Saturday, 22 May 2021

Furious 7 (2015) Review



Director: James Wan

Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Jordana Brewster, Kurt Russell, Jason Statham, Nathalie Emmanuel, Djimon Hounsou, Lucas Black, Elsa Pataky, Tony Jaa, Ronda Rousey.


After the release of the sixth movie, Universal wanted to release the film in 2014 due to the franchises status as a “bankable asset” and Lin decided not to return to direct and in his place was James Wan. However, on November 30th, 2013, when the movie was in the middle of production, Paul Walker was killed in a car accident, causing the rest of filming to be halted and the film pushed back to 2015. Once filming resumed Paul’s brother Caleb and Cody were hired to complete the remaining scenes that Paul intended to film, with the use of CGI/motion-capture performance. Once the movie was released, the film received positive reviews and made over a billion at the box-office.

Like the last two Fast movies, this one was enjoyable and it paid tribute to Paul well, and this was the first movie in the series to take place after Tokyo Drift, because in the film, Dom (Vin Diesel) and the team – Brian (Paul Walker), Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Ludacris) are forced to come back together when they learn that Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), the brother of the now comatose Owen was the one who murdered Han in Tokyo and is now out for them. The team are then recruited by a government agent Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell), recommended by Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), now hospital bound to help him track down a surveillance device known as “God’s Eye” with the help of a hacker named Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) before Somalian warlord Mose Jakande (Djimon Hounsou) gets to it first. From start to finish the never drags and each sequence does not disappoint, I know that they had CGI instead of practical effects, but this time the use of CGI is actually good mainly because the stunts and sequences performed are very death defying like cars flying in the air to a bus sliding to the end of a cliff and barley escaping, it’s insane.

The performances, if not all, do not disappoint, Diesel is at the heart of the movie, but maybe not as good as the last movie due to Walker’s passing but at least he was still passionate about it.

Paul Walker was able to give a solid performance before his untimely demise, but with Caleb and Cody taking over the second half of production, they were able to fulfill what Paul started and the CGI enhancements used was incredible.

Michelle Rodriguez gave a much stronger performance as Letty, progressing her character arc and being able to be a full team player.

Both Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson give good energy to their characters and their bickering does not get old.

It was nice to see Lucas Black return as Sean from “Tokyo Drift”, but he only appears in one scene and they could have used him a lot more in this, but I understand why he did not have a big part.

Dwayne Johnson had some good moments and I enjoyed his fight scene with Jason Statham and his involvement at the end when shooting down the helicopter with a Gatling gun, but shame that he had a smaller part compared to previous installments.

I enjoyed Statham in this, he is a favourite actor of mine, but he doesn’t appear as much as expected and shows up when there is an action scene, he not as good of a villain as Owen in six, but he is a welcome addition to the series.

Kurt Russell was also a welcome addition and had some fun moments with Diesel. He plays his part with such cool and enthusiasm.

Tony Jaa also makes an appearance in this and has two cool fights scenes with Walker.

Then there’s Ronda Rousey and all I have to say was, what was she doing there, she was forgettable.

Overall, Furious 7 was a great, emotional and memorable installment that pays tribute to Walker well and brings his character arc full circle.

Rating: 8/10


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