The Fast franchise roars forward

Rating: 6/10 (14 April 2015)

While every entry of a franchise usually totes itself as the 'biggest entry yet,' never before has it been so true. I successfully managed to avoid any actual trailers or movie reviews for the eagerly anticipated Furious 7, which has defied all odds and firmly established itself as a worldwide box office juggernaut.
Two summers ago in anticipating Fast and Furious 6, I rented all of the sloppily titled Fast and Furious movies (except the first one which I saw shortly after its release) to understand how exactly this franchise came to be. Unlike the superhero franchises which have a dense canon from which they are pulling stories, one of the admirable elements of this franchise is that it is not based on previous material and therefore can much more easily reinvent itself. Indeed, it's pretty amazing how well the series has managed to keep the same basic characters and story intact despite so many offshoot trajectories.
The main transition the series has seen is changing the characters from street racers to elaborate heist leaders, which has allowed the series to have a lot more fun and take itself less seriously. Slowly, more characters have been added, greatly expanding the 'family' of alpha character Dominic Toretto (Diesel). The story lines have always been the weakest part, which is why fewer people have seen the middle installments, but since Fast & Furious (the fourth entry – again the titles are incredibly scattered) each movie has successfully upped the ante. I stand by Fast Five as the pinnacle of the series where it fired on all cylinders (yet even that isn't exactly an A-level action movie), with the sixth film not too far behind.
In Furious 7, the mission is bigger than ever before, and feels less and less about the cars and more about spies and missions. The movie is attempting to widen the audience and be more broadly appealing than the humble originals which were all about urban street racing. Here, we go from London, to Abu Dhabi, to LA, with a few scattered cameos in between, all with massive action setups.
The part that the film does extremely well of is creating a villain worthy of opposition to the protagonists. Jason Statham is in fact more bad-ass than you could ever imagine, going toe-to-toe with both Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson. Another villain is also established, played by Djimon Hounsou. In two years, three movies have underutilized him as a villain: How to Train Your Dragon 2, Guardians of the Galaxy, and now this. It is truly a shame that an Oscar nominated actor is getting commissioned to throwaway bad guy parts with no real character. Regardless, Statham is a truly awesome guy to watch and makes the film all that engaging even though he isn't given a huge chunk of time. Another character that has unfortunately been completely sidelined by the franchise is Jordana Brewster's character. In the first few movies she could stand on her own and was a pivotal member of the crew. Now, she has literally been reduced to a housewife. Without Paul Walker, I fear that her character will be slimmed down in future installments. The first half of the film is much more entertaining, while the second half feels a bit tiresome despite a few epic action sequences.
Lastly, there is the inevitable question of what the film had to do regarding the unplanned passing of Paul Walker. I had no idea what they had planned, and let's just say they don't avoid the subject by any means. It is unfortunate how clearly different the ending of the film is than what they had planned – even a casual moviegoer can tell. But it's a nice enough tribute to the series co-lead. I truly do wonder what Vin Diesel and Co. will do from here moving forward. There is no right answer, but right now they've got the biggest movie yet on their hands and so much more to do. The passing of Paul Walker only heightens just how bizarre the trajectory of this franchise has gone, and while this series is certainly not the top of the line for action movies, I will remain along for the ride for any future installments that follow.