“See You Again” Review

On April 3, 2015 the movie Furious 7, out of the Fast & Furious series, was released.
This movie has generated massive emotional appeal from audiences around the world,
in accordance with the death of one of the movie’s stars- Paul Walker.  The movie was
completed with Computer Generated Images (CGI) of his face over his two brother’s
bodies.  However, the most emotional point of the movie (there can be no argument
here) is the introduction of the end scene where *Spoiler Alert* Dom (Vin Diesel) forgets
to say goodbye to Brian (Paul Walker) and Brian subsequently catches up to him in his
own car (the cars they both met each other in) and they have one final race to say
goodbye – as you see Brian take his own curve away driving into the distance (which is,
most likely, a metaphor for heaven).  But, even with all of that said, the scene is not
made by the metaphors, beautiful camera work and scenery, but it is made by Wiz
Khalifa’s new song – “See You Again” – featuring Charlie Puth.

This song has catapulted from #10 to #1 on Billboard’s Top 100 in a matter of days,
finally knocking Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” off of the number one slot that he has held
for the past 14 weeks.  There is reason for this, however, and that reason is the “power
of music”.  If I haven’t stressed this enough in my blog, it is the fact that music has the
power to do great things and this is just another example of that.  This song, in a way,
speaks across worlds; with the cast (essentially his friends: Tyrese Gibson, Vin Diesel,
Ludacris, etc.) honoring him in the after-life.  They are expressing their love for him and
how they will “tell [him] all about it when [they] see him again.”

The song opens with Charlie Puth’s buttery vocals hitting a chord in people’s hearts with
a short, simple, but powerful lyric – “It’s been a long day with you my friend.”  With this
the audience is immediately captured with emotion and connects with Vin Diesel during
the scene, whether they are mourning the loss of a great actor, in Paul Walker, or if they
are connecting with a loss of someone in their own lives – physically and/or emotionally.
Then, Wiz Khalifa comes in with his very meaningful verses depicting the fact that
“family is all that we got.”

All in all, the song is a very good one on the surface, with great shifts in emotion and
vocals coupled with Wiz’s nice flowing lyrics.  However, the song is an even better one
when looked at deeper.  It shows that there is never a “goodbye,” which is what Vin
Diesel says to Paul Walker in the movie.  They are simply saying that they are going to
see him gain in the next life.  The ending of the song (in the music video) matches the
end of the movie with that same scene of Paul Walker taking his own path (to heaven)
and driving away as Vin Diesel stays straight on his path of life which will inevitably and
as well.