Movie Review – Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough, and Nathan Jones
“I live, I die, I live again!”
Leave it up to two guys in their 70s to teach filmmakers half their age and younger how it’s done. Action films have long been the go-to for people who like to, and this is a phrase I HATE using, turn off their brain and watch. 70 year old doctor turned filmmaker George Miller first ferociously introduced us to the character of Mad Max in 1982, starring a then 23 year old Mel Gibson as the title character, who is a vengeance driven warrior. After two subsequently successful sequels, Miller relegated himself to many different genres, from the big budget star studded fantasy/comedy Witches of Eastwick to family films such as the two Babe films and the Oscar winning animated movie Happy Feet. With Miller’s kids now grown up, he brought John Seale, the 72 year old cinematographer of movies like Rain Man and The English Patient out of retirement to make a brand new sequel to his three previous thrashing action pieces. Mad Max: Fury Road, their resulting film, ended up being one of the most enjoyable and fun movie going experiences I have had this year.
Now I have a confession I should state right now. Going into this screening of Mad Max: Fury Road, I had never seen one Mad Max film. The closest I had ever come to watching a movie in the series was when my father would play Beyond Thunderdome star Tina Turner’s song We Don’t Need Another Hero while driving me to school for a week straight back in 1987. The thing is, I never had the urge to watch them, as they always seemed like cheaper, dirtier, and grungier versions of the action films I grew up with. On top of that, besides last year’s gripping film Locke, I have never been a huge fan of Hardy’s. So I walked in Mad Max: Fury Road cautiously pessimistic. But from his pulse-pounding opening chase all the way to his thrilling finale, Miller stomped all over any type of pessimism I had walking in, and I honestly feel Fury Road will more than satisfy Mad Max enthusiasts and excitingly entice newcomers alike.
Set in a post apocalyptic world, Mad Max: Fury Road doesn’t have much of a story. And believe it or not, that is a straight on compliment. Because how many times have we seen action films get bogged down in pretentious exposition while setting up action scenes that are glossed over with an over abundance of CGI? Fast & Furious series, I’m talking to you. Miller trusts his audience to connect the dots and uses each frame of his film to get us from point A to point B without taking unnecessary zigzags in between. Fury Road starts us off with a bombastically joyous chase scene which gets Max (Hardy) caught and brought before masked Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). After lead slave/worshipper Furiosa (Theron) seems to turn against her leader, Max gets sucked into the main plot, as he is strapped to the top of a car because of his ‘blood bank,’ which I am not going to describe here. But I will say this is one of many innovative points of interest in Fury Road. Eventually, Max ends up helping Furiosa and her band of rebels, which includes ex Bay-formers girl Whiteley, who goes against the sexpot-type she played in that fighting robot filled franchise to turn up as a dirtied and pregnant character by the name of Splendid. Yes you read that right, and yes her character matches her namesake.
Hardy does a fine job of taking the reigns from Gibson without threatening the ghost of those former films. I must reiterate that I was not fully confident that I would buy him in any sort of action hero role. What works for Hardy here is that he is a part of the action without carrying any type of heroism. He is a bystander, living only to carry on the vengeance he acquired after the long ago death of his wife and child. Hardy wears this face well, and I look forward to more of his, uhhh, accidently falling into adventure stories.
With Hardy in witness mode, that leaves Theron’s Furiosa as the film’s main focus. A sure to be cos-play hit at this year’s Cons, Furiosa is a revelation of character complicity. Theron obviously worked out hard for the role as she handles herself well in the film’s action scenes, and all the people screaming anti-feminism remarks about the film’s advertising really have no idea what the hell they are talking about. Her hairless, ass kicking with a touch of womanly tenderness made for the strongest onscreen bald female character since Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in Alien 3.
As good as Theron was, the real revelation to me was an almost unrecognizable Hoult as hilariously bizarre Dux. Hoult (Beast in the last two X-Men films) steals almost every scene he is in. As does Keough (daughter of Lisa Marie Pressley) who takes a role that could have been one note and makes it stick out in a movie which revolves around its next exciting chase. Notice none of these descriptions involve me delving into the performances or way of pulling off a complex character arc. The reason for this is because Mad Max: Fury Road is not a movie that does any form of character building whatsoever. While this would be a detriment to most films, Miller builds on this seeming lack of characterization by amping up the intensity. He intermittently points the camera toward the film’s grainy gold and brown post apocalyptic world and forces his audience to wait with baited breath for the film’s next action scene.
The very first sentence of this review might have been a little harsh. Even the completely preposterous Fast & Furious movies and widely panned yet wholly successful Transformers films have their place. What I will say is that Miller has done the impossible in creating a visually stunning and incredibly immersive action film in a mostly practical world. High-octane action is on full throttle in Mad Max: Fury Road, and I question whether you will have a better time at the movies this year.
Now if you will excuse me. I have three previous movies to watch.
8 out of 10
FDM
May 13, 2015 @ 1:42 am
Great review! I didn’t think I could get any more pumped for this movie, I was wrong!
Can’t wait.