Avengers: Age of Ultron: 7/10

I'd hate to spoil the party, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe is starting to run out of trick cards.

Criticizing Avengers: Age of Ultron is the equivalent of being one of those prick judges on Cutthroat Kitchen, insulting a cook for making a mediocre pasta when all they had was marinara sauce and expired noodles. Joss Whedon and friends pulled out all the necessary mayhem, entertainment, and joy of your usual MCU flick, so let's mention this before this turns into a massive review of disappointment. However it's becoming a bit more apparent that the intangibles holding back Marvel and Disney's potential is hindering the quality of the movies. It hurts to point out the elephant in the room, but after seeing the final scene you can't help but realize that clearly Hollywood and the Copyright shenanigans is hampering the franchise as a whole.

For those not truly knowledgeable of the subject, Marvel and Disney are restricted on who they can show (and for how long) and who can get their own spin-off movie. As of now, the true-true Avengers team assembling on screen is literally impossible. Fox, Sony, and Universal own cinematic Marvel properties and unless every film studio in California decide to drop the competition and hold hands, Whedon will be restricted on his vision of the Avengers and the current Marvel universe. He even has to change the origin stories of some of the characters because certain words can't even be used in this franchise of movies. Like a production version of mineweeper, you can avoid mines for only so long before you notice you're running out of space. Funny thing I mentioned this in my review for the original Avengers movie as well, although it wasn't as obvious back then.

The production value, writing, acting, humor, action, and attention to each of the characters has been spot-on lately, and Avengers: Age of Ultron is no exception. All the characters are back, and they remain just as entertaining and engaging as the original Avengers movie that overwhelmed audiences back in 2012. Iron Man and Hawkeye have all the great lines, Hulk and Thor has all the awesome kinetic energy, and Captain America remains our lovable heroic leader. Of course, a few other characters make nice cameo appearances, and others...well, we didn't really need them (one hero in particular was bizarrely underwhelming). Lastly, Ultron was quite a formidable foe, perfectly portrayed by James Spader.

But.....

There are no stakes to be raised. We all know the upcoming Marvel lineup for the next several years. We all know of their limited amount of cinematic resources. So with that we are presented with less surprises, less suspense, and less of the unpredictability factor that had been a major source of fun during the first phase of Marvel movies. The movie took off immediately without any sort of build-up because it knows why we are there: entertainment of the highest summer degree. But with sequel after sequel planned, the audience pretty much knows who is going to make it. What would keep us engaged would be if we saw any major left field surprises or unexpected turns. Because of the restrictions and because of the required schedule, there honestly was very little to be shocked at. It didn't have the ballsy shakeup of The Winter Soldier.

No movie built to predate upcoming chapters has ever felt complete (Dead Man's Chest anyone?). Avengers: Age of Ultron tries its best to disguise this but the inevitable is clear: punches were held back because they need to be saved for later installments. Marvel has to keep whatever remaining limited cards it has on its deck. Unlike DC which pretty much has all its eggs on the same basket, Marvel has to make incredible omelets using less eggs. And although you will enjoy this satisfying meal of comic book action, you'll notice the kitchen staff starting to sweat.

The Delayed, Underrated, Forgotten Legacy of the Nintendo Gamecube (Part 1 of 2)

The Nintendo Gamecube is a forgotten piece of gold that could have saved or at least delayed the inevitable fail of the Nintendo WiiU. And this forgotten behavior just adds to the legacy of the purple box that housed more hidden gems than disappointments. That poor purple box suffered from gamers’ post-traumatic stress from being N64 owners and also suffered from the giant third-party conquering monster known as the Playstation 2. Now, this blog entry is splitting into two categories: Why it Failed, and Why it Could Have Been Revived. Why it Failed belongs to my Entire World blog, with the Revived entry belonging to the Eighth Generation. Now, without further interruption, my upcoming 3,000 word dedication to the Nintendo Gamecube.



