As a tribute, it works. As a movie, its only average

Rating: 6/10 (12 April 2015)

It's an understatement that the films in this franchise are getting crazier and increasingly unrealistic with each successive installment. And Furious 7 takes that to yet unseen levels. But then, realism never really was an expectation here was there ? The earlier films though, were at least grounded in some level to the extent that you could at least believe what you saw if you stretched your imaginations far enough. This one takes believability to, as Roman would say it, a whole new level.
Sample this: After the events of the previous installment, Owen Shaw's brother, Deckard is out for revenge against Toretto and his crew. To get to them though, he needs to know where they are. So, he breaks into the DSS' headquarters (which looks completely desolated with only Hobbs and Elena working there) and into Hobbs' computer scanning for information on their whereabouts (which, as we were led to believe from the previous installments, were erased with the crew receiving full pardons). He then begins taking them out one by one starting with Hobbs (who Shaw manages to injure badly so as to land him in a hospital) and followed by Han (which connects the franchise to Tokyo Drift) and then Dom and Mia (who barely manage to escape). In the middle of all this, comes a terrorism plot about a certain "Mr.
Nobody "who is after a device codenamed "God's Eye" that can turn any camera into a tracking device of sorts allowing its owner to spy on anyone. A terrorist wants to use it for his personal gains but to do so, he requires the assistance of the device's creator - a hot female hacker named Ramsey who Mr. Nobody wants Dom and his crew to rescue since only she knows where the device is. All of this is of course, carried forward by the franchise's trademark over-the-top and highly unbelievable set of action sequences, fast race cars and even bikini-clad chicks in a scene or two.
The series seems to have settled on a formula of sorts with a silly plot governed by cringe-worthy lines of dialog relying on its action to do the talking not to mention the amount of times the term last / final is used in the franchise (One Last Ride, One Last Mission, etc.). While the set-pieces here are good enough, they lack the awesomeness of the ones in Fast Five and Furious 6 (which is gonna be hard to top with a tank and a plane). The final sequence drags on for so long with actors doing nothing but mouthing search and rescue dialogues amidst heavily inter-cut action I stopped caring about the outcomes of the characters themselves. The fight sequences too seem to have seemingly odd camera angles as if the director of photography ran out of angles to shoot from.
Why then, have I rated this movie a 6 you wonder. That's because it all does come together to create a decent entertainment package. But more importantly, this is largely due to the tribute to Paul Walker at the end that, unexpectedly, feels so heart-wrenching its surprising. After all, its a Fast & Furious movie; it isn't supposed to be this emotional. But the cast give such a fitting send-off to Walker's character in movie it resonates largely with the real life situation. As for the CGI Paul Walker that some people seem to be cringing about, except for some shots in the end, I honestly couldn't make out which shots used his digital double in the film (I did have some guesses but they turned out wrong).
I do believe that a lot of the high praise that the movie is getting has to do with this being Walker's final movie as also to the tribute at the end. Otherwise, its a fairly average action movie with a brainless plot that at times, reminded me of the crazy Bollywood movies that a lot of people criticize. Given the money its making and the fact that this is Universal's most reliable and only huge franchise for now, I won't be surprised if we get one of these every two years for the next decade at the least. Watch it, if nothing else, For Paul !!!