Furious 7
Directed by:
James WanComposer:
Brian TylerCast:
Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Dwayne Johnson, Kurt Russell, Tony Jaa, Djimon Hounsou (more)VOD (5)
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Vengeance hits home in Fast & Furious 7 as Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson lead an all-star cast across the globe in their most gravity-defying and emotional adventure yet. Targeted by a cold-blooded black ops assassin with a score to settle (Jason Statham), their only hope is to get behind the wheel again and secure an ingenious prototype tracking device. Facing their greatest threat yet in places as far away as Abu Dhabi and as familiar as the Los Angeles streets they call home, the crew must come together once again as a team, and as a family, to protect their own. (Universal Pictures UK)
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This routine action flick is big and noisy, but with a completely forgettable script and direction. The Emirates will cover part of the budget, so let’s throw in some skyscraper-climbing in Abu Dhabi, so as not to feel inferior next to the Burj Khalifa in M:I. Then a tragic event interrupts the filming and we have to invest in a digital Paul Walker, so we’ll finish up at home in LA to save a few bucks. The best character (played by The Rock) gets too little screen time and you’ve already seen the best action scenes in the trailer. The final farewell to Paul was nice.
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“Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind.” It’s hard to say whether the screenwriters of this soap-operatic action franchise are fans of Lilo & Stitch, but they definitely transformed that film’s motto into the defining principle of the Fast & Furious series. In the seventh instalment about family, not only does absolutely every character on the franchise team yammer on about it, but so does the main antagonist, which opens up endless possibilities for more and more sequels in the future. Furthermore, we can apply the quote to the way in which the series bid farewell to the late Paul Walker, which goes against the expectations of supposedly seasoned viewers. Otherwise, replacement of the director brought forth very few changes (which raises the question of who serves as the showrunner in major film series) and instead rather intensified existing tendencies. Though the film has officially merged with the Forza Motorsport video-game brand, it is still firmly rooted in GTA. In addition to the general over-the-top comic-book stylisation, this is apparent mainly in the narrative, which this time is constructed according to an adventure formula whereby in order to achieve a particular goal, it is necessary to obtain the means to do so, which are connected with the fulfilment of a number of secondary tasks. The alternation of action scenes and melodrama continues in Furious 7 and again the non-action scenes serve as a radical retarder in every sense of the word. Nevertheless, the fountain of blather about family has already taken on an utterly absurd dimension, especially in combination with the ridiculously ripped Diesel and cartoonishly executed scenes. The formulaic nature of the film goes beyond the boundary of insipid soap operas into the realm of hysterical camp, which, however, adds to its fun factor. After all, how seriously Furious 7 should be taken is laid bare in the opening scene, which reliably divides the audience into those who will focus on realism, logic, causality and other things that are out of place here, and those who are in tune with the film’s mix of outlandishly overwrought pathos, kitsch and delirious ostentation. The previous instalment in the series had already gone beyond Bond-esque spectacle to surreal bombast in terms of the conceptualisation and stylisation of action scenes, and that trend continues here. Unfortunately, that includes the desperate climax swimming in CGI. Luckily, we can understand it as material fatigue following much more imaginative previous scenes, both in terms of the action itself and the shooting thereof. The fetishistic details of shifting gears and stomping on the pedals were transformed into a spectacular sequence of impressions with a throbbing cadence of a few windows. This time, the camera remains stable in the details and, conversely, takes greater risks in larger shots, which is beneficial to the dynamics of the sequences. But on the other hand, as has already been mentioned, the change of director did not change the direction of the series. There is no ground-breaking remodelling as in the fifth instalment; instead, only the formula established by that film is varied and a few nuances are added. Whereas comic-book movies strive for some overlaps and emotional swings, Fast & Furious is pure escapist popcorn that is entertaining as both a silly action flick and campy melodrama, and imminently forgettable.
