14 DAY TRIAL // The first “Mad Max” film from writer / director George Miller came out in 1979 and was dubbed the “Citizen Kane” of Australian exploitation flicks. The last one in the trilogy, “Beyond Thunderdome,” came out 30 years ago, but “Fury Road” proves that the franchise has not lost its soul and fire in the sea of remakes, reboots and lazy action blockbusters Hollywood is pushing on us.
“Mad Max: Fury Road” sees Miller return to the insane universe he created decades ago, with a pair of younger leads in lieu of Mel Gibson, Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, and deliver one of the most ferocious, good looking, thrilling and surprisingly tender action films of recent years.
Brace yourself for a ride like no other.
“Oh, what a day! What a lovely day!”
“Fury Road” brings us back to the Wasteland, the generic name for the post-apocalyptic world where the most valuable possessions are fuel (“guzzoline”) and water. And good, clean, beautiful breeding female stock, the kind Immortan Joe (franchise regular Hugh Keays-Byrne) would spare no expense to get back.
Max Rockatansky (Hardy) is captured by the demented War Boys and brought to the Citadel to be appraised and labeled like the savage slave that he is. Immortan Joe (“Daddy”) rules the Citadel by controlling the supplies of both fuel and water, and by promises of eternal life in Valhalla by his side.
He is as sick as they come, both physically and mentally, hiding his deformed, aging body under a strange armor that creates the illusion of youth, while breathing clean air through his face mask. He is also crazy enough to launch a war when one of his commanders, Imperator Furiosa (Theron), steals from him.
The entire film plays out like a continuous chase: for Joe to get his Wives back from Furiosa, and for Furiosa and Max to survive whomever is coming after them. Miller had said before release that he wanted viewers to perceive the entire film as a single car chase, to create the illusion that they were part of it as well.
Mission accomplished: “Fury Road” is relentless in its progress, but at the same time, beautifully balanced and planned out to a T. Unlike in most action movies these days, viewers never lose track of what is happening on screen (even though there’s a lot of that!) or the sense of imminent danger.
Miller is like a juggler who has so many balls in the air that it would be impossible to count them all, but somehow, he never drops one. In the process, he grabs and takes viewers into a world so violent, so hopeless, desperate and so… mad that they might find themselves reeling for many minutes afterwards.
Solid performances by the leading cast
Like in the original trilogy, Max is an existential hero and not exactly the central character of the story, even though, yes, that’s his name in the title.
From day one, Max’s appeal has been so great because, ultimately, he’s just a broken, regular guy thrown into extraordinary circumstances which reveal to him he’s capable of extraordinary things. He is tormented and has lost all hope, he is a drifter and (initially) can’t be bothered to get involved into other people’s problems unless he gets some kind of practical advantage from it.
Max is human.
Tom Hardy, known for his ability to carry very physical roles and for his gravitas, brings a certain sense of contained danger to Max, making him as human as he should be in the process. He has about 20 lines in total in the entire film and spends the first act of it in a face mask, but he stands out: his Max is reliable, strong and courageous, and might even be able to offer some hope in this hopeless world.
However, it’s Theron’s Furiosa who steals the spotlight: this is, after all, her story. Just like Max, Furiosa too has been bent and broken, and hurt in ways she didn’t even imagine existed, but she soldiers on. Theron portrays her with a certain abandon, thus delivering one of the strongest and best defined female characters in a modern action movie.
Superb cinematography, outrageous vehicular mayhem
For “Fury Road,” Miller teamed up again with Oscar-winning cinematographer John Seale (“The English Patient,” “Rain Man”) and the effect is nothing short of a gorgeous tableau of post-apocalyptic violence. Everything from the choreography to the composition of scenes of action is flawless.
With all that, not for once does it feel like anything in the film is gratuitous, no matter how many bodies, trucks or rigs are thrown into the air, engulfed in flames. “Fury Road” is not a glorification of violence: it is violence as the only form of expression in a world that lives by the code of honor of violence.
“Mad Max: Fury Road” is rated R for intense sequences of violence throughout, and for disturbing images, and opens wide today, Friday, May 15, 2015, in both 2D and 3D. It ends its run in Japan, on June 20.
The Good
Breathtaking cinematography, solid acting, good writing, outstanding CGI and unparalleled stunt work, and a relentless pace make it the most exhilarating, ferocious and good-looking release of the year, if not of the past 10 years.
The Bad
It is not without flaw, but it easily compensates for that by being the gutsiest release of recent years. In every aspect you could think of.
The Truth
But for the fans of the classic franchise and of action movies in general, it’s a delight like no other, a gargantuan symphony of mayhem that brings a new, glorious meaning to the phrase “road rage.”
