Going into Furious 7, my initial thought is “I wonder what outrageous opener have they cooked up for us this time?” Actually there isn’t one. With a new director, James Wan (best known for his horror movies SAW and The Conjuring), comes a slightly different structure for the franchise: no bombastic opener, more character driven, a consolidation of the main themes of family and honour, and a solid return to carcentricity in the action department. These can only be good things, and they are good things.
Throughout the franchise each film has presented an automotive variant of an established genre. In order these have been: Point Break, buddy cop movie, crap movie, drug runner movie, heist movie, action blockbuster and with this last instalment, Mission Impossible. Furious7 is a long way from The Fast and the Furious, to be sure, but the transition has largely been successful due to the not inconsiderable charisma of Vin Diesel, the appeal of muscle cars and fast four pocket rockets, and the supremely outrageous but entertaining car-oriented action. Unfortunately, there’s still no Monaro or GTHO.
With the addition of Jason Statham, Kurt Russell and (to a lesser extent) Lucas Black from Tokyo Drift to an already distinguished headline cast, F&F is seriously heading into Expendable territory. In fact, the cast is so top heavy now that the Rock has to largely sit this one out! But fear not, he does feature in a significant way albeit in a smaller capacity.
As indicated in the final moments of Furious 6, F7 takes place directly after the events depicted in Tokyo Drift and appropriately revisits the conclusion of the Tokyo episode. Curiously, we are robbed of the drift match between Diesel and Black that was alluded to at the end of that film – a race we’ve been waiting 9 years to see! Alas it is not to be. (As a side note, as rubbish as Tokyo Drift is, it’s worth revisiting it in context of the series as a whole if only to revisit Han (Sung Kang) as a completion to his arc plot.)
The elephant in the room, of course, is Paul Walker’s death during (but unrelated to) the shoot. He was replaced in the film with a combination of body double (his sibling) and CGI. The result is completely successful and not once do you think that you’re not looking at the real Paul Walker on the screen.
Walker’s departure from this franchise (and this earth) is handled with the utmost of respect and elegance in a final tribute that will have the tears welling up. It adds an uncommon poignancy to what looks like will be the final film in the franchise – there’s no post credit suggestion of a sequel at the end of this one, folks.
At movie #7, Furious 7 is like visiting old friends – it feels like we’ve become part of Dom’s family ourselves. It represents the franchise at the top of its game in terms of action, charismatic performances from all involved, intricate plotting and bat shit crazy car stunts. This combined with the beautiful, heartfelt send off given to Paul Walker; Furious 7 threatens to be the best in the series. And if this is indeed the last of the franchise (notwithstanding some redundant “reboot” in the near future), it’s a great way to go out.
Stuart Jamieson
www.fastandfurious7.com.au
