Score: *** out of ***** (C)
Long Story Short: The increasingly popular Fast and Furious franchise just keeps getting bigger, and this seventh installment continues that trend. While it still highlights cool cars and the merits of driving really fast, Furious 7 is primarily a full-fledged action film (including the presence of Johnson and Statham, whose presence is one of the few good things here). Maybe I'm missing something, but this is just not a good film, action or not. If you need more detail, then keep reading!
As the weather outside gets warmer, my excitement for the summer movie season grows. In two weeks it will kick off with a bang: the sequel to The Avengers. Starting with that movie, I think I'm going to make a few changes to my reviews; we'll how it goes. Meanwhile, you might think that the summer movie season has already begun, with the release of this blockbuster which made nearly $150 million in its first weekend and already has over $1 billion worldwide. I'd only seen one other Fast and Furious movie before (that I remember), but I figured I'd see what all the fuss was about - and it even has an 82% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Furious 7 was directed by James Wan and stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jason Statham, et. al.
At the end of the last film, Dom (Diesel) and his crew took down bad guy Owen Shaw; now his brother, Deckard (Statham), wants revenge. While the team has tried to rebuild normal lives, particularly Brian (Walker) and Mia (who are married and have a son), Deckard soon goes after them, forcing them to regroup. Fortunately, they have allies: a covert government team saves Dom, and then offers assistance in bringing down Deckard in return for help recapturing a young hacker and her powerful surveillance program. The battle takes the team all around the world, but it seems the bad guys are always one step ahead. A return to their home turf of Los Angeles may be the only chance Dom and co. have to prevail - and survive.
The acting in Furious 7 is not terrible but also unimpressive, even by the standards of this genre. No one expects to see Daniel Day-Lewis in these movies, but charismatic, fun characters are quite important. Unfortunately, Vin Diesel - the lead - is a terrible actor. Mumbling through most scenes and trying (and failing) to balance tough guy aloofness with heroic strength, he also earnestly delivers the film's "key" awful lines. Dwayne Johnson is a superior actor, if that tells you anything, but he only gets 10-15 minutes of screen time. Paul Walker, who died during filming, is much closer to the charismatic star the film needed, but his role was necessarily reduced. Most of the minor characters are nothing to write home about, though I did enjoy Tyrese Gibson's funny character. Finally, the two non-group characters are quite opposite. Kurt Russell as the government ops team leader practically spends the whole time winking and it gets annoying. But Jason Statham's bad guy Deckard is actually pretty good, a menacing and ruthless presence (despite his usually playing the hero).
After its incredible start at the box office, it's safe to say that the Fast and Furious franchise is the current king of action movies. Admittedly going based on what I've read rather than the movies themselves, this is a shift from a primarily car/racing culture. And Furious 7 does still have plenty of cars - sometimes in cool ways, more often ridiculous. But back to the action; despite the series' addition of stalwarts Johnson and Statham and blockbuster effects and sets, Furious 7 is just not a good action film. A fight between Johnson and Statham at the beginning is very impressive, and a car chase in the middle of the film (if you cut out the utterly ridiculous beginning and end to the extended sequence) are quite entertaining. Beyond that, the action is actually just not very interesting - from either lack of imagination, lack of realism (even relatively speaking), or sheer repetition. Furious 7 also makes awkward and completely failed attempts to show its characters' feelings and value of family (though admittedly the tribute to Walker at the end is emotional, knowing that the actor himself was also the father of a young child). Finally, all this crammed together adds up to a two hour, fifteen minute runtime which is far too long, especially the brutally extended final action set.
***
Frankly, I'm a bit flabbergasted by the popular and (especially) critical success of this film (and probably franchise; though I've only seen the fifth one, it too was not good). If you've read my blog you know that I love action movies - from superheroes to James Bond and so on. But this is just low quality, and I'm shocked that the critics - who unfairly malign countless superior action films - don't call this series out for it for some reason. The film lacks star-worthy heroes or even much in the way of talented, charismatic acting. The plot and writing is so ridiculous and pointless it isn't even worth pointing out specific flaws. And the action - including what are supposed to be the showcase stunts - are mostly poorly conceived, executed, or both. Now, I've certainly seen worse, and Furious 7 does have some good things about it as I've mentioned. Statham-Johnson fight (and Statham himself), the mountain-top car chase, Tyrese Gibson. But it is bewildering to me that this is both a box office smash and a critical success. If you're a 10-16 year old boy, OK, go out and see this. Otherwise, skip.
"Furious 7 Film Poster" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furious_7#/media/File:Furious_7_poster.jpg
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