Furious 7:
After crippling the villain Owen Shaw in the last film, Dominic Toretto and his family and friends disperse after splitting their wealth and trying to settle down. That is until Shaw's vicious older brother Deckard appears out of the blue to execute a revenge plan on the Toretto family. In order to locate Deckard, the crew must regroup and hunt down a device known as God's Eye, and its' hacker creator Ramsey, who are currently entangled with a group of ruthless mercenaries.
After the tragic death of Paul Walker in late 2013, many fans were concerned with how the filmmakers would handle his death: would his role be diminished? His character killed off? The answer was actually surprising: cast his brothers Caleb and Cody and use the CGI team from Weta Digital (Peter Jackson's company) to recreate Walker's face. The transition is pretty seemless and isn't very noticeable.
The other returning cast members Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, Dwayne Johnson, Elsa Pataky, and Jordana Brewster do fine, but of course the acting isn't the highlight of the film. Johnson is (disappointingly) a more minor part in this movie, which is a shame considering how charismatic he is. Jason Statham proves to be an above-average villain (especially for a Fast & Furious movie), though it is sometimes questionable if he could really go toe-to-toe with people like Johnson and Diesel. Game of Thrones' Nathalie Emmanuel is Ramsey, and she is a nice addition to the line-up. Djimon Honsou and Tony Jaa appear as supporting villains, and are also pretty entertaining. It was awesome to see the incredibly bad-ass Jaa showing off his martial arts skills to a Western audience (this is his first Hollywood movie). Professional fighter Ronda Rousey has a small role as a bodyguard who has an entertaining fight scene with Michelle Rodriguez. Kurt Russell has a supporting role as the leader of the covert ops team that hires Toretto, and he adds a touch of humor to his part and you can tell he was just having fun. Lucas Black, Ali Fazal (another first timer in Hollywood), and John Brotherton have small parts, with Black reprising his role from earlier films. Other actors who return for cameos include Luke Evans as the crippled Shaw, Noel Gugliemi as Hector, Sung Kang as Han, and Gal Gadot as Gisele (in photographs and archive footage). Iggy Azalea has a brief cameo in the beginning (her collaborator Rita Ora had one in the previous film, as well).
James Wan has proven himself as a director of horror films, but he had also been trying to break out in the action scene for some time, and this could definitely cement him as an up-and-comer. Though some fight scenes were a little shaky, most of them were shot crisply and cleanly, and the car chase sequences are kinetic and polished.
The dialogue is obviosuly not a strong suit in the film, with very repetitive lines (Tyrese always says "This takes crazy to a whole new level" or similar things, and Dom always talks about "family"- I could actually predict when he would say it). The film also likes to shamelessly plug Corona Extra and Belgian ale, though it is tongue-and-cheek and not as bad as in Transformers.
The soundtrack is nothing special: if you like bland, poppy hip-hop, then this soundtrack is for you! The music by Brian Tyler isn't that great, either, but I wasn't expecting a classic score from this movie, so that's not a major complaint.
Furious 7 is a very fun movie where you can't overthink the scenes. Although some of the characters can get annoying, especially with the overforced message of "family", the film is more about the action, though the final scene was shockingly touching. 3.5/5 stars.
Another review I liked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSmjT6l_dLg
(Image: Wikipedia)Spoiler Segment: A minor complaint is that Jason Statham is left alive at the end (probably for future sequels), but he is crushed under rubble during the final fight, but at the end he is perfectly fine. What I felt would have been both befitting and ironic is if he ended up crippled next to his brother. Not a major flaw, but a missed opportunity.
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