Whether you're a fan of the series or not, you need to see this! Read on to find out why!

Rating: 8/10 (9 April 2015)

It's with mixed feelings that I approach this review. Fresh in my mind from last night's screening, who would have thought that a Fast and Furious movie would be making such deep waves amongst the movie-going world. I am of course referring to the fact that this is Paul Walker's last movie.
I never really liked the series until they left the whole boy racer attitude behind and embraced full-blown all out action as their genre of choice in Fast 5. It was a turning point for the series and made people once again stand up and take note of the franchise.
It was obviously never intended to have come this far but I think most people are happy it has. Weaving into the mix the seemingly off kilter events of Tokyo Drift, fans had their interests piqued, curious to know how everything would fit in.
Fast and Furious 6 further embraced the action genre and really hit things out of the park. The Rock was now an established and loved member of the family; bringing some much needed charisma to the franchise. The scale of the action was brought up to level 11 out of 10 and with a sneaky after credits scene, fans were ready for the next installment.
So here we are, Furious 7.
Dare I say that this movie is actually not as strong as either 5 or 6?
Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), the big bad brother of the Fast and Furious 6 villain, is out to take down the team that took down his brother.
A former black ops assassin gone rogue, Deckard starts to come after the Fast & Furious team one by one. His first stop, The Rock! Something that turns out to be one of the best fight scenes in the movie (yes, even better than those involving Tony Jaa).
If this was the set-up plain and simple, the movie probably would have been better. But then it wouldn't have been possible for them to introduce Mission Impossible style craziness.
So cue the unnecessary plot twist of having Diesel and his team go on a wild goose chase for some super-computer hacker to allow Diesel's team to find and eliminate Statham, which seems even more ridiculous given that Statham is there at almost every turn trying to kill them all.
But as mentioned above, this convoluted plot allows the director to introduce some pretty amazing and nail biting action set pieces in exotic locations.
I have no idea if there are really bikini-clad women prancing around in Abu Dhabi, but Furious 7 makes us believe there are.
By the time we reach the last half an hour or so, it's all out action and it's pretty impressive.
Invariably with so many actors involved, some characters get thrown to the wayside. There should have been way more of The Rock, there should have been more Tony Jaa doing what he does best, and what on earth were they playing at with Kurt Russell's character? It's a crime to under-utilize the amazing Russell in this way, but admittedly having him in there is better than not having him in there at all.
Statham's character suffers the most from having so many people in the mix. He goes from being a mysterious cloak and dagger style super threat to being something of a cartoonish over the top villain by the end.
Overall, there are just too many unbelievable and cheesy scenes for my liking.
So why then do I recommend everyone to go and see this?
Because of Paul Walker.
Paul's passing is handled with dignity and respect. The special effects used to allow Paul's brothers to stand in for him could have been distasteful and distracting but director James Wan ensures that this is never the case.
In all honesty, I don't think I've ever seen a movie that's choked me up and brought me to tears in the way Furious 7 did. It doesn't matter whether you're some gangster tough guy or whatever, you need to bring your man-sized box of tissues with you if you're gonna watch this movie. A certain moment just really got to me and the image has stayed with me until now.
I was never really a fan of Paul's but by the end of the movie, it's obvious that he was loved by all the cast.
We've all read how Diesel cried when he visited Paul's mother after Paul died. It's this real life brotherhood between Diesel and Paul that makes certain scenes so much more powerful. It's not Dominic Toretto's last words to Brian O'Connor, it's Vin Diesel's last words to Paul Walker.
A touching, respectful and powerful farewell.
Well worth checking out.
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