Review: Furious 7

Let us get the overstuffed plot out of the way: the sins of London have followed the crew back to Los Angeles. Deckard Shaw (the suitably menacing Jason Statham), a special forces assassin who evaded a government-mandated retirement, has sworn revenge against Dom (Vin Diesel) for incapacitating baby brother Owen (Luke Evans) in the previous film. Dom has his own reasons for wanting to get his hands on Deckard, who manages to kill Han from the Tokyo crew, hospitalises Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), and nearly bombs Dom, Brian (Paul Walker), Mia (Jordana Brewster), and Brian and Mia's young son at their home.

Mysterious government shadow man Mr. Nobody (a smooth and wily Kurt Russell) offers to help Dom capture Deckard in return for a favour: rescue kidnapped computer hacker Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) from the clutches of Djimon Hounsou's international terrorist, and retrieve the software program she developed. The program, not-so-subtly named God's Eye, is all-seeing, capable of tracking anyone's movements anywhere on the planet. Of course, this is easier said than done. Both programmer and program are inside a heavily guarded bus somewhere on a remote stretch of a narrow and winding mountain road in Azerbaijan.

It is admirable that the producers still require a script, such as it is, for a franchise that would greatly benefit from dropping all pretense at a plot. The point of the franchise has always been about the high-speed toys; specifically, crafting increasingly absurd and illogical scenarios wherein all manner of tricked-out vehicles perform eye-popping, jaw-dropping, and breathtaking stunts. On that front, Furious 7 does not disappoint, offering arguably two of the best sequences in the history of the franchise.

Director James Wan (taking over from longtime helmer Justin Lin) and stunt coordinator Spiro Razatos stage a lengthy sequence that starts with the crew driving their cars out of a cargo plane in mid-air, gliding through the sky in all their sleek majesty before landing with the barest of bumps on that Azerbaijani mountainside. From there, the crew evade machine guns as they near the bus whose back they will rip away, all the better for Brian to fling himself off the hood of his car to engage in fisticuffs with the men holding Ramsey hostage. Deckard, who has the uncanny ability to be wherever the crew is, shows up to bump fenders with Dom, who swerves him down the mountainside before everyone's vehicle starts catapulting down the steep and rocky slope. Having momentarily ditched Deckard, Dom finds himself and Ramsey surrounded by Hounsou's crew. Dom, with nowhere else to go, does the only reasonable thing and drives off the cliff.

Meanwhile, Brian is still on that bus, which has now lost its driver thanks to a bothersome bullet. Brian's combatant has managed to lock Brian in the bus as it overturns and skids towards the edge of yet another cliff, where the bus will play teeter totter as Brian drops out the front window, hoists himself up, and makes a mad dash as the bus begins to slip to its doom. Oh, and Michelle Rodriguez's still-amnesiac Letty shows up in the nick of time, sweeping the back of her car over the edge so Brian can catch hold of the bumper once he finishes flying through the air. This sequence alone is worth the price of admission. That Razatos manages to equal it later in the film with a car going from one Abu Dhabi skyscraper to another, without ever touching the ground, is remarkable.

The returning cast are game as usual, though it is unfortunate that its most valuable player, Mr. Franchise Viagra himself Dwayne Johnson, is sidelined for most of the film. There is something about Johnson that elevates every scene he is in, and why, given the film's flair for excess, he wasn't trading punches with Diesel and Statham during their climactic showdown is beyond understanding.

Furious 7, however, will most likely be remembered as Paul Walker's final appearance. The actor had only finished filming half of his scenes when he died in a high-speed car crash in November 2013. The filmmakers dealt with the rest of his scenes by using unseen footage of Walker from the previous installments; and shooting new scenes using stand-ins, including Walker's younger brothers Caleb and Cody, and then digitally superimposing Walker's face onto their bodies. It is a testament to the late actor that all that time and money were spent - the filmmakers could have just as easily killed off his character, which would have actually strengthened the story's "family is everything" mantra - and a testament to the technical team's meticulous work that the end product is so seamless.

The franchise has never been known for nuance, but it crafts a tasteful and touching farewell that honours both the character and the actor.

Furious 7

Directed by: James Wan

Written by: Chris Morgan

Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Kurt Russell, Djimon Hounsou, Nathalie Emmanuel, Lucas Black, Elsa Pataky, Ronda Rousey