Movie Review: Mad Max: Fury Road

Mad Max: Fury Road
Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, Kennedy Miller Productions, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, South Africa, Australia, USA, 2015. 

Several years after nuclear war and the collapse of civilization Max (Tom Hardy) is haunted by all the lives he could not save. He is abducted and forced to become a blood donor for army of despotic ruler Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). Joe oppresses the people who have to worship him as a god. Joe's most trusted warrior Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) steals something from Joe, so Joe sends his army after her. Max is taken along as a living blood bag. 

Max

Imperator Furiosa

Immortan Joe

Max manages to escape and reluctantly allies with Furiosa and her cargo. Joe's allies the Bullet Farmers and the Gas Towners join the chase. Trip through hellish landscape can start. The odds are against Max and Furiosa but sometimes allies can come from surprising people. 

Compared to the original trilogy there are some differences in the timeline as in the first movie Max was somewhere between 20 and 30, and it is implicated that over twenty years have passed since the apocalypse so Max should be middle-aged now. Now he looks quite young for his age. Also the fate of some characters is left on the cutting table (the deleted scenes extras reveal some of the mysteries).

Doomsday rally

Miller takes the elements of one of the most influential post-apocalyptic action films "Mad Max: The Road Warrior" and makes it even more insane. Mutant freak bad guys, crazy acrobatic henchmen and badass vehicles. Couple of the vehicles seem to be inspired by spiked VW Beetle from "The Cars that ate Paris." There are war drummers and a blind dude playing electric guitar. And biker grannies. The CGI-enhanced action scenes use refreshing amount of real vehicles and stunts. The action scenes look epic and fill most of the film's duration, this is like "Hard Boiled" of car chase movies.

Nux

Spiked Beetle

After the energetic start there comes tranquil moments crucial to character development and the Mad Max Universe. Beneath all the craziness lies an inspirational story with even some touching scenes. The heroes are all in someway damaged or abused and have lost their humanity and reason to live, just trying to stay alive. In the beginning Max is an hunted animal caring nothing else than surviving. Furiosa is chasing dream that proves to be false. It is interesting to see how the trust between Max and Furiosa rises through their mutual actions after a rough start. Strong emotions are expressed with minimal dialogue. Unlikely alliances form and War Boy Nux (Nicholas Hoult) rises from fanatical foot soldier to tragic heroic figure. At first Nux is brainwashed by Joe and he seeks only heroic death on the Fury Road. In the end Max finds a temporary reason to help others to avoid the path he has chosen for himself and his demons of his past seem to accept the decision. Furiosa finds a more realistic dream and Nux finds a real reason to fight for. Furiosa goes straight in the pantheon of great action-film female heroes.

In the era of generic looking action epics, newest Mad Max is an insanely energetic action film that has not sacrifized the quirky Australian style of the prequels.

My ranking of the Mad Max movies:

1. Road Warrior
2. Fury Road
3. Beyond Thunderdome
4. Mad Max

Rating: Very good

Starring: 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, Melita Jurisic, Gillian Jones, Joy Smithers, Antoinette Kellermann, Christina Koch, Jon Iles, Quentin Kenihan, Coco Jack Gillies, Chris Patton, Stephen Dunlevy, Richard Norton, Vincent Roxburgh, John Walton, Ben Smith-Petersen, Russ McCarroll, Judd Wild, Elizabeth Cunico, Greg van Borssum, Robert Jones, Sebastian Dickins, Darren Mitchell, Crusoe Kurddal, Shyan Tonga, Cass Cumerford, Albert Lee, Riley Paton, Ripley Voeten, Macyn Van Borssum, Hunter Stratton Boland, Nathan Jenkins, Fletcher Gill, Whiley Toll, Ferdinand Hengombe, Gadaffi Davsab, Noddy Alfred, Jackson Hengombe, Christian Fane, Callum Gallagher, Abel Hofflin, Lee Perry 

Director: George Miller