The Fast and The Furious and Furious 7 are great movies, but the action sequences, vehicle inventory, all-star cast, and plot make Furious 7 better than its prequel, The Fast and The Furious. It’s very true that these 2 movies have many similarities but it’s their differences that make Furious 7 the better of the 2. One review of Furious 7 states, “The director, James Wan, sends cars repeatedly airborne and seems himself to marvel at the results; the movie’s real subject is the stunt work,” (Brody, 2015).
Furious 7, directed by James Wan, took you on a thrill ride across the desserts of Abu Dhabi back to Los Angeles. The fight scenes between enemies and heroes as well as cars jumping from building to building made you sit on the edge of your seat. Cars operating at high speeds dodging explosions from missiles fired from enemy drones made your adrenaline pump uncontrollably. Just when you think Wan couldn’t possibly go any further, he surprises you with some other sequence you could have never imagined. The Fast and the Furious on the other hand was more of the plot setting film.
The movie, the first part of this 7-part saga, told the story of how Brian O’Conner played by Paul Walker and Dominic Toretto played by Vin Diesel came to know one another. The Fast and the Furious’ action scenes were mere race scenes that usually lasted no more than 2 or 3 minutes. One critic for Globe and Mail states, “When characters are not racing at breakneck speed, the movie as a whole ceases to move; doesn’t manage to deliver the wild ride it promises” (Lacey, 2001). What this movie lacked in action, it more than made for with setting up the major plot to a great 7-part saga.
With out this prequel the setting or plot to this series would have never existed. This movie allowed the audience to meet its main characters and allowed an environment to which you could learn every characters back-story. Another thing that makes one of these films better than the other is the car inventory. The car inventory is a list of the cars that appear in the films. The Fast and The Furious gave its audience a glimpse into the world of street racing using modified domestic and import vehicles.
Domestic and import vehicles are vehicles that can be brought from any car lot or dealership at any given time, none of which would cost more than about 25,000 dollars. The Fast and The Furious used everyday vehicles such as the Mitsubishi Eclipse, Acura Integra, Nissan Maxima, Honda Civic, and the Mazda RX-7. These vehicles were modified using performance parts, taking them from an everyday driver to a performance machine capable of going from 0 to 60 in 7 seconds with a top speed of 160 miles per hour. This makes them a little more interesting when compared to normal everyday driver vehicles.
Furious 7 on the other hand extended its audience a view into the world of exotic supercars and exclusive motorsports. These vehicles are very hard to get your hands on and often have to be custom ordered. These vehicles can cost anywhere between $250,000 to $3. 4 million dollars. Vehicles such as the Bugatti Veyron, Maserati Ghibli, Ferrari 458 Italia, Aston Martin DB9, and the very exclusive concept car the Lykan Hypersport are vehicles you wouldn’t normally see at your local street racing meet-up.
These exotic cars are the pinnacle of performance allowing a driver to travel 0 to 60 in 3. seconds at a speed of between 235 and 275 miles per hour. To the average person a car would be a car, but to someone that is interested in cars Furious 7 is an action packed auto show. Furious 7 introduces an all- star cast of actors and directors that are sure to make this film an action blockbuster. Directors such as James Wan compiled with actors such as Dwayne “the rock” Johnson, Jason Statham, Tony Jaa, Djimon Hounsou, and Rhonda Rousey were added to the original cast of actors to make this movie an action packed blockbuster hit.
Known for their action movie backgrounds these actors took the film to a new level of excitement. Given the original cast of actors and directors, The Fast and The Furious lacked the excitement and action of Furious 7. Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster made sure that the audience was told the story of how the saga came to be. The director, Rob Cohen, gave just a glimpse of the street-racing world while telling the story of how Walker and Diesel became friends. This introduction made this film more a male soap opera than an action packed thriller.
The plot of these 2 films differed very much, but the moral of the story was the same. The Fast and The Furious started with a street race introducing a character named Brian Spilner, who was really an undercover cop name Brian O’Conner. O’Connor is given the task of infiltrating the street-racing crew of Dominic Toretto, who are believed to be responsible for highway robberies using modified street-racing vehicles. After a long series of life changing events Toretto is found to be the culprit.
Given the choice between being a police officer and arresting Toretto or being a crew member and letting him go; O’Connor choose to give Toretto the keys to his car to escape. Furious 7 however had a very different plot. Jason Statham, who plays a character named Deckard Shaw, wants revenge on Toretto and his crew for putting his brother in a coma in a previous movie. Shaw, bent on revenge, is an ex-special forces assassin with the skills and the resources to make Toretto’s crew pay for their mistake. Traveling from Los Angeles to Abu Dhabi, Toretto and his crew must retrieve a device called the gods eye to find Shaw before he finds them.
Encountering mercenaries and bodyguards along the way Toretto’s crew destroys Abu Dhabi to acquire this device. Both films were great, but Furious 7, due to its action sequences and cast, is better. Sitting in a theater and watching both films one after another, you will see the difference in both the plots and the conceptions of the films. James Wan and Rob Cohen both have different styles when directing films. This is evident when viewing these films. America likes action, fast cars and explosions making Furious 7 the better of the two films.
Bibliography:
Brody, R. (2015, May 15). Furious 7 – The New Yorker. Retrieved April 30, 2015, from http://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/furious-7-2
Full Cast & Crew. (n.d.). Retrieved April 30, 2015, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2820852/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast
Lacey, L. (2001, June 22). The Fast and The Furious – Review. Retrieved April 30, 2015, from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/movie/MOVIEREVIEWS/20010622/RVFAST/
