Furious 7 Review (Observer Archive from April 6, 2015)

The Fast and the Furious films already have a reputation for being filled with nonstop action and logic defying car racing. I’ll admit, I wasn’t completely sold on the series when I saw the first film, but back then I was judging the film by itself and how it was made. The quality definitely improved as the franchise continued and I was anticipating the day when it would gain a high level of recognition. I think I can say without a doubt that its achieved that level with Furious 7.

Furious 7 is the seventh installment, this time directed by James Wan. Returning to the films are stars Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in his final film appearance after his death in 2013. The plot consists of rogue assassin Deckard Shaw, played by Jason Statham, going after Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and Walker’s Brian O’Conner and their gang as revenge for the gang defeating his brother Owen Shaw, played by Luke Evans, from the last film. Along the way, a government agent, played by Kurt Russell, offers Toretto and his crew the manpower necessary to take down Shaw if they help recover a tracking program called God’s Hand and the hacker who created it, Ramsey, played by Nathalie Emmanuel.

While the plot sounds simplistic, the film never loses momentum in its car races and all the outrageous ways Toretto and his crew use their high-powered cars as their weapons of choice. From the opening credits, the film rarely ever slows down completely until the heartfelt conclusion. I won’t give away any spoilers, but I will say the end of the film is a perfect tribute to the franchise’s fallen star Paul Walker.

With each new film, characters are gained and lost, as is the case with Furious 7. Han’s death from the third previously unrelated film Tokyo Drift is revealed to have been orchestrated by Shaw as his first form of revenge, plus a bomb attack on Toretto’s home and his sister Mia, played Jordana Brewster. He even manages to injure Agent Luke Hobbs, played by Dwayne Johnson, Toretto’s former enemy turned ally. Returning to Toretto’s team is O’Connor, Roman Pierce, played by Tyrese Gibson, Tej, played by Ludacris, and Toretto’s girlfriend Letty, played by Michelle Rodriguez, who is still suffering from amnesia. Emmanuel’s Ramsey later joins the team as a female counterpart of tech man Tej and proves to be loyal and willing to trust Toretto and his team even if she disagrees with their methods.

I now must inevitably discuss Walker’s death and how it influenced the making of this film. When he died in 2013, he had only finished half of his scenes, which meant multiple rewrites to the script and the use of body doubles to complete his scenes. Luckily, his brothers were used as doubles and helped with voiceovers that were needed. And as it isn’t spoiling much, his character was written to retire completely from the franchise out of respect for Walker.

Even with all these difficulties the filmmakers faced, the final product is something that Walker would be proud of and is surprisingly the most touching and heartfelt film of the franchise.