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RACE fever is in full flow in the kingdom as it prepares to host the 2015 Formula One Bahrain Gulf Air Grand Prix, so what a perfect time for the world’s most popular racing/action series to release its latest instalment!
Although it would have easily been the most anticipated release of the year so far anyway, the furore around the film reached stratospheric levels after the death of series stalwart Paul Walker in a tragic car accident on November 30, 2013.
With his scenes only half-completed, and the obvious delicacy of the situation, producers put the film on hold as they consulted Walker’s family about their next step. After obtaining their blessing and delaying the film for a year to alter and rewrite the script, Walker’s brothers Caleb and Cody stepped in as body doubles to finish certain scenes.
As such, this film is envisaged as a tribute to Paul and his life, handled with admirable delicacy and grace by director James Wan. The goodbye is certainly bittersweet, and frankly an emotional gut-punch, with a simple ‘For Paul’ graphic at the end achieving more impact than many on-screen eulogies accomplish across their full run time.
The dignified denouement for Paul’s character Brian O’Connor is simply wonderful. Without wanting to give the ending away, events tie back perfectly to the original Fast and Furious film, released in 2001, and the on-screen tribute given by Brian’s crew members (frequently referred to as ‘family’) is as meta as you will ever get. Every word is punctured with true emotion and love for their fallen brother.
However, perhaps Furious 7’s greatest achievement is that it doesn’t use the tragedy as its main selling point. This isn’t an X-Factor-esque sob story that hoovers up sympathy and uses it to appear better than the sum of its parts. It’s an outrageously enjoyable action movie from the off, and it’s testament to the film makers that for the vast majority of the film, the audience gives itself over to the absurdity on screen and even forgets the heart-breaking circumstances behind it.
It’s only at the end that we pause for breath and realise this truly is the end of an era.
The series’ fairly convoluted timeline straightens out here, with events picking up after both the third and sixth instalments (which ran concurrently). After taking out baddie Owen Shaw last time out, his older brother Deckard (Jason Statham) seeks revenge, and he is even more vicious and intelligent than anyone the crew has faced before.
After losing crew member Han in a targeted explosion (as seen at the end of Tokyo Drift), ‘the boys’ – our loveable group of rogues including Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and Tyrese Gibson – realise that they are being hunted, and decide to take the fight to Deckard before he finds them.
The theme of family has always pervaded this series, and it possesses a much bigger heart than movies of its ilk. That’s why when Brian decides this is his last adventure before retiring to shack up with his wife and kids, it is deftly weaved into the fabric of the franchise. He’s been a fugitive and he’s pulled off some ridiculous heists, but he’s a family man and retirement seems the logical next step rather than an incongruous jump to write him out of the series.
The traditional selling point of the franchise has always been the stunts and the action, however, and we are once again left astounded by the audacity of the comically extravagant set pieces. Cars parachute onto a secluded mountain range from a plane, defy gravity from inconceivable heights, and even jump between skyscrapers in a scene that has to be seen to be believed.
Fist fights also ramp the brutality up to 11, with each punch and broken piece of furniture emphasised with grunting bass and shattering explosions. In the best of the lot, The Rock uses one of his signature wrestling moves on a baddie and drives him through a glass table, which had me fist-pumping in nostalgic delight as it took me back to my younger days of watching my favourite wrestling superstars slug it out.
Despite the gravity of the situation, there is an incredible amount of humour packed into the script, with Tyrese Gibson’s character in particular delivering belly laughs with comic timing and witty one-liners.
The only criticism I’d level at the film is that there’s not enough of the vehicular action we’ve come to expect from the series, with fists and guns the preferred method of getting the job done. All semblances of street racing, which was originally what the series built its foundations upon, have been eradicated which is a bit of a shame.
All in all though, Furious 7 is an outstanding achievement. To lose its main actor halfway through filming but turn that into an adrenaline-packed rollercoaster filled with delightfully over-the-top action, while retaining a solid and fitting emotional payoff, is testament to a terrific director and the band of brothers mourning the loss of their closest friend.