Why It Failed



Check out the monster year of the Gamecube in 2002:

Super Mario Sunshine
Soul Calibur II
Animal Crossing
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2
Resident Evil 0
Metroid Prime
Resident Evil (Remake)
Smash Brothers Melee (In Europe)
Wind Waker (In Japan)
Super Money Ball 2


Nice little lineup, eh? The Europeans finally got the greatest fighting game of all-time (not being released simultaneously worldwide was an awful move), Nintendo got the best version of the second-best fighter in the generation (Link in Soul Calibur should have been a staple), and the best game of the sixth generation (Metroid Prime----there is no arguing here). Honestly, the WiiU never had a year with this many buyable games.



Now…let’s look at PS2’s 2002:

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Virtua Fighter 4
Spider-Man: The Movie
NFL 2K3
The Thing
SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals
Kingdom Hearts
Sly Cooper
Tekken 4
Burnout 2
Timesplitters 2
Wild Arms 3
Tony Hawk ProSkater 4
Ratchet and Clank
ATV Offroad Fury 2
Marvel vs. Capcom 2
DBZ: Budokai
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Worthy of repetition)


How can anybody compete against that? That is at least four franchise-starters and several of among the best games in the entire generation (Burnout 2 is easily one of the most underrated). No matter what the Gamecube threw, the opposition had an answer quantified. Metroid Prime should have conquered the holiday season of 2002 because of its incredible graphics and outstanding presentation and marketing campaign. However, the nasty controversial 1-2 punch of GTA III (still selling like absolute hotcakes) and Vice City overshadowed everything Nintendo could throw towards the Month of Metroid (Fusion hit stores around the same time).

Speaking of which, Nintendo should have learned from the Prime/Fusion combo and not made the 3DS/WiiU games so darn similar. The two Smash Brothers games should have had way more differences, as should the Mario 3D and New Super Mario Bros. games. Fusion and Prime each had the Metroid touch, but were two amazingly different games that each delivered their unique brand of thrills. Back to topic.....

Gamecube’s delays resulted in clunky release dates, which also affects game sales. And if you don’t believe that, every XBox 360 game that sold over 5 million copies with the exception of Minecraft came out in the fall. More proof: 10 of the 16 best-selling Wii games were released within the September-December range.

One more, one more: the best-selling game of 2014? Pokemon OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire. Guess the release date.



Why yes, November 21st.



Animal Crossing and Super Mario Sunshine were released at the end of summer when it’s a summer-based game. Eternal Darkness was released in June (Bad month for a horror game of any kind) as opposed to Halloween season—the second most lucrative holiday season in the United States (behind Christmas, of course). Wind Waker was released in March of 2003, missing the crucial holiday season. Smash Brothers Melee didn’t get a worldwide launch (and never became online-friendly, which was a major missed opportunity in the sixth generation). Lastly, Metroid Prime is a franchise that always had terrible timing; the original Prime got wiped out by GTA: Vice City, while the other Primes ran into Halo release dates—prompting disappearing under the hype of a better-known shooter.

Here are other games that suffered from bad release dates: Twilight Princess (Right on beginning of Wii era), F-Zero GX (August, instead of early summer), Star Fox Assault (February is always a bad month), Luigi’s Mansion (not strong enough to be launch title, should have switched with Melee), and NBA Courtside 2002 (For missing the start of the NBA season by 3 MONTHS!)---among other examples.

What really harmed the Gamecube was the underneath the hardcore Nintendo titles were all the shortcomings and bad decisions. Not going online severely hurt the Gamecube to a point that it would never, ever recover. Even an imperfect online functionality piece still would have been better than none at all. Melee and F-Zero being online would have been nearly impossible to handle considering its speed, but not having Mario Kart, Soul Calibur II, Mario Party (Honestly, an online mini-game mode would have been perfect), Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, and Super Mario Strikers online was a travesty and a mistake for the ages. Nintendo was definitely working a lot with other companies during these years, surely they could have built some friendship with a company with online credentials, no? Apple anyone? I’m sure Apple would have loved sticking it to Microsoft during the first XBox run.

