More Furious Than Fast, But Still Just as Fun

Rating: 8/10 (9 April 2015)

A film critic I follow once made the following analogy: "In a world of junk food, there's a huge difference between store bought cookies and your mom's homemade chocolate chips." Fast 1-4, for better or worse, never managed to be anything than Chips Ahoy. But from Fast 5 onward, I've been enjoying nothing but warm goodness right off the pan.
The Fast franchise's recent momentum has unquestionably been driven by their keen decision to have each installment top the last one. Fast Five started the escalation game by being bigger and better than Fast and Furious. Fast and Furious 6 was bigger, better, and crazier than Fast Five. Furious 7 is in some ways bigger and in some ways crazier than Fast and Furious 6, but I can't say it's better. It keeps the over-the-top craziness in full swing while giving its ensemble fun, action-packed things to do while they trot across sleek and sexy destinations all around the globe. But while Furious 7 does a lot right, and trust me, it's a great ride; unfortunately, there's several big things it does wrong that stalls the expected evolution of the series.
The good is really good. The action is still ridiculous, balls-to-the-wall fun that defies logic and sometimes expectations. In addition, this movie really beefs up its emphasis on showcasing hand-to-hand combat, and the results are a blast. A climactic showdown between Diesel and Statham is gangbusters, and watching Statham eat a Rock Bottom through a glass table had twelve-year-old me squealing. The cast all continue to nail their respective talents; and even though he gets much less screen time, The Rock is still as charming and awesome as ever. Most of the new additions fit in snugly, with Jason Statham being the best he's been in years and Ronda Rousey being used efficiently enough to make her appearance a memorable one. The undisputed champ of the newcomers is Kurt Russell as a charismatic government agent so cool, Lando Calrissian would buy him a Belgian ale. James Wan manages to adapt to the franchise's look and feel with ease, but he still manages to fit some of his trademarks into the fold. A montage of glamor shots during the opening Race War segment contained the kind of fast zooms, whip pans, and shaky cam footage straight out of the Saw franchise, and overall, it works.
The bad however isn't a deal-breaker, but it certainly holds the franchise back in my eyes. The plot is a little too over-involved for a series that has always kept things straight-forward. I don't mean that in the sense that it's "too complicated," I mean that in the sense that there's so much going on that some of it didn't warrant my concern. Chief-most: Djimon Hounsou, who shows up half-way in as a terrorist leader at the heart of a sub-plot involving hackers and surveillance technology. Not only is the role a complete waste of Hounsou's talents, but ultimately, neither Hounsou or his army are as compelling or as interesting a threat as Jason Sthatam's Deckard Shaw. The surveillance plot is timely I guess, but the entire conceit of it (That Dom and his crew need to steal back this surveillance technology and its creator from Hounsou in order to find Shaw) is rendered moot when the film has Statham constantly showing up wherever the gang is anyway. It drags down the plot, elongates the run-time, and even manages to take some of the satisfaction away from the final confrontation between Dom and Shaw.
Earlier I mentioned the greatness of the film's hand-to-hand combat. And while that's an ultimate plus, I realized that it's a huge problem considering that all the human fight scenes ended up entertaining me more than that actual car stunts. The Abu Dhabi car jump was thrilling, and the bus chase (the parts that weren't in the trailer) is great; but none of them managed to be more fun or inventive than Paul Walker and Tony Ja violently sledding down flights of stairs on a door, or Diesel and Statham sword fighting with wrenches and car parts. When you have a franchise built around cars, put more work into showcasing the actual cars.
But those gripes aside, Furious 7 continues the tradition of being loud, silly, and fun in the best way possible. Popcorn fare at its best. I'm unironically looking forward to the recently announced Fast 8, hoping that it gets over the hiccups of Furious 7 and drives the franchise onward and upward.