Some ingredients missing but a fun farewell to Paul

Rating: 7/10 (4 April 2015)

**Note** This review contains SPOILERS THROUGHOUT
Saw this last night (April 3rd). I am a fan of the Furious series and I have seen all of them. I've always loved the cast and especially Paul Walker. Someone noted that this film is not likely to connect with viewers who are not fans of the series or have not followed it and I agree. While I enjoyed the film, it was an awful lot of loudness, explosions, car chases and just beyond unbelievable stunts along with cast members' characters surviving many car stunts and crashes that would have been highly improbable, enough to put Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner to shame. It could have used more character development and more fleshed out villains and it went ON, like a long time. I would like to have had more of Dwayne Johnson's character—he was funny and they gave him a cute daughter in the film. Director Wan does keep the action up though and it is rarely boring.
It's important to remember, this is not the film they set out to make. Had Walker lived, it would have been a different film, plot and otherwise. Visually, I did not notice the places where they used CGI with the exception of the fight in the tour bus. There were many quick cuts and it did not look like it was actually Walker tangling with the other man. That scene for me was the best, with the bus dangling over a cliff and Brian scrambling to get out. Even when you know it's not real, it looks so real, very convincing. Letty arrives just in time to save him.
Overall, I had a hard time telling when it was Walker's actual scene he was present for and not. The tip-off however to me was various scenes where Walker was present and you expected him to say something but he didn't. Those are the scenes where I believe it was not he.
The film begins touchingly enough and funny, where Walker's character is in close-up, grasping a steering wheel and you think it's another racecar and instead he's parking his SUV to get his toddler out. A real change from the early days. There is also a good amount of good-natured banter between the various characters and humorous zingers that made me laugh. It is touching because you know they were all friends on the set and they loved Paul.
Another scene with Letty all dolled up in a red dress and makeup was a lot of fun, where she does some kung fu moves in a penthouse suite with some mean bitches (can I say that?) at the Abu Dhabi tower they're at.
There is something missing however and you do see it. You can tell there's a certain emotional component that is missing. There are scenes that are just obvious, "Brian" would have been saying something or doing something, interacting more but he doesn't. There is only so much you can do with a missing cast member.
"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee" John Donne 1572-1631
This is ultimately the cast and crew's farewell love letter to Paul Walker and in that they very much succeeded. Walker died on my birthday. I had been out that evening with family and friends only to come home, turn on the internet and see the news. I was moved to tears. How could I be so affected by this guy I never knew? I felt like I lost a friend. He just seemed like such a nice guy both in his films and out. I have heard that Paul's family wanted them to finish the film he had started and they did a pretty darn good job. The ending is appropriate and poignant. When you see it, you realize it doesn't make sense as the ending of this film per se, it's really the cast and producers saying goodbye to Paul. The image of Walker in that final scene is a much earlier one or an amalgam of his various faces through the years. It really is a goodbye between him and "Dom" and it's beautifully done. He will be missed.