Review: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ explosions, grunge and a whole lot of madness

What+a+lovely+day.

“What a lovely day.”

After 36 years, pioneer director George Miller returns to his brainchild in a spectacular, adrenaline-infused rock opera.

In a desolate futuristic world, drifter Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) is taken captive of an automobile-driving tribe only to become entangled between the tribesmen and Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) who seeks asylum for a better quality of life. Max and Furiousa must save what little they have by running through the wasteland, searching  for hope.

Basically, the movie is just a 2-hour long car chase. But it’s the best damn car chase in the history of the world. This movie is nothing short of cinematic gold. Every element, every car, every actor, every thing felt so perfect.

George Miller has been an inspiration for all young aspiring filmmakers all of the world for his work on the original ‘Mad Max,’ and the technical achievement he accomplished on such a minute budget. In ‘Fury Road,’ Miller heads back to his roots and goes with a ton of practical effects (rumored to be 80% practical). This makes the film seem so grounded, for a world that just isn’t so.

The action is probably going to go down as some of the best action… of all time. The action is pedal-to-the-metal from start to finish (car puns), with literally a 5 minute breather with 30 minutes left of the film. The action not only is just so very complex, but looks fantastic. The film is absolutely gorgeous, while shot in the glory of the desolated Australian outback as far from humanity as possible,  shots are breath taking and visual spectacular (one that should’ve been worthy for IMAX).

Hardy and Theron, as well of the rest of the cast, give such unique and flavorful performances, that reflect how in character they got. Hardy was able to take more of the stiff performances by Mel Gibson in the original trilogy and bring a spin to it that made sense, and in fact, elevated the character to a whole new level of interesting.

Theron completely encompasses the femme-fatal role, so-much-so that an argument can be made that this is her movie. In 10 years, Furiosa will go down as one of the great female action heroes of all time along side Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley and Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor. Theron throughout the entire film has such a commanding presence along side the rest of the insanely awesome women in the movie.

On the technical side, Junkie XL’s score is a heart-racing drum galore, while seeming to be having quite the year thus far with numerous A+ original scores. Miller, though the director of the original three, payed homage to them for the hardcore fans with little winks here and there.

In all honesty, there are no major flaws with the film. At times the plot feels a bit weak, but overall does not affect the movie as a whole, as it’s basically just car chase. As fans of ‘Road Warrior,’ some inconsistencies were a little bothersome but again, did’t affect the overall film.

‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ is the best film, so far, this year. Next level action, complex acting and phenomenal directing, drive this film to greatness (or Valhalla).

Tristan’s Final Verdict: 9.3/10

Socrates’ Final Verdict: 9.2/10

This film is rated “R” for intense sequences of violence throughout, and for disturbing images.