At the end of the day though, nobody was going to come even close to the Playstation 2. The Gamecube failed more because the opposition was so good, as opposed to the machine being so bad. The PS2 (Whose dominance can probably never be duplicated ever again) was the better purchase choice for first-time gamers, hardcore gamers, mainstream gamers, and those that just want a DVD player that did more. The PS2 had more sports games, more RPGs, more action games, more platformers, more racers, and was practically the first console to have multiple sandbox games (PCs don’t count…ever). The Gamecube would not be appreciated until the Wii became so family-friendly it made gamers break out into convulsions. Nintendo went from Metroid Prime to...Metroid Other M. Nintendo went from the Twilight Princess/Wind Waker combo to....Skyward Sword. Nintendo went from Smash Brothers Melee to.......Brawl. And most egregious, Nintendo went from F-Zero GX to.....nothing.......................

The Gamecube has a legacy similar to the Dreamcast: good hardware, had a few innovative things, a few great ideas, a few bad ideas, lots of grand niche games, but overall was curbstomped by Sony. The XBox falls in here too and the only reason it had the second place medal was Halo and of course the best online features in the early 2000s. It would take Sony years before it could catch up to the XBox Live. The Gamecube deserved better, deserved a better sendoff.

By the end of its run, the third-party relationships were pretty much damaged (except for Sega, ironically), the hardcore fanbase had shifted towards Sony, and the Nintendo brand had taken several hits. All the damage would explain why Nintendo went in such a different direction when they released the innovative Wii and DS systems. Yes, they may have shoved the remaining hardcore fans into a corner, but hey they had five years to support a previous generation machine that was chock full of games catering to that audience.

How can a system with masterpieces like Metroid Prime, Smash Bros. Melee, Twilight Princess, Paper Mario: Thousand-Year Door, Eternal Darkness, Resident Evil IV, Soul Calibur II, Animal Crossing, F-Zero GX, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Super Mario Sunshine, Tales of Symphonia, and Donkey Konga 3 (Kidding about that last one) become a failure? It took a lot of bad luck, and a slew of bad decisions. But at the end of the day, if Nintendo gets smart they can preserve the legacy of these great games for the future. Otherwise, there will be at least a dozen worthy gems disappearing from the gaming consensus, if it hasn’t happened already.





Well, besides Melee, which will definitely live in the fighting game circle for all eternity.






Part 2 Will Arrive on April 29th in Eighth Generation Blog....

The Seven Greatest Gaming Systems Ever Made

The eighth generation looks like is going to be a PS4/XBox One battle, with Sony winning every region, XBox One posting the best numbers in the United States, and the Nintendo WiiU crashing and burning probably even worse than the Nintendo Gamecube. With the race being just two systems the competition will definitely ease a little, especially with Microsoft fully knowing that it will not catch up to Sony for the next half-decade. With less competition and less drive to create competition, I doubt we will see the new variations top the quality of the seventh generation systems.

As a matter of fact, besides Grand Theft Auto V we haven’t seen any modern games to be true game-changers. Our best fighting game still isn’t Melee, our best racing game ruined battle mode and still lacks the arcade personality of Burnout (Mario Kart, Forza), the top platformer is essentially a 3DS game (Mario 3D World), and even the top game is already on PS3/XBox One (Grand Theft Auto V). There are good games, but we aren’t seeing an influx of spectacular games like we saw in other time periods in gaming history.

