Paul Walker in action blockbuster 'Furious 7'

Paul Walker in action blockbuster ‘Furious 7’

 

 

 

(A couple of spoilers ahead)

‘I don’t have friends, I have family’ utters Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and never has this statement been more true as Furious 7 incorporates Dominic and his ‘team’ working together to take down various characters. The presence of Giselle (Gal Gabot) and Han (Sung Kang) were honoured with a funeral but the film still felt empty without the two characters providing extra backup. Although, I loved the fact that Lucas Black had a small cameo as Sean from the Tokyo Drift instalment.

Fast 6 was my favourite instalment and I didn’t think that this film could ever top it. It has already become the highest grossing movie of 2015 (although Avengers:Age of Ultron will inevitably break this). It didn’t top Fast 6 but it didn’t go beneath it either. It was 2 hours of thrilling, overblown action sequences executed perfectly.

The film opens up to Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) visiting his comatose brother Owen (Luke Evans from Fast 6), I didn’t want to be picky but I immediately disliked the way the scene was filmed, the angles instantly reminded me of a cheesy, low budget action film. Never the less, I gave it a chance stylistically and it didn’t disappoint. Many of the scenes actually experimented and explored the camera angles, combining them with how the action could be best represented. Is it also kind of bad that I was rooting for Jason throughout the film? Despite trying to take down our heroes, there was something strangely likeable about him.

The wonderful set locations of Abu Dhabi and Azerbaijan were definitely a one up from Rio de Janeiro, a particular scene where Dominic and Brian (Paul Walker) drive a billionaires car of a building and into another building definitely gained the movie 10/10 action points. It’s clearly the most farfetched scene of the movie, right behind parachuting five cars out of a plane onto the mountains of Azerbaijan.

The last 30 minutes of drone attacks instantly reminded me of the tense action sequences in ’24: Live another day’ as Jack Bauer fights off an incoming drone attack. This is the type of tone the film began to take, a more CIA approach where computers and terrorists interfere with the ‘fast cars, fast women’ mantra that Fast and Furious is so well known for. The one thing I love about the recent instalments are the night time action sequences, they give the film more darker tones by contrasting them with the lightness of family and BBQ sundays. The cars are more attractive in the night and this films use of traffic and roads is much more believable than the empty London roads in Fast 6.

10 minutes into the film, we’re already presented with ‘race wars’, scantily clad women rally around supercharged cars ready for them to compete. Easily my favourite character, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) races to the blood pumping techno beat of David Guetta’s ‘Blast off’ as the Audi R8 next to her struggles to catch up. Fast forward to the end of the film and a beautiful, poignant tribute is made to the late Paul Walker who starred in every Fast and Furious film to date (excluding Tokyo Drift). It goes without saying that he will be greatly missed and his presence in all the films impacted their outcome. Overall, Furious 7 is a heart thumping, thrill ride full of wonderful set design, great music and an all star cast. A definite must see if you haven’t all ready.

8/10.