Directed by George Miller
Written by George Miller & Brendan McCarthy & Nick Lathouris
Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Josh Helman, Nathan Jones, Zoë Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton, John Howard, Richard Carter, iOTA, Angus Sampson, Jennifer Hagan, Megan Gale, Melissa Jaffer, Richard Norton
Soundtrack: Junkie XL
Among the ultimate compliments I can pay this film is that after leaving the theater I had an insatiable desire to make my car’s engine ROOAAARRR.
And so I did. As often as I could.
Made it home in record time.
Anyway, if you’ve seen the trailer for this movie (and if you haven’t, just click the picture above), you might wonder if the film can possibly live up to its own brilliantly edited preview. I can say with certainty that Mad Max: Fury Road does live up to its trailer, and perhaps even surpasses the expectations it sets.
What I cannot say for certain is whether this movie is a sequel or a reboot, a question that simultaneously does and does not matter.
One of the beauties of any Mad Max film is that you need not see the previous installment in order to understand the movie you’re currently watching. However, there are little rewards for being caught up, so I was glad I watched the original three films before heading down Fury Road. There aren’t too many explicit callbacks in this new Mad Max, but there are a lot of subtle echoes that fans of the franchise will appreciate (not to mention Hugh Keays-Byrne, aka “The Toecutter” himself from the 1979 original, plays the main baddie in this one, although it’s definitely an entirely separate character; no confusion here, unlike when Bruce Spence played two different pilots in two different movies).
I know that George Miller originally wanted to make this film in the early 2000s, starring Mel Gibson (before a lot of things fell through, making this the Duke Nukem Forever of action movies for a while), so that fact would suggest sequel, but almost everything else points to a reboot, especially “Max” himself; and not just the fact that it’s a different actor, but the character as written on the page. Tom Hardy’s “Max” has definitely had more of his humanity stripped away than Mel’s ever did. I guess this isn’t a bad thing, it’s just an adjustment for anyone already familiar with the franchise.
Other than that key character difference though, my main criticisms of this movie are its length and its questionable protagonist. To be sure, I wouldn’t say that Fury Road ever drags or feels boring, it’s just a little bit of an ice cream headache by the end of its two hour running time (in comparison, Mad Max
But hey! Who cares about all that mamble jamble!?
All you really want to know is whether this movie will totally rock your socks off, right!?
Well, let me tell you, it will.
Whatever minor weaknesses Fury Road has in story and characterization are more than made up for by the visuals. It’s the Maddest Max of them all; equal parts aesthetic beauty and visceral brutality. Quite frankly, in terms of pure cinematic grandeur, it’s the biggest and boldest thing I’ve seen since Interstellar. Not only do I want to see this movie again, I want to see it on the largest screen I can find.
You’ve got to hand it to George Miller. The man knows how to capture desolate places in the most gorgeous way possible, and, despite the fact that Fury Road is basically one-long-full-blast-high-octane-action-scene, I hope it gets some love from the Academy come Oscar season. Sure, it’s not likely to earn a Best Picture nod, but in terms of cinematography, costume and production design, editing, sound, and visual effects, it deserves top marks. It’s especially impressive given that it “only” cost $150 million, seeing as how many of the biggest movies these days are being made for well more than that.
And did I mention the ridiculous cars? If you thought the vehicle design in Furious 7 was gratuitously awesome, wait til you see what Fury Road has in store for you.
My ultimate point is that going to the movies is an expensive proposition these days, and more and more people are becoming more and more picky about what they actually pay money to see in theaters. Well, my friends, Fury Road is definitely one that’s worth the cost, because this Mad Max might just go down as The Greatest Show of 2015. It’s an incredible spectacle.
And, if you’re someone who doesn’t just want an “experience”, but something deeper, there’s plenty of material for you to work with here. I just didn’t pay it all that much mind, what with all the explosions and everything.
Is it the best Mad Max of them all? Hard to say. I think The Road Warrior will always be my favorite, but maybe the question doesn’t even matter.
All that does matter is that you see this movie as George Miller intended, because it’s totally worth it.
“I live. I die. I live again.”
Rating: ★★★★½
P.S.
Speaking of $200 million movies, there’s almost a handful of nouveau X-Men alumni in the cast: Nicholas Hoult (Young Beast), Josh Helman (‘Lil Willie Stryker), Zoë Kravitz (Angel Salvadore), and even Hugh Jackman’s personal double, Taris Tyler, had some involvement. This is totally irrelevant to Max Max: Fury Road, but as an avid moviegoer it was definitely something I noticed.
Carry on.