Its doubtful that any system from this generation will find its way into gaming history as one of the best----even if they might become one of the most successful. It just shows you the power of the gaming industry nowadays and the power of the multimedia aspect of each console. With Netflix, Hulu, HBO, YouTube, and other channels of entertainment seeping in to each system there’s plenty to do when the games aren’t as plentiful. So now the question is, what are the best video game systems of all-time? And what makes them the best of all-time? Well, glad you asked:



Honorable Mention: Nintendo Gamecube

With better third-party support, this system could have been one of the greats. The first-party lineup was stellar (Mario Sunshine, Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Melee, Animal Crossing), the second-party/partnership lineup of games was even more impressive (Eternal Darkness, Metroid Prime 2, F-Zero GX), and of course boasted the best game of the sixth generation (Metroid Prime).

But utter lack of games, too many delays, and the overwhelming superiority of the competition made it fail with just north of 20 million copies sold. But one can argue this was the last truly hardcore Nintendo system, as it was followed by the mainstream-friendly Wii and the disappointing and 3DS-lineup doppelganger WiiU. But it does deserve a mention; the Gamecube had a slew of spectacular games in the midst of all the disappointment.







#7: Nintendo 64
Generation: Fifth
Sales: 32.9 Million
Position: Second Place
Best Game: Super Mario 64


The Nintendo 64 is the greatest offline multi-player system of all-time. That alone propels it into this list. Mario Golf. Mario Tennis. Smash Brothers. Goldeneye 007. Perfect Dark. Mario Party 1-3. And of course, Mario Kart 64. The original Playstation definitely had more games, definitely had a better single-player experience overall (Final Fantasy VII, Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) but when friends and family are close by it did not get any better in the 90s than the N64. Too many delays and terrible hardware choice doomed the N64 ultimately, but its cluster of amazing games propelled it to have the superior legacy in the fifth generation, and would become the precursor to multi-player gaming being an extremely important aspect to gaming.





#6: XBox 360
Generation: Seventh
Sales: 84.7 Million
Position: Third Place
Best Game: Grand Theft Auto V



I am getting this out of the way: the seventh generation was the premiere and ultimate era in the gaming industry. All three systems were phenomenal, and delivered a slew of amazing games ranging from AAA masterpieces right down to indie gems that couldn’t cost more than $10. Microsoft learned from all their XBox mistakes and revved up its first/second party offerings, while improving the multi-player experience and even made swift attempts at getting a Japanese audience. Halo finally had some company with Bioshock, Call of Duty, Gears of War, among others. The XBox 360 is the ultimate American-made gaming system (Which is something the XBox One should gun for), which makes sense as to why it’s the best-selling American console of all-time.





#5: Nintendo Wii
Generation: Seventh
Sales: 101.1 Million
Position: First Place
Best Game: Super Mario Galaxy



Yes, the image of the Wii has been tainted as it’s a has-been system, a has-been trend, and became the system that shredded the relationship between the hardcore gamers and Nintendo. Nonetheless, during the peak Wii years there was a stellar lineup of games that appealed to everyone. Ranging from the mainstream friendly (like Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, Guitar Hero III, Mario Kart Wii) to great hardcore titles (Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy 1-2, Donkey Kong Country Returns) to even the much-maligned-but-still-tolerable Virtual Console (Which gave us even Sega Genesis, arcade, and Neo-Geo games), the Wii gave us a quantity of games that were severely lacking in Nintendo systems in the previous decade. It was a fine multi-player system, a good value, and a different and more interactive way of playing games. Nintendo not giving it an HD version and not attempting to continue the momentum has led to its downfall and the failures of the WiiU.






#4: Playstation 3
Generation: Seventh
Sales: 85.4 Million
Position: Second in Generation
Best Game: Grand Theft Auto V



The Wii was the mammoth success, but the Playstation 3’s final bow was so epic it propelled itself to second place and made the race overall a lot tighter than when it first started. Sony’s biggest improvement here was the amazing first/second-party lineup of games that although it’s no Nintendo it’s definitely not something to laugh at (Uncharted, God of War, Little Big Planet, The Last of Us). Then throw in the usual third-party support and a sudden surge in indie gaming (it would utilize this way before the competition) and you have a system with plenty of amazing titles, plenty of gaming options, and then topped by the most rewarding online functionality. The Playstation Now and the Playstation Store is everything Nintendo’s Virtual Console should be.






