My name is Max. My world is fire and blood… And it’s fucking awesome. Welcome to Mad Max: Fury Road, a two-hour romp through a post apocalyptic hellscape of desert, cars, and mayhem. This movie knows exactly what it is and thank God for that. It’s not here to win awards and it doesn’t want to challenge your view on life’s important issues, this movie wants to get your adrenaline pumping and your heart racing with nonstop action while you shovel delicious nachos into your mouth and wash them down with overpriced-yet-fizzy sugar water. Bring on the summer movie season!
The movie starts at about a ten, intensity wise. Max (Tom Hardy) is running from some pretty scary looking people covered in tumors and what appears to be white paint (meet the War Boys). This movie is here to knock you on your ass and it does that, over and over and over. And it’s apparent that Miller and co. have opted out of being concerned with dialogue, even while boasting such a brilliant cast, but what the film lacks there, it makes up for dazzling visual displays of vehicular carnage.
George Miller (the writer/director of the original films as well as this one) has stated that this movie isn’t a reboot, but it’s also not exactly a sequel and it definitely isn’t a prequel. So, it’s hard to say where Fury Road lives in the chronology of the original films as it seems even the cast and crew aren’t concerned with it. I would say it’s similar to the James Bond franchise when someone new takes over the main role. It’s the same characters, the same world, but there’s a bit of a twist. Let’s call it a ‘re-imagination’.
In the current climate of R rated sci-fi/action films in danger of being replaced by PG-13 drivel so studios can make more money, Mad Max takes a stand and earns its keep in the grown-up world. This is the type of big, expensive, action movie America is known for, and the world George Miller created is breathtaking with exceptional attention to detail.
Look out for scene-stealing Nicholas Hoult. He’s so brilliant in this role that I didn’t even recognize him. Long gone is the awkward boy from About a Boy, and the handsome-yet-doofy scientist from X-Men. Meet Nux, an ill psychopath that longs to die in battle so he can enter the gates of Valhalla.
Hands down, this is the best action movie I’ve seen in years, there could have been a little more character development given the wonderful actors they had to work with, but let’s hope for that in the sequels.
See it in theater / Wait for DVD / Skip it: Absolutely see this movie in the theater; it is a spectacle to behold on the big screen.
