There were several moments while watching Furious 7 that I just threw the towel in, covered my face and laughed out loud. Just when you thought you had seen it all from Fast Five when the gang high tailed a bank safe the size of Texas, destroying landmarks of Rio De Janeiro like a ragdoll, or the bare feasting brawl of the first encounter with Dwayne Johnson ala Vin Diesel. Even Furious 6 when Letty is in mid-air, forcing Dom to crash his car in order to save her (rest assured, there was another car to break their fall). And nobody can forget the pulse resounding conclusion when the group decides to bring down A WHOLE FIGHTER plane (with cars, mind you) in what appears to be the world’s longest runway. These are completely impossible scenarios, even worse odds, and Furious 7 further proves terrorists and bad guys are NO match for a squad with some cool cars.

Things seemed to have taken a turn for the worse. If you stuck around a little after the credits rolled in Furious 6, then you know Owen Shaw’s big bad brother (Jason Statham) wasn’t too happy with what Dom and his crew did to his younger counterpart, setting up the inevitable next chapter in this long dormant franchise. It’s hard to doze off or shake an opening quite like this one, where Statham walks through a hospital as it is shred to pieces (it appears as though he is the sole culprit) – he is definitely a BAD GUY.

Que the present where we get caught back up with Dom (Diesel) trying to help amnesia-induced Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) get her memory back, and the first shot we see of Brian O Conner (Walker) is behind of a minivan dropping his son off at school. Gosh, you would think life could be so simple for this crew of misfits.

Wrong.

After an explosion takes out Dom’s childhood home, it’s clear who’s responsible–with some help from a shady government agent (Kurt Russell in a nice extended cameo)–, and all bets are off. As Dom himself says, “This time it’s not just about being fast.” Gosh, the little boy in me wanted to cry, “Say furious!…Just say it!”

I can’t quite wrap my head around these movies, and then you realize they are not designed that way. The script is never the focal point, like ever. So when long-time writer, Chris Morgan, tries to add empathy on top of lines like “Lady, I am the cavalry” or “I’m gonna beat him so hard, he’s gonna wish his momma kept her legs closed,” it doesn’t damage the plot because the script isn’t that vital to it.

Alas, we don’t see these movies for the cheesy dialogue, do we? No. We see these movies because they provide that escape route which no others can seem to pull off. I literally sat in this movie and watched cars fly out of airplanes and jump from skyscraper to skyscraper. In fact, O’Connell muffles at one point, “Cars don’t fly, Dom.” On the contrary, in these movies, they sure did, and it’s awesome.

Statham proves to be a worthy foe to heighten things up a tad, and we get to see him duke it out with not only Dwayne Johnson but Vin Diesel too (que instant fan boy scream). However, his presence is somewhat overshadowed by an underdeveloped, albeit EXTREMELY unnecessary terrorist played by Djimon Hounsou. Rest assured, most of his lines take place at the front of a helicopter.

First time franchise helmer, James Wan, clearly has a way with angles and techniques, as the action and car sequences are top notch, while keeping in tune with the purpose of what these films do, rather than reverting to Michael Bay ulterior motives, to which it never seems to succomb.

Then of course, the obvious reason why perhaps Furious 7  is so important is the late passing of Paul Walker (who was more than halfway finished with filming when he died unexpectedly last year). And I can’t think of a better way to send off Walker than like they did in Furious 7. No spoilers here, but the final scene is heart wrenching, and the last shot is beautiful. Rather than feeling like it’s rushed or timed, the filmmakers were able to pull it off so ceaselessly that it actually made sense. Also, don’t go looking for what’s ‘CGI Paul’ and ‘real Paul,’ as the digital effects team did such a great job that it’s nearly impossible to dissect which scenes are altered to accommodate the late actor. Truly, it says quite a bit about how far we have come with technology to accomplish something quite like this, and it was successful entirely.

Furious 7 is a singular platinum one-up of all the previous entries, while encompassing enough for even the most casual of viewers to take a peek as to what’s under the hood. And while Fast Five remains in tact as my favorite ‘Furious’ adventure, Furious 7 has built a nice resolution on some storylines, while keeping in tune with exactly what these movies are all about: family. For Paul. Grade: B