I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking this movie was bad. It killed the franchise entirely IMO. All of the buzz surrounding it's release was because of Paul Walker's death and people wanting to see how they'd handle that as well as paying final respects to him as fans but the movie sucked. The reviews weren't honest because they had to deal with Walker's death also and didn't want to rip the movie too much considering they, the studio, was limited in what they could do to move things forward. Word of mouth was all about Walker's death and his "send-off" also.
The stunts were ridiculously over the top, skydiving with cars and none of them sustain any damage upon landing. They're all in tip top shape and able to wreck through the forest and bounce other vehicles around like bumper cars. Then Vin Diesel just drives right off of a cliff while he and his passenger are able to walk away just fine because she wore a helmet and he's too manly for something like that. Like you said, earlier in the film Vin Diesel was able to smash head on into another car and be able to get out and physically fight with the other drive because his car was "reinforced". They basically made Vin Diesel Superman in this version. The only thing that hurt him was when they blew up the garage he and the bad guy fought on and then blew up while they were on it, killing both of them. Diesel couldn't stay dead though, no they had "love" bring him back with a cheesy one liner that was in response to something said to him so even though he didn't have a pulse and wasn't breathing he was able to intake and comprehend everything Michelle Rodriguez said to him. He was just extreme resting, with no pulse or oxygen, in order to tell her it's about time her brain injury which caused her to forget everything about her life is cured. He can come back from the dead so why should it take her 2 movies to get her memory back? She came back from the dead earlier in the franchise too so WTF, brain injury shmrian injury.
They also had to introduce a super badass car that was "bulletproof" because why not? Everyone wants and needs a bulletproof super sports car with a built in computer they can store USB drives they bought for way too much money despite not knowing what's on there or what it does, the car will figure it out. The only thing the car can't do is resist Vin's testosterone, it submits to his will and lets him literally pick it up and carry it around for a little bit before finally letting him steal him and putting him in basically the only situation a bulletproof sports car would be needed, if you're stealing it from rich private military/terrorist gangsters who are heavily armed in one of the top floors of a high rise, because why keep it in garage when you can store it in it's own bedroom about 75-80 floors up. Then they literally jump from one high rise to the next but because they don't want to be outdone by anyone else they decide to jump to a third building. At that point I expected it to transform into Bumble Bee and start talking but the only oversized mechanized acting here is by Vin & Dwayne.
Dwayne Johnson proves he's made of literal rock with a soft side because he can leap out of a building and fall 10 stories while holding someone but they're ok because he landed on his back and absorbed the blow. That was after he got his ass kicked by a guy who is about 1/3 of his size but they had to shoot the fight scene in the dark with clever angles so how comically large The Rock is compared to Jason Statham isn't exposed. Since he was fresh off a short WWE return he was super jacked and since no one is allowed to make Vin look small in his own franchise they used his fall as a way to write him out of the story for an hour and a half or so. When he returns he's angry, they implied he would be by having him watch the old Lou Ferrigno "Incredible Hulk" series earlier. They showed he was a good dad though so he was never in danger, they'll explore his backstory later when they need to fill time that Paul Walker would normally sleep walk through. Sorry but Paul Walker's corpse would have trouble convincing me he's dead, let alone a bad ass rogue cop/fbi agent/reformed juvenile delinquent/current liason between law enforcement, government agencies, and the toughest street racers the world has ever seen. Back to the Rock, he showed up conveniently at the end as "back-up" because having 1 Rock is as good as entire military division. He blows a drone out of the sky with his sidearm and then proceeds to rip the mini-gun off of the drone so he can wield that himself. Forget that the gun is meant to be fired from airplanes, helicopters, and tanks while it's securely mounted on them, the Rock is bad enough he can fire it while holding it like a bowling ball.
Plus they finally tied the film back to Tokyo Drift which was the 3rd film in the franchise and came out 9 years before #7 did. By tying them together though they screwed up the timeline completely because part 3 took place at the same time or after #6, erasing a decade of technology. They might as well go full time travel and bring back characters they killed off before because nothing makes rational sense in the franchise anymore. They're all superheroes in terms of physical abilities while also being smarter and more capable than any military, police, or crime organization on the planet despite them being street racers who stole trucks full of DVD players to pay for their cars in the first film.
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jajceboy
8 years ago
I thought it was really good and thought it deserves more than 7.3
I gave it an 8. I don't know if you all expected more realism or something but these movies will never be realistic.
They are over the top heist movies that people watch to be entertained. That's the fun with these movies, you know everything is totally unrealistic and wouldn't work in real life but you watch it either way.
Fast cars, fun action. That's what we want.
Why go look for realism? Don't be a party pooper!
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