchise has quickly turned into a full-fledged action extravaganza.

Following the events of Fast & Furious 6, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham The Transporter) has vowed revenge on the people that sent his brother Owen Shaw (Luke Evans Fast & Furious 6) to the hospital. Shaw’s first stop is in Los Angeles, where he pays a visit to DSS agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson Hercules). During the scuffle, Shaw is able to acquire the locations to all of the people he is looking for. Unknowing to the events that are unfolding, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel Riddick), Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker Brick Mansions), and the rest of Dom’s crew are trying to live the quiet life. All of that is shattered when an explosion happens in Dom’s house. Shortly after, Dom receives a call from Shaw informing him of his intentions to kill everyone involved with the demise of his brother. With Hobbs out of commission due to the beating he took from Shaw, Dom is contacted by Frank Petty (Kurt Russell Big Trouble in Little China), who seems to have the same interests as Dom. Petty offers the help of his black ops team and equipment to find Shaw, as long as he acquires someone for him. That someone goes by the hacker alias “Ramsey” (Nathalie Emmanuel Game of Thrones), who has created a program that allows you to find anyone in the world through every digital device. Dom must now assemble his team to find Ramsey so that they may put a stop to Shaw before he kills anyone Dom loves.

To anyone that knows me, I am not a fan of this franchise. I have never found the point to them, but I have watched them because my son LOVES them. My wife also seemed to enjoy them and with this film she gave me very sound advice, “see the movie for what it is meant to do...entertain.” This film was not meant to win awards or change the world, this film was made to entertain the millions of fans around the world. I took her advice and entered the theatre with an open mind and I surprised myself. I enjoyed most of the movie. I thought the fight scenes have gotten progressively better and the action scenes have always upped the ante every go ‘round. My biggest problem with the film however, was the dialogue. The quick one-liners and obvious statements from everyone in this cast was an unbearable thing I had to endure while watching this film.

As many of you probably know, there is not much acting that needs to go into making these films. Everyone plays their parts well or at least as well as they have in the past, and there is a few decent jokes sprinkled into the script. I would have liked to have seen more of Statham as a villain. Statham seemed to portray the bad guy so well, that he leaves you wanting more. Statham has always had a strong screen presence that it was a shame that he was not utilized more in this movie.

First time Fast & Furious director James Wan is the most impressive aspect to this movie. Wan made his fame with his horror films like Saw and The Conjuring. Wan has dabbled a little into the action genre with Death Sentence starring Kevin Bacon, but nowhere near the scale of the Furious films. Wan proved with this film that he can handle the much more grand stage. Wan makes the action intense with some different camera tricks and amazing angles. I was also impressed with the touching tribute to Walker that Wan added to the end of the film. Wan delicately sent Walker off into the sunset with class and without making it overly sappy.

If I really had to nitpick at the film, my only other problem with the film besides the dialogue would have to be how much goes on in this movie. There is so much that goes on that the film never really focuses on one problem. Though as I have said, the film does it’s job in entertaining audiences with great action and LOTS of explosions. I would recommend, however, you view this in the comfort of your own home with a nice sound system. I couldn’t really focus on the movie in the theatre with practically the entire audience talking and making comments about anything and everything that was going on, on the screen.

The Verdict: Wait for Blu-Ray (so you can fully enjoy this film)