"Thought you could leave without saying goodbye?"
-Brian O'Conner
Furious 7, the next installment in the WTF cars can do that? Franchise! It really is amazing that this franchise started off on fumes, and radically changed to appeal to such a bigger audience that the opening weekend of this movie debut as the biggest opening in April in cinema history. Now that is impressive. This film is directed by James Wan, who many would most likely know his work from Saw, with this being his first action movie. In all honesty, with all the setbacks and hardships from this movie, I believe he did a great job handling everything. Watching the film you can definitely tell that Paul Walker's death affected the film in a big way. I am also surprised with how professional and courteous the studio was allowing the film to pause production after Paul Walker's death and allowing them to rewrite the movie to give him a nice send off, and that they did. The ending, to no surprise, gives you a very heartfelt sendoff to Paul Walker that may shed many tears from viewers.
Now, as many fans and viewers know, the best way to watch this movie is to turn your brain off. Throughout this whole movie my brain kept automatically telling me "They wouldn't survive that" but you have to find a way to ignore that feeling. Switch it off, and watch the pretty explosions happen. Trust me, you'll feel good about it. The explosions are big and they keep upping the ante when it comes to how extreme the final "enemy" is. Actually, one of the characters joke about how insane they end up fighting big weapons ranging from a tank to a space ship.
One of the things I was really surprised with was how good the comedy was. The comedy really made you laugh a lot, and made this film so much fun. It juxtaposed with the explosions very well. The action scenes were spectacular and grand, and took up more film time than I thought it would. In the trailer they show basically one scene where O'Conner jumps onto the bad guys' 12 wheeler and it gets on the edge of the cliff and he has to jump. That 2 minute trailer is actually just the cliff notes (no pun intended) to the actual scene. The same scene in the film is actually very long and entertaining.
Jason Statham nails the ultimate badass in this. No, really, the first shot of the film is him being the ultimate badass on the face of this planet. He is literally a one man army and it just excites you so much to see how he'll go against the team.
Other than Statham, the film brings other great talent to the franchise. Kurt Russel, who I always kept forgetting was in the film, was amazing. The dialogue wasn't the best and whenever someone was talking it sounded super cheesy (as it should) but when Russel was on screen, every single cheesy line he had to say sounded like a threat. He hasn't lost any badassery since his hey-day and it's a joy to watch him steel all the scenes he appears in. I can't wait to see what they do with his character in the future films (yes there will be more films, the studio would be idiots not to).
Another new comer who I was really excited to see is Tony Jaa. He is mostly an unknown, and this is his first English speaking role, but he kicked ass! He is mostly known for his Ong Bak films (which I highly recommend you check out) and he is the main antagonist to Paul Walker's character. He specializes in hand to hand combat and he rocks the action scenes. I just wish he was in it more.
While the dialogue can get really cheesy, they have insane one liners that will put a smile on your face like the Rock saying "Woman, I am the calvary" as he holds up his massive machine gun. "You just earned yourself a dance with the devil, boy." and "I don't have friends, I've got family" were among others.
Like the majority of movies this one isn't perfect, but for what they had to deal with and what they made it certainly turned out great. If you roll your eyes when watching something that defies physics then this isn't for you. If you're an adrenaline action movie junkie then I'd say go watch this on the biggest screen you can.
B+
-Brian O'Conner
Furious 7, the next installment in the WTF cars can do that? Franchise! It really is amazing that this franchise started off on fumes, and radically changed to appeal to such a bigger audience that the opening weekend of this movie debut as the biggest opening in April in cinema history. Now that is impressive. This film is directed by James Wan, who many would most likely know his work from Saw, with this being his first action movie. In all honesty, with all the setbacks and hardships from this movie, I believe he did a great job handling everything. Watching the film you can definitely tell that Paul Walker's death affected the film in a big way. I am also surprised with how professional and courteous the studio was allowing the film to pause production after Paul Walker's death and allowing them to rewrite the movie to give him a nice send off, and that they did. The ending, to no surprise, gives you a very heartfelt sendoff to Paul Walker that may shed many tears from viewers.
Now, as many fans and viewers know, the best way to watch this movie is to turn your brain off. Throughout this whole movie my brain kept automatically telling me "They wouldn't survive that" but you have to find a way to ignore that feeling. Switch it off, and watch the pretty explosions happen. Trust me, you'll feel good about it. The explosions are big and they keep upping the ante when it comes to how extreme the final "enemy" is. Actually, one of the characters joke about how insane they end up fighting big weapons ranging from a tank to a space ship.
One of the things I was really surprised with was how good the comedy was. The comedy really made you laugh a lot, and made this film so much fun. It juxtaposed with the explosions very well. The action scenes were spectacular and grand, and took up more film time than I thought it would. In the trailer they show basically one scene where O'Conner jumps onto the bad guys' 12 wheeler and it gets on the edge of the cliff and he has to jump. That 2 minute trailer is actually just the cliff notes (no pun intended) to the actual scene. The same scene in the film is actually very long and entertaining.
Jason Statham nails the ultimate badass in this. No, really, the first shot of the film is him being the ultimate badass on the face of this planet. He is literally a one man army and it just excites you so much to see how he'll go against the team.
Other than Statham, the film brings other great talent to the franchise. Kurt Russel, who I always kept forgetting was in the film, was amazing. The dialogue wasn't the best and whenever someone was talking it sounded super cheesy (as it should) but when Russel was on screen, every single cheesy line he had to say sounded like a threat. He hasn't lost any badassery since his hey-day and it's a joy to watch him steel all the scenes he appears in. I can't wait to see what they do with his character in the future films (yes there will be more films, the studio would be idiots not to).
Another new comer who I was really excited to see is Tony Jaa. He is mostly an unknown, and this is his first English speaking role, but he kicked ass! He is mostly known for his Ong Bak films (which I highly recommend you check out) and he is the main antagonist to Paul Walker's character. He specializes in hand to hand combat and he rocks the action scenes. I just wish he was in it more.
While the dialogue can get really cheesy, they have insane one liners that will put a smile on your face like the Rock saying "Woman, I am the calvary" as he holds up his massive machine gun. "You just earned yourself a dance with the devil, boy." and "I don't have friends, I've got family" were among others.
Like the majority of movies this one isn't perfect, but for what they had to deal with and what they made it certainly turned out great. If you roll your eyes when watching something that defies physics then this isn't for you. If you're an adrenaline action movie junkie then I'd say go watch this on the biggest screen you can.
B+
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