This may come as a surprise to those who are reading this review: I have never seen a “Fast & Furious” movie before. That being said, I do not entirely live under a rock. One can assume what a film might be just by the name and a few images alone.

For example, if you came across someone who has never watched “Star Trek,” and you ask them what they think it is about, nine times out of 10, their answer will be somewhere along the lines of “It is about space, right?” So it goes with the “Fast & Furious” series. It is about fast cars, underground racing leagues and, apparently, the military, sexy women, roaring engines, big garages and revenge.

When I told some people that I would be seeing “Furious 7,” they said I would need to marathon the other six movies. I disagree.

I think that if a film wants to tell a story, it does not need to depend on previous installments for an audience to understand what is going on. With every sequel, filmmakers need to keep in mind the small percentage of moviegoers who have not seen the other films. “Furious 7” addresses that well. There are enough flashbacks and explanations for someone who is new to it, like me.

Furthermore, the flashbacks are important for those who are seeing “Furious 7” and Paul Walker’s final film. Maybe audiences have heard of “Fast and Furious” before and wanted to give it a chance, but never got around to it. They have probably been turned off by the pre-conceived notion that the story would be too thin and, while they might be half-right, it is nice to see a movie like “Furious 7” at least trying. There is a good story here, surprisingly. The trailer had me scratching my head (like most people, I am assuming), wondering why a plane was dropping cars from 20,000 feet up in the air.

Sitting down and watching it is a joy. There is just enough pretense and motivation for you to anticipate what is going to happen next. That is how an action movie should be handled.

Questions of logic are brought up between characters to combat the ridiculousness of what you are seeing. The action is not so much about the action, while there is plenty of it. It is more about the internalizations of the characters and their struggle to take down Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), a man hell-bent on taking out Agent Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) for putting his younger brother in an English hospital.

This was nicely explained in the first 15 minutes. Shaw’s motivations were properly laid out in a cinematic language; something I did not expect from a series like this. Maybe the change in director from Justin Lin to James Wan has something to do with that; but, unfortunately, I cannot definitively say that is the reason.

The four major action scenes were dazzling and fresh, each with its individual story. Perhaps it gets too formulaic, but I can give it a pass, because the characters put themselves in daring situations and an audience member will always wonder how they are going to get out of it alive. The film handles its main focus well.

The major theme of the movie, beside revenge, is the idea of “family” and the gang’s strong family network, where they stayed in sync and accomplished daredevil acts without a moment’s hesitation.

Halfway through, one character says, “Only two things keep a group together: Fear or loyalty.” And it takes a great deal of loyalty to trust that a guy driving a Subaru Impreza at 90 mph will take down the back door of a double-sized bus with his teammate, while taking out two enemy cars on a narrow windy road near the edge of a cliff.

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