Fast & Furious 7
Deckard Shaw seeks revenge against Dominic Toretto and his family for his comatose brother.
Director:
James WanWriters:
Chris Morgan, Gary Scott Thompson (characters)Stars:
Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson | See full cast and crew »Storyline
Dominic and his crew thought they'd left the criminal mercenary life
behind. They'd defeated international terrorist Owen Shaw and went their
separate ways. But now, Shaw's brother, Deckard Shaw, is out killing
the crew one by one for revenge. Worse, a Somalian terrorist called
Jakarde and a shady government official called "Mr. Nobody" are both
competing to steal a computer terrorism program called "God's Eye," that
can turn any technological device into a weapon. Torretto must
reconvene with his team to stop Shaw and retrieve the God's Eye program
while caught in a power struggle between the terrorist and the United
States government.
User Reviews
An over-blown action film that continues to build on the franchise's success.
"This time it ain't just about being fast."
James
Wan, who is well known for directing horror films (The Conjuring and
Saw), took over the seventh film in this franchise replacing Justin Lin
who had been sitting on the director's chair since the third
installment. What I found most interesting about this franchise is that
it didn't seem like it was going anywhere after its solid debut in 2001
since the first couple of sequels focused on different characters and
story lines. Even when they got the entire cast back together in 2009
for the fourth film I didn't feel like it was anything special. I'd
always mildly enjoyed the films, but it wasn't until Fast Five that I
was really engaged with the series. Justin Lin may have not impressed me
before, but when that film came out he decided to have fun with the
overblown action scenes and audiences embraced it completely. We had the
team reuniting together being chased by tanks and planes and pulling
off nearly mission impossible tasks. My greatest concern for this film
was that Wan wouldn't follow that basic formula that had elevated the
franchise in the first place. But in an early scene in the film those
fears were soon gone when Wan practically gives the audience a wink by
having Brian (Walker) telling his son that "cars don't fly" when he
playfully throws a small toy car through the window. We were about to
find out that that claim wasn't necessarily true because throughout this
film we actually see several cars fly during the spectacular action
scenes.
By the end of Furious Six the franchise was tied
perfectly together by uniting the events that took place in Tokyo during
the third film with the present. In the fifth and sixth installments
Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker), Tej (Ludacirs), and Roman
(Tyrese Gibson) had finally found financial stability and cleaned their
names to return home. The character of Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) had
helped reinvigorate the franchise and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) was
brought back from the dead (well actually she never really died, but
fans of the franchise know what I mean). Mia (Jordan Brewster) and Brian
were enjoying their newfound family life, but as we found out in the
end of the sixth film, Owen's brother Deckard (Jason Statham) was set on
avenging him. Their seemingly peaceful life is interrupted as the team
begins to be hunted down by this dangerous British criminal. Loretto is
offered the opportunity to flip the papers on Deckard from being hunted
to becoming the hunters when a secret government official known as Mr.
Nobody (Kurt Russell) offers him a deal. A Somalian mercenary (Djimon
Hounsou) has kidnapped a hacker known as Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) who
has developed a computer program known as God's Eye that basically
allows you to find anyone across the globe in a matter of seconds. If
Toretto's team can rescue Ramsey and retrieve God's Eye he will let them
use it to track down Deckard and catch him off guard. And so the
adventure across the globe begins with flying cars, helicopters and
droids exploding across the mountains of the Middle East, the elegant
buildings in Abu Dhabi, and the city of Los Angeles.
Gisele and
Han were part of the reason why I enjoyed the previous films so much so I
was worried that their absence in this film would hurt the movie, but
the addition of Jason Statham as the main villain of the film elevated
this to a higher level. There are great fight scenes between him and
Dwayne Johnson and then with Vin Diesel that were incredibly
entertaining. These are probably the best action stars of our generation
and when the fighting choreography is filmed correctly you can't go
wrong with these guys. There are also some fantastic action scenes
involving fast car chases across a gorgeous mountain that ends in a
Jurassic Park like cliffhanger. The action scenes are overblown, but
that is what makes them so entertaining once you learn to accept the
absurdity of it all and simply enjoy the ride. Over-the-top action
scenes is what elevated this franchise in the first place and Furious 7
continues to play with that same premise taking advantage of Wan's
knowledgeable work behind the camera and his use of different camera
angles which makes the film look all the more entertaining.
The
greatest success of Furious 7 is being able to blend the incredibly fun
action scenes with the dramatic elements involving the chemistry between
the characters. We've grown to love these characters and each new
addition always seems to work. Furious 7 takes some common themes from
films like Mission Impossible or Ocean's Eleven and applies them really
well here. Tyrese Gibson plays a similar character to the one Matt Damon
played in Ocean's where he wants to prove his leadership qualities to
the rest of the crew. There are elements recycled from other action
films, but thanks to the cast it works extremely well in this franchise.
And then you have the emotional aspect of this film surrounding Paul
Walker's untimely death. You can't help but feel emotionally engaged
towards his character knowing that the actor has recently passed away.
There are several scenes of his face where the CGI seems evident, but
the voice work was perfectly executed. The CGI never distracted me
however, and I'm glad they decided to continue with the production of
the film. The last five minutes are emotionally engaging and without
spoiling the film all I can say is that the crew did him justice with a
beautiful tribute. Furious 7 continues to build on an already engrossing
franchise and it might just be my second favorite after Fast Five.