Fast & Furious 7 bears little resemblance to the first fim in the franchise, The Fast and the Furious. It still features many of the same characters, and still has plenty of cars, but the focus has since shifted from one on one racing to ridiculous, over-the-top action set pieces, which tend to be as bombastic as they are meticulously crafted. The latest installment continues in that direction, lunging deep into the harebrained action movie logic that has fueled the previous two installments. But the intrusion of real life has given the film an unexpected sense of gravity, the themes ringing true for perhaps the first time in its history.
The film opens on the last movie's villain Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) in the hospital. His brother, Deckard Shaw, (Jason Statham) is there promising to get revenge on the people that put him there. Meanwhile, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew are trying to readjust to their normal lives. Dom is helping Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) remember her old life. Brian (Paul Walker) is struggling to adapt to life as a husband and a father. And that's when Shaw makes his presence known, injuring their old ally Hobbes (Dwayne Johnson) and sending a bomb to their house. Dom vows to take down Shaw, but he finds that Shaw is a completely different class of adversary.
There can be no discussing this movie without mentioning the fact that one of its stars, Paul Walker, died before completing production. The film certainly had to adjust, in both practical and artistic means. In practical terms, the absence of Walker is addressed through a combination of stand-ins (his brothers) and digital effects. It's done pretty seamlessly, and is hardly noticeable. Artistically, the film doubles down on its stated theme of family, and devotes a good chunk of its time to constructing a proper sendoff for the dearly departed. And through this, what might have otherwise been empty pieces of dialogue are imbued with meaning. And it all culminates in one of the most sincere farewells in the history of cinema.
The plot is still nothing to write home about. It doesn't hold up to any scrutiny, Dom and his crew risking their lives for some magical McGuffin that they don't really need. But it does the job. It sends them off to interesting locales, and sets up some truly inspired action sequences. They drop cars out of airplanes, jump them between buildings, and race them through the streets of Los Angeles while evading a predator drone. Nothing in this quite tops the bank vault chase sequence in the fifth movie, but everything is well composed and visually coherent, which is more than can be said about most films of this ilk nowadays.
Director James Wan is like a stripped down Michael Bay in this film. He uses many of the same techniques, but tones down the visual clutter that has defined Bay’s most recent films. Like Bay, Wan tends to shoot dialogue with the camera rapidly revolving around the characters, just to give the exposition a more exciting feel. It gets tiring after a while, but the movie makes for it with some really inventive shooting once the action gets going. Wan deploys the same rotating camera trick about five in the movie, but it never stops being fun. The cast is as solid as it’s ever been. Statham is the perfect villain for this franchise, and Kurt Russell is always welcome. The film could’ve done more with Rousey, Jaa and Honshou, but as it is, the movie is already pretty bloated.
Fast & Furious 7 is just good, ridiculous fun. It doesn’t make a lick of sense when you think about it for more than moment or two, but that doesn’t really matter. It delivers on its promise of bombast and hypermasculinity. And this time, this appealing nonsense is made meaningful by the sincerity and earnestness with which they say goodbye to one of their family members. When all the explosions die down, and the heroes throw their last punches, what’s left is this genuinely moving expression of love for Paul Walker. Blockbusters, even at their best, tend to feel impersonal. That is a criticism that can never be laid at the feet of this movie.
My Rating:
