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'Furious 7' bids goodbye to Paul Walker with thrilling action
Fender bender: Dom (Vin Diesel, left) and hitman Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) after one of Furious 7âs many collisions
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Fender bender:: Dom (Vin Diesel, left) and hitman Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) after one of Furious 7âs many collisions. (Courtesy of Universal Pictures) (Vin Diesel, left) and hitman Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) after one of Furious 7âs many collisions. (Courtesy of Universal Pictures)
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span class="inline inline-center">Fender bender: Dom (Vin Diesel, left) and hitman Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) after one of Furious 7's many collisions. (Courtesy of Universal Pictures)
The seventh installment in the Fast and Furious franchise ' which has its origins in a Vibe magazine article on street-racing ' is a globe-trotting and logic-defying film that says farewell with style to star Paul Walker, who met an untimely death in 2013.
Furious 7, as the film is titled, follows Dom (Vin Diesel) and his crew as they return to the US with their pardons.
While Dom tries to reconnect with Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), who feels her memory loss will stop her from reviving their relationship; Brian (Paul Walker) is adapting to suburban life with Mia (Jordana Brewster) and their son ' and longing for a return to dangerous adventure, gunfights and driving his muscle car.
The plot heats up when cold-blooded British assassin Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) starts to hunt Dom and his crew to avenge his little brother Owen (Luke Evans), who was killed during their last mission.
After Shaw kills Han (Sung Kang) in Tokyo and attempts to assassinate Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) in Los Angeles; Dom, Mia, Brian, Tej (Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges) and Roman (Tyrese Gibson) go on the offensive.
A high-level government operative, Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell), comes to the rescue, offering to find Shaw ' if the racers can steal for him a tracking device ' for which Jakande (Djimon Honsou) and a group of mercenaries are ready to kill.
Back behind the wheel, the team scours the streets of Abu Dhabi and the mountains of Azerbaijan.
The hunt starts in the skies: a cargo plane drops parachute-equipped muscle cars ' which, amazingly, land safely on a mountainous curving road.
The most jaw-dropping scene is when a US$3.5 million Lykan Hypersport supercar from Dubai-based W Motors (only seven exist) soars ' and crashes ' across Abu Dhabi's Etihad Towers.
As expected, Dom and Brian manage to survive.
Furious 7 has plenty of shooting and fighting sequences, including a showdown between Letty and a score of bodyguards led by UFC Women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey.
There is also the franchise's signature slow-motion, pan shots of women in bikinis accompanied by banging RnB songs, this time in Abu Dhabi.
Yes, the movie is absurd. Yes, it defies logic. However, it is a fun ride.
There are moments, though, when the film's 137-minute runtime feels too long and the action too monotonous. By the end of the film, the thrills nearly run out of gas.
Tyrese Gibson delivers a hilarious turn as Roman, cracking a string of ridiculous one-liners that make the movie feel alive.
Djimon, an Academy Award-nominated actor, is unfortunately underused, with only a few lines and limited scenes.
Paul Walker died in a car crash as the movie was filming. Production was halted several months until director James Wan (The Conjuring, Insidious) employed body doubles (Walker's brothers Caleb and Cody) special effects and footage from his earlier movies to complete the film. Peter Jackson's Weta Digital also reportedly lent CGI assistance.
The results are almost seamless. It is hard to tell which Walker is real or CGI. At worst, in some scenes, Walker's character, Brian, just seems to be a bit quiet and Dom takes over the dialogue.
It takes guts to employ CGI to fill the sudden loss of a star. On fears that CGI would be disastrous, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay director Francis Lawrence, for instance, opted to rewrite some scenes after Philip Seymour Hoffman unexpectedly died of a drug overdose in 2014.
In Furious 7, Chris Morgan and Gary Scott Thompson penned a heartbreaking goodbye scene for Walker, where Dom and his crew bid farewell while looking at Brian playing on the beach with his family.
The ending is a sweet last ride for Paul and paves the road for the franchise to go on. Concluding the movie is a montage of Walker from his five previous Fast and Furious appearances.
Furious 7 is an absurd , crowd-pleasing action movie that makes a rare achievement ' bringing back a deceased star in the best way.
