George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Movie Review

George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Movie Review

Cast: Tom Hardy(from Dark Knight Rises), Charlize Theron(from Prometheus), Nicholas Hoult(from X-Men: Days Of Future Past), Hugh Keays Byrne(from Mad Max), Josh Helman(also from X-Men: Days Of Future Past), Nathan Jones(from Troy), Zoe Kravitz(from Divergent), Rosie Huntington Whiteley(from Transformers: Dark Of The Moon), Riley Keough(from Magic Mike), Abbey Lee(from the upcoming Neon Demons), newcomer Courtney Eaton, Richard Carter(from Rake), Angus Sampson(from Insidious) & Megan Gale(from The Water Diviner).

Director: George Miller

Music: Junkie XL

Written By: George Miller, Brendan McCarthy and Nick Lathouris

Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.

Set in a post-bellum waste land. Mad Max: Fury Road introduces us once again to the lone wolf. Max [Tom Hardy], who ends up in the hands of evil half-lifes warlord Immortan Joe [Hugh Keays Byrne]. When on a quotidian run to enquire gasoline, Imperator Furiosa [Chelize Theron] stages up a coup to escape with the war-rig and to free Immortan Joe’s wives from their tyrannous husband. As Immortan Joe and allies amass to chase them down, Furiosa and Max search for Green Land to escape to, biding their time and taking all means necessary to outwit and outlast Joe in the vast wasteland.

Max Rockatansky may be the title character of this movie, but in truth his role serves more of a supporting function. Picking up the baton from an icon like Mel Gibson is not so easy feat, but Tom Hardy slips into Mad Max quite easily. Hardy has a knack for showing his characters always thinking and reacting, providing an inner life for them when they are not speaking, this making him ideal successor. Max character arc in this film is somewhat minimal one, but Hardy makes most of every moment, whether its action or moment of solace. Indeed, Max’s purpose in this film is subservient to Furiosa, as it’s her personal story that provides the human heart to the surrounding action hurricane. Theron once again proves her skills, whether going head to head with the Joe or tire to tire with warlords army. She and the Joe’s wives might have used a bit more character individualization and texture, but it’s still quite energizing to see them largely front and the center in a male dominant world. The remainder of the cast is as flat out and weird as has ever been assembled for a studio blockbuster.

In thirty years of absence from the screen Miller’s universe has gone completely irredeemably, stark raving mad. Fury Road acts more like a spiritual successor to The Road Warrior in sense of structure, execution and elemental requirement. The narrow line functions merely as the model for the chase that prevails nearly the entire run-time. In any other movie this might have been a negative, but deeper plot would have only added more weight to the speed that this 2000 horse power moves at. Persistent is the only word to depict the pace as it wastes no time in establishing the main characters and setting with great ease. This is mostly down to a stripped bare script that mavens the ability to show instead of tell, with many characters speaking as rarely as the main lead himself and acting on impulse to convey motive.

To start off, rather than building slowly up to the climax, Miller cuts the film right to the chase, and plays like a near two hour version of the armed rig pursuit at the end of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. In order to keep adrenaline rush going, Miller keeps stroking stunts with the blasts and scads of carny gravity-resisting stunts, epic imitations and the occasional slush of stringy countless CGI.

The cinematography immediately jumps out as impressive, bucking the temptation of a drab dim colours for post-apocalyptic era. Instead, the film is vibrant in colours of red [blue at nights] making the explosions and screaming car chases visually popping. The costume and Art work brings the characters to life in a world that fully realized from the mind of great Miller. It’s strange and unrealistic as the world may be, Miller is able to immerse us in the terrain and landscape, making the action that much more intense and mad. The sound design and Junkie XL background music is just fantastic. Mad Max: Fury Road completely deserves nominations for both sound categories in Oscars. I would recommend you to watch the flick in 2D as 3D washes out the vibrant colorful palette and makes it a bit dark and impregnate film. I didn’t see it IMAX.

Bah!! Mediocrity!! Shouts Immortan Joe as Nux disappoints him. But this could have been George Miller’s response to Action cinema from past few decades. He returns to Action films with fierce, nervy, jaw-dropping visuals in a fucking loud volume. Though Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior still stands as monarch of the series. Suffice to say, Mad Max: Fury Road is as mad and furious as an action adventure movie can be.

Survi Review: 3.5/5 (rated 0.25 More for Junkie XL Background Score)