Mad Max: Fury Road feels like a dare for a director. Try to make a 2 hour car chase film with downtime under 10 minutes, and escalate the action as the movie progresses. While sounding like a dream scenario for teenage boys, Mad Max: Fury Road also has some interesting characters, great cinematography, and a strong feminist undercurrent to appeal to everyone. Plus to attract everyone: gruff Tom Hardy, O.M.G!!!!
Max is part reboot part sequel. Max (Hardy) is a man haunted and hardened by his traumatic past to live only for survival. He is captured into the Citadel of Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), his War Boys, and his ruthless dictatorship, using his water/oil sources as leverage. Max gets dragged out before being murdered by war boy Nux (Nicholas Hoult), who is trying to capture Furiosa (Charlize Theron) for treasonous behavior. Max gets pushed into Furiosa’s issues, and learns there may be other things to live for other than just survival.
George Miller directed Fury Road; Miller also directed the Mel Gibson original Mad Max trilogy, so I think he knows the world he created. Mad Max: Fury Road’s best asset is its world specificity. Deserted Australia is requisitely desolate for the post apocalypse; this world left in its wake has to be pieced and scrapped together. This lived in feel gives the vehicle design an ingenuity normally lacking in blockbusters, and the character design is primal but not simplistic. There is also a strong feminist undercurrent as the women would have an equal opportunity as the men to determine their own fates: its refreshing to see such agency instead of the usual cinematic waiting for a man to save them. The freshness of Mad Max’s world makes it easier for Miller to escalate the action since we have NO idea what could come next.
And oh boy does the action deliver. Once the engines start revving, Mad Max just never slows down. Of course CGI is used, but some of the best pieces use good old fashioned stunts and explosions. The opening chase is 40 minutes of car jumping, explosions, and sandstorming. I was left breathless from just that chase, thinking we would get 20 minutes or so before the next big setpiece, but I only waited 5 minutes as the character building gets done during the chases. There’s enough character building during the oohing and awing to build up enough motivation for the third act, which invents even more creative ways for cars and people atop those cars to battle one another. The constant high makes Mad Max just fly by, leaving a giant high for the audience member.
George Miller’s eye for acting talent elevates the straightforward story. Tom Hardy gets to play stoic and silent but haunted; there’s not a lot for him to do here but growl and look great, which he does. Where Hardy is kinda boring, Charlize Theron is kinda not. The skinhead acting enigma deserves equal billing to Hardy for driving the story (sorry, the pun was too good). This may be a Mad Max film, but it is Furiosa’s story more than Max’s. On the periphery, Nicholas Hoult is great as a war boy, taking a simple character and finding the inner complexity of the man. Zoe Kravitz and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley don’t get enough to do to leave a lasting impact. As our main villain, Hugh Keays-Byrne LOOKS and SOUNDS real creepy, but is Vaderized so as we don’t know if he can act or not.
Summer Blockbusters get more corporatized year to year. However, Mad Max: Fury Road had a fortuitous route to the big screen, which probably helps make it feel a little different. However, the people here are survivors and demand to exist, much like the movie. Via sheer force of will, they won me over. Will, and awesome car chases.