'Mad Max: Fury Road' Review

Mad Max: Fury Road Review:

In Case ‘Furious 7’ Wasn’t Enough

BY IAN TAN

What a poster

Mad Max: Fury Road comes from Australian director George Miller, the mastermind behind the first three Mad Max films starring Mel Gibson and 2006’s Happy Feet. This time round, Miller’s given a much larger budget to work with, and boy, was that budget well spent. This sequel/reboot of the Mad Max series is set in a post-apocalyptic future where fuel, weapons and water are commodities worth starting a war over, with water being the prime resource everyone can’t have because King Immortan Joe is a selfish man. 

Now, I’ve never seen a Mad Max film, so this was all pretty new for me. For the most part, I really enjoyed this movie. It had thrills, spills, non-stop action and its own unique brand of vehicular warfare and death-defying stunts. Fury Road is filled to the brim with edge-of-your-seat, no holds barred action sequences that are as innovative as they are intense. It’s hard to really pick a favourite action sequence because they were all so good.

Hot wheels

           Most of the stunts were shot practically with minimal use of CGI, which made the action all the more thrilling and realistic. I’m pretty sure most of the explosions in the movie were real; they don’t look like the usual CG explosions most blockbusters are chock-full of. Whenever they did use CGI however, it couldn't have looked better. Subtle things like Furiosa’s (Charlize Theron) mechanical arm and some deformed humans look incredibly real. I also really enjoyed the film’s score and will probably head out to buy it when I get the chance to. I can’t wait to drive with that music on.  The cinematography was great too and the action shot very fluidly with minimal use of handheld cameras, which is a major plus especially if you’re seeing this in 3D or IMAX 3D. I guess a D-Box version of this would be fun too, just keep the seat setting to ‘Low’ unless you want to head out the cinema looking like you’re drunk and can’t walk straight.

The Road Olympics

            Leads Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron do a great job in their respective roles, with Theron getting the bulk of the screen time. Her character really is the one audiences follow the most, being the only character in the film that has anything close to a character arc. Speaking of characters, that’s where this movie (ever so slightly) stumbles. Although everyone does well in their roles, besides Furiosa (Theron), they’re just not given enough character development for them to be memorable. Max’s (Tom Hardy) character is developed mainly through split-second flashbacks in between action scenes every now and then, which simply isn’t enough for him to be a hero we can really root for because -if one hasn't scene the previous Mad Max movies- we don’t really know what his story is and what his motivations are half of the time. 

That James Dean, day dream look in his eyes

           The film’s villain, the aforementioned Immortan Joe, is probably the weakest character in the film. Besides looking imposing and threatening, like Max, he doesn’t really have much of a backstory nor much character development. However, he does have the kind of screen presence that's needed from him as a villain, but the fact that he has little to no scenes with our hero characters makes things less dramatic whenever they do go face-to-face with him. The action’s still intense though, it just doesn’t hit some of the dramatic notes it could have had Immortan Joe been given more depth and interaction with the main characters. Then again, this movie was never meant to be a character study piece so that's just me being a little nit-picky. 

In conclusion, Mad Max: Fury Road is an immensely exhilarating and intense blockbuster action flick that provides all the visuals and stunts the summer movie crowd comes to expect from a film of this nature. Despite some minor setbacks in the character development department, I had a pretty darn good time at the movies watching this.

Final Verdict

Mad Max: Fury Road gets 8.5 out of 10 stars – Worth a watch in the best format you can find.