Airbags? Who Needs Airbags?

Rating: 8/10 (5 April 2015)

The Fast and Furious franchise is racing into theaters once again. This time we are brought the 7th film in this massive franchise, that only gets bigger and bigger with each new film. The series started way back in 2001 with Paul Walker and Vin Diesel as the major stars. After the tragic death of Paul Walker before this film finished filming, production was shut down and the film was reworked in order to deal with this lose. The film deals with his death perfectly, not killing him off, and giving him one heck of tribute. The following is my review of Furious 7.
The film is written by Chris Morgan who also wrote parts three through six of this franchise. So he is clearly not a newcomer to the franchise. The series has taken different routes over the course of its fourteen years on screen, and the same can be said here. Back when the series was first starting, the story focused a great deal on the car races. Gone are those days, and now are featured big and absolutely absurd action scenes that just happen involve cars. The stories of course have changed, and some agree for the better. We still have the heist angles that were brought into play over the last few films, and this has really helped the franchise. The story isn't perfect in this film, and some of the characters are not written that well. Even car enthusiasts will be scratching their heads sometimes during this movie. This is a series that hasn't really been popular for its fabulous story work though. The film is written good enough for this series, and one has to hope Morgan comes back for the eighth film(if there is one).
This Fast and Furious film was directed by James Wan. Wan is well known in the horror genre for directing classics likes Saw, Insidious, and The Conjuring. Even though doing an action movie on this scale is far away from where he normally directs films, Wan does a good job overall. This film has more action scenes than probably any other film in the franchise. I found myself noticing that some of the bigger action scenes were lasting near or longer than ten minutes. Which is a great deal for a Hollywood action movie these days. The action scenes use tons of CG, and while most of the time it is good, there are some scenes that look laughably bad. The acting department has never been an area where this series has been great. Though the cast that has been together for many years now work so very well together, which is what makes this team great. With some amazing action scenes, not all looking great, and even some completely over the top you will ask yourself did they need to go this far, most watching this film will get a joy out of James Wan's work. I don't think Wan should quit his regular work directing horror movies, but seeing him in this genre from time to time would be nice.
The film was scored by Brian Tyler. Tyler is known for scoring some of the Marvel superhero movies recently, and Tyler has been composing for this franchise since part three. I'm not sure where others stand on this franchise in terms of score, but this one might take the cake. I loved the score in the big action scenes, and even when things were more subtle. Tyler is one of the better composers today, and this score proves that. If you love scores for action movies, this score adds a great deal of depth to the film.
In closing, this film was a blast to watch on the big screen. This is the last Fast and Furious film for Paul Walker, and features a great and emotional sendoff for his character. Even though the franchise will likely continue, we will all remember Paul Walker and cannot forget what he did for this franchise. Even if you find the film to be a let down compared to previous films, the action scenes are worth the price of admission. In terms of which version to pay for, I would say the IMAX version was fabulous, and well worth the extra five dollars. When the film gets those huge action scenes going, this is where IMAX excels with the bigger screen and far better sound. So my recommendation is you spend the extra few dollars and see this movie in IMAX.
8/10
R.I.P. Paul Walker