Theatrical Reviews: Furious 7

When the original Fast and Furious movie came out nearly a decade-and-a-half ago, I can’t imagine that the filmmakers had any idea what the franchise would become.  That 2001 flick was kind of a niche thriller, and not a very good one either; yet its sixth sequel, Furious 7, has grabbed itself one of the biggest openings of all time.  The franchise has seriously ramped-up in popularity and audience appeal.

Furious 7 follows the path of the last couple of furious films in that it is less about car racing and more about a series of unnecessarily complex heists all revolving around a central villain and a small handful of McGuffins.  The action sequences are pretty much just as silly and astounding as the ones in the previous films, and the films plot is nearly as kinetic.

It is fun and entertaining in pretty much all the same ways as the rest of the more recent flicks in the franchise have been, and that is largely due to the direction of Justin Lin. Lin is a name you’ll probably be seeing attached to other projects since he’s almost single-handedly resurrected this Fast franchise from the financial graveyard to one of the highest profile series in Hollywood.  He knows how to take witless brainless material and transform it into high-energy entertainment.

“So,” you, my inquisitive reader, might be asking, “is there anything that makes Furious 7 different from its predecessors?”  Well, there isn’t much; and that is one of the biggest problems with the movie.  Sure there are a few new characters introduced, the McGuffins are different and the villain is new; but there haven’t been any significant changes to how the franchise functions.

Fast Five seemed like a fluke; a movie in a crummy franchise that had somehow stumbled its way into a fun entertaining actioner.  Then when Fast and Furious 6 came out it showed that Lin new what he was doing, and that these much stronger car-heist movies would continue.  Furious 7, on the other hand feels less like a return to form and more like a return to formula.

I’m not going to lie;  I was enamored with Fast Five and Six when they came out;  but Furious 7 is just a little bit too same-y feeling.  As much fun as it was, it just didn’t do enough to separate itself from its predecessors.  There is nothing here to justify its existence. 

So is Furious 7 bad?  No, it’s actually pretty good for what it is.  But if you’ve seen any of the other recent Fast n’ Furious movies then you already know exactly the sorts of things that are going to happen in Furious 7.  I was really hoping that this flick would do more to mix things up, but it ended up feeling kind-of redundant.  Regardless, I’d still recommend this flick to anyone who likes solid action movies; just be warned that franchise fatigue is beginning to set-in.