#3: Nintendo DS
Generation: Sixth and Seventh
Sales: 154.8 Million
Position: First in Handheld
Best Game: Mario Kart DS



The Game Boy/Game Boy Advance definitely deserves a place on this list somewhere. However, the Nintendo DS is a ridiculously incredible piece of hardware that delivered dozens of new franchises, tons of great first/second/third party games, had backwards-compatibility to compliment the equally-amazing lineup of Game Boy Advance games. Yes it had a slow start, but once the original and innovative games started pouring in the DS went on a great winning streak that combined new installments of classic franchises (Mario Kart DS, Pokemon Diamond/Pearl) as well as fresh ideas (Professor Layton, Phoenix Wright). Once the ball got rolling, there were very few disappointments as nearly every major Nintendo franchise got love and attention, and we even saw some Japanese favorites find their way to the States. It was the perfect handheld.





#2: Playstation 2
Generation: Sixth
Sales: 157.6 Million
Position: First in Generation
Best Game: (Tie) Gran Turismo 3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City



About 80% of the best games during the sixth generation were on the Playstation 2. No system will ever have such third-party dominance ever again, as Sony had all the major exclusives (Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid, Kingdom Hearts, Tekken, many more) while mixing that with excellent first-second party offerings (Gran Turismo, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, God of War). Then let’s throw in online-support, easily one of the best controllers of all-time, backwards-compatibility, and you have yourself a system that was worth every penny no matter what type of game you played.

You like racers? Burnout 2, 3, and Gran Turismo. You like shooters? Call of Duty, SOCOM, Ratchet and Clank. You like fighters? Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Tekken 4. Do you like sandbox games? You couldn’t come even close with beating the trifecta of GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas. This was also the last generation with great sports games, and it doesn’t get better than MVP Baseball, Madden, and NFL 2K in the same console. Despite being underpowered when compared to Gamecube and XBox the PS2 had over 1,200 games to choose from, and so many more exclusives than the others, you had no choice but to go Sony. We will never see pure quality dominance like this ever again.











#1: Super Nintendo
Generation: Fourth
Sales: 49 Million
Position: First in Generation
Best Game: Super Metroid (I might change my mind next month, like I always do) 


I might be a homer for this. But pound for pound, game for game, there is no greater system. If you are to take the 50 greatest games ever made, a majority of them will be from an SNES. Let’s start with the hardware---powerful for its time, produced some of the best-looking games of the entire decade of the 90s and it was released in 1991. The controller set the bar for the way controllers are crafted and handled—PS4 and XBox One has a lot of SNES in its design.

Let’s go to the third-party games. Back in the good ol’ days, third-party companies picked sides and created rivals---leading to some grandiose art. Square gave the SNES Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy VI, and Chrono Trigger, three of among the greatest RPGs you’ll ever play. Capcom gave the SNES the superior versions of Street Fighter while also handing out some great beat em’ ups and stellar Mega Man games. And even if the Genesis had the superior version, the SNES were treated to great franchises like Mortal Kombat, Contra (Contra III was the best), NBA Jam, and the infamous Disney games.

Now, the exclusives. There is no better lineup. Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2, Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country trilogy, Super Mario Kart, Killer Instinct, F-Zero, Mario Paint, Kirby Super Star, Kirby’s Dream Land 3, Super Punch-Out, Earthbound, Tetris Attack. If I had to rank the 20 greatest games ever made, I can see myself putting 5 or 6 of these games on the list. I could be a homer for this, but the ratio of spectacular games was the absolute highest in the Super Nintendo---whether the games came directly from Nintendo or didn’t. Mine still gets playing time to this day. To this day, it remains the best console ever made, and major part as to why modern-day Nintendo can still survive despite the entourage of bad mistakes.

