In this age of sequels and reboots, Hollywood is going back to a lot of known franchises and cult favorite characters, and the results aren’t always pleasant. When I first heard there was going to be a new Mad Max movie starring Tom Hardy, I wasn’t sure what to think. I like Tom Hardy, he’s definitely a great as an actor so that wasn’t the issue… then I heard George Miller was coming back to the franchise he created to direct the new one. Suddenly I got very optimistic. It’s somewhat amusing to think that Miller, after giving us the high octane post-apocalyptic Australian classics so many years ago, is the same man who later directed BABE and the two HAPPY FEET movies. Could a guy like that ever hope to re-capture the style and spirit of his original films once more? You better believe it.
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD opens with a pretty strong assumption – that we the audience know what we’re getting into. There’s only brief flashes of anything resembling a back story, but if you know the character of Max you’ll know that doesn’t matter too terribly much. Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) is a rebel in a fast car, trying to escape the haunting memories of his wife and child who were killed in the world of chaos he exists in. He couldn’t save them, and it haunts him forever. Max is captured by soldiers working for the power hungry Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), an evil man who rules over the poor and dying masses in his territory, selfishly controlling the water supply and breeding with a harem against their will. Joe sends his trusted fuel tanker driver Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) on a mission, but she has her own plans, and is secretly smuggling some of the young girls held captive by her horrible boss. When Joe learns of her deception, he rounds up all of his soldiers to pursue, including the enthusiastic and ambitious Nux (Nicholas Hoult) who is using Max as a living blood bag for transfusion. With the mysterious stranger strapped to a hood, these guys head out in hot pursuit of their defector, but they have no idea what kind of man they’re taking with them.
You don’t have to worry about me spoiling the story here, as there’s really not much story to speak of. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD is basically broken up into four parts – Max falling into Joe’s grasp, a giant desert car battle that facilitates his escape, our hero joining forces with Imperator Furiosa, and the big and inevitable final battle. There’s actually not even much dialogue to clutter things up as we go. Bottom line, if you’re expecting a thought out dramatic story, you’ll be disappointed. But if you’re in this for the carnage (“car-nage” maybe?) and action, you’re going to have your mind blown. Miller takes the sensibilities of his original Max adventures and ramps everything up to insane degrees. When a car crashes, it doesn’t just crash quickly, but rather flips through the air in almost impossible ways and blows up in the most spectacular style. Every time a vehicle hits another it’s jarring, every person seen jumping on a car looks like an insane animal – it is quite simply an incredible blend of chaotic action in the most beautiful way. And the best part is with certain necessary exceptions, a lot of what you’re seeing was done for real, without heavy assists from CGI artists. Every penny of the reported $100-million dollar budget is on screen, and not a single frame of film is wasted. In the one or two sequences where things slow down a bit so characters can interact, we’re almost thankful for a chance to catch our breath. This is quite simply the best action you’ll see in any movie this year, period.
Tom Hardy’s take on Max is of course the strong silent type, never trying to emulate what Mel Gibson did with the character in his three films, but it works as it is just fine regardless. I imagine there could have been a tiny bit more in flashback to show how this character came to be, but chances are the audience won’t mind what isn’t there – they’ll be too distracted clutching the sides of their theater chair in amazement to what they’re watching. You can also tell that much of what you see Max doing on screen is actually Tom Hardy doing it, which is something I greatly appreciated. Charlize Theron will likely be the character most will be talking about after the film, as her strong and determined role of Imperator Furiosa is a refreshing addition to the Mad Max universe. We’ve seen strong women in these films before, but nothing quite like this. She’s like T2‘s Sarah Conner and THE AVENGERS Black Widow rolled into one dangerous and intimidating package. She holds her own against Max or any other attacking males in the movie, and looks great in every scene, no matter the circumstances. There’s been some odd backlash from a select few over women taking more of a leading role in this outing, since Theron and the refugees she’s helping escape (played boldly by ZoĆ« Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Abbey Lee and Courtney Eaton) take up a lot of screen time and focus in the story. But I never saw that as a feminist move or forced female agenda, despite the comments I’ve read elsewhere – some people will try to find fault in whatever they can these days. If anything these ladies fit right in and felt right, at least in this critic’s opinion. Nicholas Hoult is pretty great as the ambitious soldier Nux, who wants so badly to enter Valhalla in a blaze of glory, making his master happy. You could almost call him the comic relief, but it’s a character that thankfully never feels silly, and works well in the scenes he shares with the others throughout the film. I also want to give kudos to Miller for casting Hugh Keays-Byrne as Immortan Joe – he played Toecutter in the original MAD MAX, and while it’s a nice sprinkle of nostalgia to include him here, he’s also rather terrific in this role. Immortan Joe is mostly covered by armor and a frightening face mask, so Hugh Keays-Byrne has to convey the bulk of his menace through his eyes and body language, and he’s quite frankly a wonderful villain.
Everything about this experience looks and feels right, even the pulse-pounding score by Junkie XL, which is intense and angry when it needs to be, and haunting and melancholy in the right moments. As someone who appreciates film scores, this is one I will be picking up for repeat listening. George Miller hasn’t made a Max movie in 30 years, and yet somehow he’s gained a step in that time. This film is crazier and more effective than most of what today’s flashy and overpaid popcorn filmmakers churn out. I also respected the way Miller restrained the violence where he easily could have exploited it. There are moments where horrible deaths are implied rather than shown, and it keeps the production from feeling gratuitous or overplayed. This is something the director excelled at in the originals, and here he handles even better. If you love the old school Max movies, you’re going to be in cinematic heaven with MAD MAX: FURY ROAD. At this point I hope Hollywood finds a superhero film project for Miller to tackle (he almost made a JUSTICE LEAGUE movie in 2007), or perhaps a FAST & FURIOUS movie in the desert… my God, can you imagine?
I was @ the same screening and I enjoyed the film, really I did. For me though the first half to 2/3 of it was very, very cool but after that it kinda not fell flat for me but it waned a little. The ending was nice as well. Just that last 1/3 was a little meh for me; I really got tried of the dessert. Still a good watch and very entertaining and the character development was awesome.