Mad Max: Fury Road

To say this film is visually stunning and action-packed is a gross understatement and somewhat of a disservice to director George Miller. This film is spectacular in almost every way a film can be and one of the best, if not the best action film I saw in 2015.The story, despite the future setting and complex tribes therein, is a rather simple case of theft and pursuit. The theft is by Charlize Theron’s character, the Imperator Furiosa, of the leader Immortan Joe’s many young wives and a tanker full of mother’s milk. Max, played by a brooding Tom Hardy is a bit of a bystander initially albeit chained to the front of one of the perusing vehicles driven by a brainwashed Nux played by Nicholas Hoult. Both these male characters soon become embroiled in helping these women escape from the deranged pack of men.In terms of spoken words the script is rather short and takes second stage to a screenplay full of audacious stunts, explosions, car crashes in scene after scene of cleverly assembled and choreographed set pieces. The quieter beats between the mayhem use the desert setting, the sky, lighting and colouring effects in moments of visual poetry. You could watch this film with no sound and still enjoy it more than a lot of films released in 2015. However, don’t, because the soundtrack and sound effects are pretty awesome too. The in-situ drummers and rock guitarist were a brilliant idea and made me think of the Borderlands games – obviously themselves influenced by Mad Max.That’s not to say that the characters, for an action film, aren’t good. Max is haunted by events of his past, so much so that he often hallucinates. It is interesting that the demons that plague him end up helping him to survive. Furiosa with her cleverly CG’d stump and robotic arm has demons of her own and to some extent is simply a female version of Max, although she’s more calculating than she is mad. Once Nux sees beyond his quasi-religious fervour to please Immortan Joe (he fails quite miserably and then very quickly catches the eye of one of the hot harem of Australia’s Next Top Models) he does everything he can to help Max, Furiosa and the other women survive. He is the character who has the most interesting arc from a naïve brainwashed drone to a hero willing to make the ultimate selfless sacrifice. Of the three I think it is fair to say that Charlize Theron delivers the best performance and certainly seems to get more screen time than Hardy or Hoult.At the time of watching I had not seen any of the old Mel Gibson films in their entirety but there’s an assumption that the viewer at least has an idea of this dystopian future premise (as familiar in pop culture folklore as the premise of The Terminator or Jurassic Park I am sure) and there are therefore no explanations beyond some voiceover on the opening credits. There’s so many sequels or reboots these days that waste a lot of time explaining the situation rather than just doling out the action and it’s refreshing that this film isn’t one of them. I felt in no way impeded by not having seen the previous movies. I have since corrected this gap in my life as a cinephile and stick by this review.The only thing that bothered me, and only a little, was that Max didn’t really get to drive his iconic muscle car all that much and as he blends into the crowd at the end of the film I was left hoping he was going to find his car, fix it and appear driving it in a sequel. (And he is, the sequel is called Mad Max: The Wasteland by all accounts).

Decent, prefer the originals but a good movie

It's hysterical reading the negative reviews:"The plot is simplistic- they just drive from A to B and back again"Have a word with yourself will you? MM2: Drive to gas station, drive away, drive back, drive away... MM3: Go to Bartertown;leave Bartertown; return to Bartertown; leave Bartertown... it's Mad Max. It's NEVER done detailed plot beyond driving aimlessly..."The script is awful"- compared to what? "I am the Great Humungos!"? Or "Warrrrrr-kaaaa! Warrrrrrr-kaaa!" Mad Max ALWAYS has cheesy/awful scripts."The acting is awful"? Compared to the OTHER Mad Max films? Let's be honest here- I adored Tina in MM3 but wasn't surprised that she (and no one else) was ever nominated for an Oscar yanno?It's Mad Max. It does what all Mad Max films do-Fast cars, explosions, great driving action sequences, weird costumes, spiky oil tankers, great stunts, end of the world nonsense, excessive bad guys, booom! Ka-pow! Ka-pow! (makes car noises for a few minutes)That's all it was going to be.Unrealistic expectations that somehow it WOULDN'T be a Mad Max film/or myopic belief that anything made in your youth is magically somehow better (they are not remaking Citizen Kane here people- you cannot 'ruin' the original movies- which were just pure ka-pow! ka-pow! BOOM! (car noises) and sped up film the whole time (especially 2 and 3- you know- the actual successful ones) are silly.This is simply- a great big dumb fun movie.Furiosa gets a big thumbs up for being female and hard as nails, and disabled and NOT a love interest and while I loved Gibson as Max, Hardy does just fine. At least he doesn't look like he spent four hours having his hair perfectly back combed!Rent/buy this film, put it on, have big dumb fun, move on. Afterwards maybe try making car noises.

Great

A classic chase movie… limited plot but 100% action.A proper addition to the MadMax legacy

*Summary:This film is a relentless assault on the senses. It's not subtle, that's for sure, and there's little character development. The plot - plot! - parachutes events in so that Max can blow them up, get battered like a haddock, and move on. Don't get me wrong - it is watchable all right but, at the end of the day, it was designed by the corporate computer, not inspired by George Miller's passion like MM 1 & 2.*A bit more detail:The only link this film has with the original movies is ... the name of the character. If you are looking for an equally sombre, dark and above all *personal* saga of gritty revenge and survival, this ain't it. They took the brand name and leveraged it, full stop. If you take it on that basis, and not as a continuation of the original two, then you are OK. In 'The Guardian' this was reviewed as a Charlize Theron-led 'feminist' movie with Mad Max in a subservient role. I see none of that. Yes, MM is not the sole driver (oops) of the action as he was in MM 1 & 2 but, to be fair, he was always an equal opportunities guy who respected anyone - male, female, or considering the options - who demonstrated grit and never gave up. (In a world of survivors, you have to survive.) This isn't really up to the passionate level of the first two, but it's good entertainment just the same, with good production values and a cast who get stuck in.