High up in the Caucasus Mountains, six cars escort an armored van. Suddenly, four more cars pull onto the road and ram into the escorts, which topple over. As the four cars surround the van, the van’s sides open up to reveal six machine guns, which start firing rapidly.
While avoiding the gunfire, the four cars shoot two grappling hooks onto the van and pull off the back. A man kicks off his windshield, jumps from his car into the van, throws the guard out and rescues the hostage.
This scene is just one of many action-packed moments included in “Furious 7.”
The film, directed by James Wan, stars Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker), Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statman). In the previous movie, Toretto helped stop Owen Shaw from building a deadly weapon by crippling him. Now, Owen’s brother Deckard wants to hunt down and kill Toretto’s team.
After Toretto receives a bomb from Deckard, the CIA offers to help catch Shaw in exchange for the God’s Eye, a computer program that can hack into any device connected to a network. Toretto calls upon the help of his team and O’Connor to help retrieve God’s Eye. With God’s Eye, the CIA allows Toretto to use it to track down Shaw.
Though I was looking forward to the movie, I found that “Furious 7” has its flaws but is still entertaining.
In the previous films, character development played an essential role. In “Furious 7,” the main focus is on Toretto, and the rest of the team does not receive as much attention.
I also found was the short scene that connected “Fast and Furious 3, Tokyo Drift,” to “Furious 7” was nonessential. Though it reveals that Han-Seoul-Oh (Sun Kang), a member of Toretto’s crew, was killed by Shaw, “Furious 7” would have be fine without it.
Even though “Furious 7” has its flaws, it still succeeded in entertaining the audience.
For instance, I found that while the movie is similar to its prequel in plot, Wan does well to keep the action upbeat, exciting and entertaining with the excellent visuals and camerawork.
The stunts are also impressive and kept me captivated throughout the movie. When I watched Toretto “fly” a car through three buildings, crashing through the walls, and when O’Connor defies gravity by running up the side of a bus that was slowly leaning over a cliff, I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins.
One stunt that stands out occurs when the team parachutes out of a plane flying 12,000 feet high in their cars. Though the movie has many other amazing feats , this action-packed scene tops the list.
I also enjoyed the ending of “Furious 7,” which was a wonderful tribute to the late Paul Walker, who died in a car crash in 2013. He was the one of the few characters whom the audience becomes emotionally attached to as he transforms from undercover cop to a member of Toretto’s team. In the background, Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again,” a fitting song for the moment, plays behind a montage of Toretto’s memories with O’Connor. It was nice to be reminded of how O’Connor has changed since the first movie in the franchise.
If you are in the mood for a fun, fast-paced action movie, “Furious 7” is definitely worth the go.