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Wan intentionally walks along the brink of parody. And you realize this already in the first scene with Statham’s brutal entry. The Fast and Furious series has worked its way up from a car tuning variation on Point Break to a high-tech spy-related celebration of family values where there’s still a lot of driving, but also equal doses of shooting and brutal hand-to-hand fights. The storyline as a whole makes very little sense. Technically, Vin Diesel and his gang are baddies who almost killed Statham’s brother - and that makes it personal - and in his revenge, Statham is just following Diesel’s philosophy regarding family. The action scenes are on a higher level than in the preceding episode. Who ever thought that the airplane from episode six couldn’t be outdone was seriously wrong. All the three gigantic car wars (Azerbaijan, Abu Dhabi, L.A.) are even crazier still. The incredible tricks with the bus where Paul Walker and Tony Jaa have a one-to-one and Diesel drives downhill are comparable to Transformers in terms of opulence. Abu Dhabi offers the much-viewed jump by Lykan through the skyscrapers (terrorists are already taking notes) and L. A. is the location for the showdown to symbolize a kind of homecoming. And the entire dynamics of problem-solving is extraordinarily idiosyncratic. Someone comes up with a crazy idea and the others say... ok then. Kurt Russel finances it, does a promotion stunt for Belgian ale and turns the series into a regular imitation of old Bond movies. James Wan wanted to make the style more like the classic movies about revenge from the 70s, but I’m not so sure it worked. This part is certainly a lot darker than all the preceding ones. This was quite easy to build up to this with the killer Statham. The close-ups give conflicts greater depth, but the white-hot action moves the genre type somewhere completely different. The habit of breaking up fist fights is only kicked with the Statham vs. The Rock match, the other fights then began falling apart again, which was most disappointing in the Diesel vs. Statham finale. The final conflict of two family guys (a monkey wrench against pieces of sheet metal) still hasn’t managed to outdo the clash of the titans from part five. The farewell to Paul Walker is sad, but well-done with a message (of course) about family and a final glance at the roots of the series. Paul left when the going was good (he even trained up Tony Jaa!) because the series can’t get any crazier or more entertaining than it is right now. P.S.: Those who fault its logic and burble about it not making sense of course are right, but they haven’t understood one fundamental thing. From time to time, viewers like this sort of action porn and Diesel and his gang are always pleased to entertain.
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I'm not going say that I wasn't entertained by flying cars, unbreakable body shells or a badass Jason Statham because I'd be lying. I had so much fun that what should have otherwise deserved 5 stars for the amazing action spectacle turned into a slightly awkward joke worthy of 3 stars, where everything turns against the narrator and a perceptive viewer familiar with the laws of physics and limited human abilities rather appreciates every moment when they do not have to laugh loudly and continuously – not to mention that the twist is nothing to write home about. To put it another way, the action is entertaining, but it makes you laugh mostly unintentionally, the script is weak, reminiscent of an action video game, where each new level is accompanied by a change of location and a new form of combat against the main enemy, and if we look back at the film, apart from a touching final farewell to Paul Walker, we see only an incoherent sequence of explosions and crazy stunt (or rather digital) action scenes. Thank God for the truly great actors who belong, belonged and will always belong to this series (R.I.P.). 65%
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The nicest thing is that after the previous airplane games and intercity jumps, the seventh installment appears more believable most of the time. Not that cars with parachutes or crossing from one skyscraper to another are particularly realistic, but there is a certain spark of greater liveliness in them. Perhaps it's thanks to the 4D experience, which allowed me to personally experience all the falls and twists. Perhaps it is the merit of saying goodbye to Paul Walker, which works excellently in an emotional way. However, the most positive impressions are left by the domestic finale, which surpasses the already breathtaking passages from the Caucasus and the Emirates with its diverse involvement of all participants. The method of crossing, the Rock's idea for healing fractures, and above all, the showdown between Vin Diesel and Jason Statham are attractions pumped with adrenaline, brought to the level of a perfect experience. For the kind of movies whose mistakes you can only spot a few hours after your heart rate subsides, this group still has no competition.
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