Slow And Steady WINS The Race…

Usually whenever I do go to the cinema’s, Action-orientated genre films aren’t really the sought of things I watch or leap for joy. To be annoying to some people, for me at least, pretty much action film tend to have the same story where the protagonists either win by hook or by crook, or simply that there’s a cliché cliffhanger where the villain or another antagonists miraculously survives to later appear in a rubbish sequel. However, due to the fact that my friends did in fact wanted to see Fast 7 and is the 7th instalment in a action series which appeals to core male audience and has made serious dough throughout it’s fruition, I thought why not be adventurous and see if Furious 7 doesn’t fall down the piping order when it comes to my expectations of an action film. firstly, to say it briefly and later go into more detail, although the majority of Fast 7 basically consists of 3 big action sequences that covers up the 2hr and 30 mins (which yes, is too long really), I thought that Fast 7 is considerably different from other actions films and did the majority of the key conventions of constructing a proper narrative rather well.

So the story in a nutshell is basically this. After the event of Furious 6 where the international terrorist Owen Shaw is defeated, Dominic Torretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew though they left the criminal mercenary life behind them. They were wrong. Now Owen’s brother Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) is out for revenge, trying to pick off each individual of the crew one by one. To make things a little but more complicated, a Somalian terrorist called Jakarde and a shady government official called ‘Mr.Nobody’ are both competing to steal a computer terrorism program called God’s Eye, that can turn any technological device into a weapon. 

First off, While I do think the film is entertaining for everyone that has known and been brought up with the ‘Fast’ series and knows what to expect in terms of the ridiculousness of the action sequences, for me, the film’s running time is too long. When it comes to a film of that size and length, it’s normally expected to be balanced with the story and the action. In the case of Fast 7, all it essentially does is tell a minuscule amount of story and then it just let’s rip with the action sequences. Pretty much, the film basically consists of 3 long 45 minutes of action sequences that while they are cleverly done with the choreography and the driving, they really could of toned down those sequences to be a lot shorter. There are a few instances in those 3 big sequences which I think drag on a bit too much.

As for the narrative, there is none really and the little parts of the story are all over the place. I find it funny how people can just nod along smiling at the main protagonists taking down the bad guys yet, how many innocent third parties are allowed to be killed or have their property or expensive car get damaged so a bunch of street racers can try to settle a score with a guy so highly trained, a TEAM of special forces couldn’t take him down after the government decided he was more of a liability than an asset. Seems like a legit premise doesn’t it? What’s more, Statham’s character just randomly appears whenever he wants to. Throughout, I just kept laughing to myself when Deckard just kept showing up because it honestly made no sense; it’s like he always knows where Dom and his crew are. 

But, forgetting the mess of the story for one second, there is a silver-lining of all this with Paul Walker’s tribute at the end of the film. The way Director James Wan constructed the ending of showing a montage tribute of Walker throughout the ‘Fast’ films he has been in and eventually seeing him drive in his white car to symbolise that he’s on a different journey now and that he is an example of angel was all done really well and was the most notable sequence throughout the film. I’ve always thought that the ‘family’ theme of ‘Fast’ was always a little bit corny and overused, but I think it’s certainly applicable to this film due to what happened to Walker. While I do think the poetic send-off was appropriate and put together beautifully, I am a bit mad about some of the reviews that I have seen for this film. This might come across as something wrong to most people as to what I am about to say, but, the high reviews that this film is getting is un-just. The only why this film SPECIFICALLY, is getting high remarks is only because of the ending which again I’ll say, was a nice tribute. I just find it annoying how some reviewers can give this a really high score, yet the story was non-existent and the action sequences were too long? 

Overall, if you’re a fan of the ‘Fast’ films and haven’t had the chance to see it, then I would recommend to go and watch it. Obviously the whole point of these films are supposed to be bonkers and the tribute at the end is a really nice touch to a film that is all over the place and has action sequences which last too long. Thanks for reading my Review of ‘Fast 7’ guys, sorry if it is only a short review. To be honest with you, there wasn’t much to talk about regarding this film individually. I could talk about the series in general a bit more in depth, but since I haven’t really watched any other of the film in a long time, it would be bad and unnecessary to talk about films that I haven’t seen in a while.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ – Alex Rabbitte