Mad Max: Fury Road (Movie Review)

Rating:

The 1-4-0: #MadMaxFuryRoad is an artistic rock opera action movie, which is arguably, the best in class the genre has provided for 2015. A tense, visual spectacle that takes the air out of you.

The Gist: In an apocalyptic world, a woman (Charlize Theron) betrays her fellowship to save the lives of several women, but when the clan finds out, they’re out to kill her until a mysterious man named Max (Tom Hardy) helps her achieve her mission while saving himself in the process.

What Works: Visually, Mad Max: Fury Road will go down as one of the more spectacular looking films of the year due to the talents of cinematographer and Oscar winner John Seale (The Talented Mr. Ripley, The English Patient). The screen flows from beautiful hues of orange and blue to tinges of reds and whites creating an unforgettable landscape to the eye. The amount of action Miller provides is overwhelming to the point of exhaustion. You really do get a bang for your buck here. You are also in for a treat since the degree of difficulty to pull these road stunts off are mind-boggling and rival even the original film in its heyday.

What Doesn’t Work: There is very little that doesn’t work… but there are some faults you can look at. This is an action movie that doesn’t really care about expanding on its main characters very much. It’s really all about the action and doesn’t pretend to be anything else but an action film. If Tom Hardy actually has a conversation with anyone in the film, it’s a miracle. According to an interview with George Miller, he said that keeping the dialogue at a minimum was deliberate because it is an Alfred Hitchcock technique he was inspired upon. Since we’re still talking about action, films like this, ones which possess so much of it, can backfire at times. I was wilting towards the last 20 minutes because my satisfaction level had reached a point of excess and the movie experience was becoming a bit cumbersome. Nevertheless, I rather complain about having too much action than barely any at all.

Pay or Nay: Pay. If you love movies with incessant amounts of action, little dialogue, stylish visuals and a heavy metal like soundtrack, you’re going to LOVE this movie. I saw this film in 3D and it feels like I saw it in 2D, nothing popped out. Don’t bother with it, save your money.