Metroid Prime: The Last Time Nintendo Peaked

Nintendo has seen better days. Much better days. In terms of success (DS/Wii Domination seemed like a long time ago) and in terms of quality. None of the sequels in the WiiU could match previous installments, and there wasn’t a new franchise or a revamped franchise that got us excited. The games were underpowered on Nintendo consoles for the second consecutive generation, and for those of you that don’t believe this is a big deal, take note of this: all of Nintendo’s best games when released were on top of the gaming world in terms of power, graphics, and presentation.

We can even go in order. Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, Mario Bros. III, Super Mario World, Link to the Past, Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2, Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Perfect Dark, and Smash Brothers Melee are all games that when they came out were the biggest and the best in the business---and today are all considered masterpieces. The nostalgia clouds the fact that these games were huge back in the day. These games tested the limits of what video games can do. The Wii and WiiU, despite the good software, could never present that caliber impact. Even the Super Mario Galaxy games, arguably the best games Nintendo has released in the past decade, couldn’t hold a candle to the released-around-the-same-time Little Big Planet games in terms of graphical and presentational power.

In order for Nintendo to gain the trust of gamers, it needs to step up its game and deliver visual experiences that can at the very least rival those of your Halos, Battlefields, Elder Scrolls, and GTAs. Nintendo should take a look back at the very last time it had the biggest and best game in the planet. It has been a while, but this masterpiece was not only Nintendo at its peak, but one of the greatest games you’ll ever play:








Metroid Prime.





November 2002 was the last time Nintendo was on top. Metroid Prime at the time of release was the biggest video game in the stratosphere. And upon release it had already been creeping up on all-time best games lists everywhere. It was the prettiest-looking game, it was the most-detailed game, and was arguably the most expansive game in the sixth generation. Nothing on the PS2 could even come close to looking as good as Metroid Prime. Only PC’s Half-Life stood a chance at matching Metroid Prime technologically pound per pound.

The Gamecube was pushed to the limit with Metroid Prime, and it would take years before anything Nintendo-related would look as good as this first-person action/adventure/horror game. The cinematics were subtle but phenomenal, the art design drew you into the Metroid universe immediately, and the game overall played out like an interactive movie that demanded that you explore and seek out the story for yourself. Metroid Prime had layers of details, from all the scans you can make, to the little creatures that would scatter from dead bodies.

Metroid Prime was the last time Nintendo released a game in which the hardcore gamers were truly not prepared for. We honestly weren’t ready to take on the challenges, the intensity, and the hardcore behavior of Prime. It was rather shocking that this mature, mainstream-defiant title came from the House of Super Mario. It was the gift that kept on giving, it was a game that never allowed you to be comfortable or in full control of the game. This added to the subtle horror that would engulf the experience.

In order for Nintendo to gain the respect of third-party companies and the gamers, we need more Metroid Prime-like games. We need the next big step. We don’t want watered-down (Super Mario Bros. U), we don’t want remakes (Wind Waker HD), we want the next major step in Nintendo gaming. We want the next major evolution in the world of Nintendo. The next piece of hardware needs to match the strength of the competitors. We need to see that Nintendo isn’t just making games, they are making THE games you want to buy.

The WiiU never had THE game. None of the sequels truly lifted their franchise to the next level, not even the awkwardly-titled Smash Brothers for WiiU. And they never took any handheld or older franchises and gave it the next big boost, the next big sequel bump---Golden Sun, F-Zero, Professor Layton, Phoenix Wright, Kid Icarus, Wario Land, Super Mario RPG/Paper Mario, among others. This needs to stop. Nintendo being on top with the competitors usually leads to a better gaming universe. When Nintendo is firing on full-cylinders, everyone wins. The Gamecube was the last truly hardcore Nintendo console, and Metroid Prime was the title that rose above the rest.

