For Paul

Rating: 8/10 (20 August 2015)

When Justin Lin announced he would be stepping down as the director for Furious 7 following Universal's decision to fast track the sequel before the release of Furious 6, a lot of fans like myself were wondering who could possibly replace him!? The franchise wouldn't be what we've come to know without Justin, he has been around since the Tokyo Drift (which is way too under-rated) and saved the dying franchise from being released direct to video.
Fast & Furious is never just about street racing but family & heist. Before you hate me, watch the first movie and Fast Five again then compare it yourself. You see the evolution of the characters and from robbing trucks with DVD players to heisting 100million.
Now back to Furious 7.. When they announced James Wan will be taking over the franchise, a lot of us were worried as he was most well-known for his work in horror genre, particularly SAW & Insidious. Nevertheless James has proved he is perfectly capable of big budget action movies, just look at the air drop or the Abu Dhabi sequence!
Spoilers ahead..
The film started off with Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) talking to the coma-tonic Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), promising to avenge him. Just pause and think how he could have survived the fall from the plane!? If that's the case I think Gisele & Han can too.. I mean they did bring Letty back right?
With all the hyped built up from the post credit scene of Furious 6, I was genuinely interested to see how Deckard Shaw hunt down the team and continue where Tokyo Drift left off. Instead we were introduced another villain, Mose Jakande, played by Djimon Hounsou (which is unnecessary and dull), Shaw was pretty much cast aside as a secondary character. We never get to see the team from the hunted to the hunter as Shaw kept showing up from time to time. Other than the impressive action sequence, it didn't really add much to the overall story. Sean Boswell played by Lucas Black showed up for 1 minute or 2 talking to Dom and you would at least think he might want to avenge Han right? But no we don't see him for the rest of the film.. I guess we just have to wait for the sequel. Shaw brothers might be teaming up, you never know!
Furious 7 was originally intended to be the first of a new trilogy but plans were scrapped due to Paul Walker's untimely death and instead the filmmaker decided it was all about making this movie for Paul. A lot of moviegoers like myself were very emotional by the credit rolled. It felt like the end of the journey with these characters you come to love and it was the perfect send off to Walker's character, more importantly farewell to Paul himself. The crossroad scene is definitely the highlight of the film and the reason I am giving this an 8 out of 10.
Part of me wishes they end the franchise here but with the highly impressive box office number, a sequel is nothing but guarantee. . I am very curious to see where the franchise is heading without the essence of Paul Walker. It just does not seem right without one of the core family member.. What do you think?