The “Fast & Furious” series has been
called many things—car porn, dude saga, franchise that could. Seriously though, who would have thought after
the original film was released in 2001 that it would yield enough stories to
make six (yes, SIX) more films about a rag-tag gang of vehicle aficionados? Not me.
Yet here we are, seven movies in and fourteen
years later. And since it was recently
brought to my attention that I was the only Healthy Orange reviewer that had
seen any of the movies in the series, I figured I should write a review for
“Furious 7,” which already promises one the most gargantuan spectacles of 2015.
“Furious 7” brings its posse of hard-driving
rogues back together—Dom (Vin Diesel), Letty (Michelle Rodriquez), Mia (Jordana
Brewster), and Brian (Paul Walker). They’re
enjoying the quiet life (after their criminal records were expunged in 2013’s
“Fast & Furious 6”)...until the enraged Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham)
arrives from London, hot-blooded and eager to avenge his comatose brother (a
former enemy of Dom and company).
If that description makes “Furious 7” sound
like a soap opera for men, that’s because it is—these movies have everything
from death to memory loss to resurrection to revenge (and that’s just from one
character alone). Usually, those
ingredients would make for a clichéd and sour dish, but the film flourishes
under the guidance of director James Wan. Until now, Mr. Wan has been strictly a
director of horror movies (including “Insidious” and “Saw”), but he proves an
apt fit for the “Furious” crowd by topping the deliciously over-the-top
vehicular stunts of the previous pictures (which is saying something, since
“Fast & Furious 6” featured a car barreling out of an airborne airplane,
PHYSICS BE DAMNED!).
But what of the elephant in the room? Hanging over “Furious 7” is the loss of Mr.
Walker, who died in a car accident last year. At the time of his death, filming was
incomplete; that fact irrevocably changed the course of the film, causing Mr.
Wan to hire Mr. Walker’s brothers as body doubles and to use the magic of CGI
and sound bites to fill in the blanks.
The gamble paid off…. sort of. It does seem weird that Brian is in so many
scenes of “Furious 7,” yet very rarely does or says much of anything, and it is
distracting that the camera can’t gaze at him for too long (for fear of
revealing Mr. Wan’s use of doubles). But
the film’s movie-magic-Frankenstein effects help make the illusion of Brian’s
presence semi-seamless and, more importantly, “Furious 7” is a moving tribute
to Mr. Walker.
“Furious 7” is not the finest hour of the
“Furious” franchise, not least because it has a little less Dwayne “The Rock”
Johnson than I would have liked (he co-stars as agent Luke Hobbs). But I’m still giving the movie a B+. After all, it is a nice little blockbuster
prelude to the coming onslaught of summer movies, and a great sendoff for Mr.
Walker. His last drive, it turns out, is
one of the better movies in “Fast & Furious” history, and dovetails with
the rich legacy he’s left behind in the action genre.
Paul Walker will be missed.
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