Bottom Line: Metroid Prime was the last time I felt like Nintendo pushed the envelope on the gaming industry, before they decided to merely seek other ways to make games (Wii, DS, 3DS, Wii Fit). Nintendo if you want to win the fans and win a new crowd, you need to look back at Metroid Prime to see what an industry-bending game looks and feels like. I will never forget the first time I played Prime. I didn’t play a game on the WiiU that created that special memory. It is very simple Nintendo: don’t scale back, go the full 100%. Yes, we are willing to wait---we did wait eight years for that Metroid game in the first place. No more scaling back, you got away with it with the Wii but this won’t work anymore.



Metroid Prime is one of the 20 greatest games of all-time and the last time Nintendo peaked. Time to go back, take notes, and try to recreate this magic.

Furious 7: 7/10

Imagine your favorite food. Let's use pizza, because 99% of the world loves pizza. Imagine a nice big pepperoni pizza. Always a good decision right? The cheese, fresh sauce, crisp pepperoni, nice crust. Now imagine that you pile nine pounds of pepperoni on top of the pizza. The ingredients are still good, these are still your favorite toppings, but the result remains overkill. That is Furious 7 in a nutshell: way too much of a good thing that results in the most ridiculousness and implausibility in the entire franchise. And yes it is indeed entertaining but for the first time we are seeing special effects totally overpower practical effects and the result is a movie that comes straight out of summer blockbusters as opposed to being a gritty and stunt-filled extravaganza like what we have been seeing in previous installments.

If you are a fan of the recent string of franchise-altering movies, then you will be entertained here. Just know that Fast and the Furious peaked with the killer bank vault scene from Fast Five. Within the two hours of Furious 7 there will be elongated fights, massive car chases, and purely insane action sequences that forces you to remove your brain temporarily. Mixed in nicely with the carnage are the consistent themes of family and love---plus the now-famous final scene that will trigger emotions that Fast and Furious had never dealt with before. Paul Walker's passing gives this movie a haunting edge, as even some of the costume choices and dialogue ironically singled out Walker long before his actual untimely death.

The cast is mostly back, although I do find myself missing the Don Omar/Tego Calderon combination. Vin Diesel and The Rock are at their toughest, Paul Walker is the perfect partner, Michelle Rodriguez continues that tough chick streak, and of course there's Ludicrous and Tyrese (whom we forget are music artists) working their comedic magic. We have now three villains they have to look out for (remember my comment about overkill?) but Jason Statham is the one that delivers the strongest punch as he mixes espionage with muscle.

The movie paces and runs like a music video: combining gorgeous women (to a point of pure misogyny), gorgeous cars, lots of speed, plenty of quick cuts, and lots of slow-motion shots. James Wan quickly developed a knack of combining music video eye candy material with an abundance of testosterone-laden carnage seamlessly. He is far removed from his low-budget horror days. However this day and age when action buffs have become accustomed to Gareth Evans (*raises hand*), it's slightly tougher to digest the fights and chases that occur here without feeling the slightest bit underwhelmed.

Furious 7 is more of the same, except so much more it really doesn't leave much for the eighth installment. After parachuting from a plane while inside a car, what on earth is there else to do? Fast and Furious has had a fantastic run but with each installment trying to top itself every time it will reach a point in which every scene becomes laughable. When the audience is chuckling and giggling during a serious action sequence, it's not the right reaction, even if the audience won't regret the money spent to get in.

If you are fine with the Fast and Furious series drifting farther and farther away from the lower-key, more urban original flick that started it all, then Furious 7 will entertain you, thrill you, and leave you smiling. If you are looking more for a return to roots, a more realistic approach to vehicular action, run away from this movie. Furious 7 isn't the best, but it's definitely the biggest, and definitely the most emotional of them all. The stuntwork (when actually used) is fantastic, the directing is slick, and it accomplishes what it's set out to do. And lastly, Paul Walker despite his untimely departure cinematically gets to leave in the perfect time.