Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Furious Seven

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I saw “Furious 7”1 this past weekend,2 and while I don’t care to go much in detail about plot/spoilers, I did want to get a couple of miscellaneous thoughts down.

[Warning: very *mild* spoilers ahead… don’t worry, nothing major.]

  • They could’ve titled it “Furious Avengers:3 Ghost Protocol”.4 Seriously, it fits.
  • There’s a subplot in that Mia is with 2nd child… I’m willing to bet that this plot line was only written in after Paul Walker’s unfortunate passing.5
  • I’m also willing to bet that the very last scene with the Rock and Jason Statham was originally meant to be an after-credits scene. 6
  • James Wan is on record as saying he doesn’t wish to discuss which scenes involved the use of body doubles and CG for Paul Walker, but a couple were obvious.7 However there were a couple of scenes that I suspect involved CG for his face — but could not tell8 — and if so, I am astounded at how well the visual effects folks did. Which leads me to believe that Weta — Peter Jackson’s CG house — only did some of the Paul Walker scenes. (?)
  • The movie was ridiculous. Completely mindless. And I liked it.

And I know this will never happen — given the ridiculous pile of cash it made this past weekend — but: I hope they end the series with this one. Because if you’ve been following my blog, you know:

I’m all about the sunsets.

  1. I’m a big fan of the series. But now I truly believe that the “Fast and Furious” movies are like Microsoft Windows: Only the odd-numbered ones are good. Yes, I enjoyed Tokyo Drift, and despised 2. [↩]
  2. a couple of times, to be honest — part of a much needed break from the stretch run of the season. [↩]
  3. Think: Superheroes. With cars. [↩]
  4. Think: Tom Cruise jumping buildings in Dubai. With cars. [↩]
  5. None of the scenes where she mentions this features a real-life Paul Walker. And with the spirit of the re-written ending, makes sense. [↩]
  6. I’m glad it wasn’t. If you don’t remember it, it was forgettable. [↩]
  7. The scene with him putting his kid in the minivan in front of the house, before it explodes, and much of Abu Dhabi… though I wonder about the scene where they first stumble upon the Lykan… [↩]
  8. in particular, the first garage scene in DR [↩]
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