Review of Furious 7 (2015) by Hunter H — 07 Mar 2016

I thought 5 was the best one (it introduced me to the franchise; I've seen 1 and 2 since)... and then 6 came out...! Now, I've seen the movie, and I LOVED this movie! I actually marathoned the series prior to seeing this in the order they took place, and I felt like it helped, because this ties everything together nicely. Kurt Russell was a nice addition to the series, as was Tony Jaa, as well as Ronda Rousey. Jason Statham, though... MAN, he was SO GOOD as a villain! There are actually two re-teams (three if you count The Rock and Ronda Rousey after that WrestleMania match! The Rock even performs a ROCK BOTTOM in this movie!), there's Jason Statham and Ronda Rousey from The Expendables 3, and Vin Diesel and Djimon Hounsou from Guardians of the Galaxy. I feel like all they need now is Iko Uwais (RAMA from The Raid!) to be in one of these, because they already had Joe Taslim in 6, and I feel that'd be PERFECT! I felt that James Wan did A PERFECT job with this, and this is his FIRST mainstream movie... that's NOT a horror movie (although some may argue that Death Sentence is an action movie, but to me, it looks more like a thriller)! Now for the thing that really solidified this for me as one of my favorites of 2015: the ending. When all is said and done with this, it feels like you'd been invited to one of the craziest parties you've ever been to in your life, and then at the end, you'll feel sad that you have to leave. That's how the ending here felt to me... emphasis on FELT. The ending here will make you sad, even more so with the song that accompanies it. The ending was so sad, and it caught me off-guard so much, that when I got home, I just broke down. The ending will pull on your heartstrings, and you'll be in tears because of how they chose to end this, but at the same time, you might feel like you're crying tears of joy because of how well they managed to pull it off (as with everything that came before it).

Pros: This has more of the action that you love from the series, it hits the NOS when it comes to insanity (thereby keeping it consistent with what 5 and 6 had in regards to THAT), GREAT villain, great new additions, solid direction from James Wan, the opening (which I forgot to mention; ladies and gentlemen, THAT is how you introduce a new villain to the series! Pay attention to this and keep this in mind when you watch it: his intro is what opens the movie... and it's ALL ONE TAKE! Watch the movie first, and then look for the Featurette that mentions it on YouTube), and, of course, the ending (which, again, WILL make you SAD).

Cons: These are just nitpicks, and they DO NOT detract from my rating (I'll get to THAT in a second), BUT The Rock pretty much has a cameo in this one compared to 5 and 6. The CG (and let's face it, you all know the scenes I'm referring to that have it) I was aware of it, but didn't care to look for it the first time I saw it, but then I went to see it again (unintentional reference to the song) a week later, and I could see why people were complaining about it, because I DID notice it in some parts.

My Rating: 11/10.