Review: Mad Max: Fury Road (I keep trying to call it Road Fury!)

[beren_writes]

Title: Max Max: Fury Road
Rating: 15
Cast:
Tom Hardy ... Max Rockatansky
Charlize Theron ... Imperator Furiosa
Nicholas Hoult ... Nux
Hugh Keays-Byrne ... Immortan Joe
(there are many, many wonderful others, but I'm not going to list them all)
Summary:
When Imperator Furiosa flees the Citadel and Immortan Joe with his wives, seeking the green place in a post apocalyptic wasteland, she accidentally helps free Max, a prisoner of Immortan Joe being used as a universal donor for his War Boy Nux. Running from Immortan Joe and his allies they team up to survive and escape.

So I saw this film on Thursday last week and I really enjoyed it. The characters are awesome, the stunts are amazing and it dragged me right in.

My husband on the other hand was bored out of his skull - and no, he says it has nothing to do with the fact the film should really be called "Furious Furiosa and Mad Max". He felt that the whole film was one long bunch of the same thing and the first time it was spectacular, but two hours of it left him cold.

I on the other hand thought the battles were amazing and all slightly different and that the characters elevated the whole thing to a new level.

I love Furiosa, I love Max, I love the Wives, I love Nux, I even love Immortan Joe, despotic bastard that he is. They all make this a fantastic film. All of them evolve over the film, even the bad guy, and that is a true achievement. These are not static characters there simply to fill a hole, they react, they grow, they change, and in some cases they break.

I have read many articles on how this is a feminist movie and one or two on how, actually it isn't a feminist movie, and many people have talked about this much better than I can, so all I have to say is this: Mad Max Fury Road has the most brilliant female characters.

There is also no denying how spectacular this film is on a visual level. Be warned, there is very little respite from the amazing stunts and effects. The majority of this movie is a road battle with big rigs, cars, tanks, bikes and anything else of a vehicular nature and it's stunning. Guns, fire, knives, men on bendy poles - it has everything.

That being said, however, I would have liked the end to be a little more climactic. Because most of the film is so big, the end felt just a little bit not big enough. I know, I know, I'm being picky, but I almost missed the most important part of the final battle - I suspect because of the 15 rating actually. It wasn't as gory as it could have been. Most of the film worked really well at a 15, but not that one part. On a rewatch I may feel differently, but not at the moment.

This is a first class, character driven, action movie - not a phrase I thought I would ever use ;). I really enjoyed it and it will be on my pre-order list very shortly. However, I have had to promise that I will never make my husband sit through it again.

Have you seen Mad Max: Fury Road? Did you enjoy it? If you haven't seen it are you going to?

Comments

[frith]

I agree that it was a visually rich movie with lots of wonderful little details, like the two-headed lizard, Furiosa's mechanical arm and the ridiculous flaming guitar player sleeping while still strapped into his harness. Otherwise, it was a bit lifeless as a narrative. Flee, change plans, go back and be welcomed as the new boss? As for character development, Max, who never seemed to have a goal to begin with, throwing his lot in with Furiosa makes sense. Nux switching sides like that... not so much. The various degrees of commitment of the "brides" was perfect.

I felt like I was thrown into a post-apocalyptic desert with very little to go on to understand how long it had taken to reach this stage, how extensive it was, and what was it with Max's flashbacks?

How long did she say they could go on their bikes? 120 days? Let's say 10 hours a day, 50 km/h, that's 60,000 km. Australia is about 4,000 km across. So they could drive clear around the world and not find anything? (Those motor bikes are some efficient!) Still the plan to conquer the place you know beats a drive into the unknown... except for the conquering part.

[beren_writes]

I really liked Nux's character development - I think he was simply broken after what happened with Immortan Joe and someone showing him sympathy blew his mind.

I didn't attempt to analyse the science - I figured it was probably pointless ;) It made about as much sense as Thunderdome ... That is interesting maths ... I fear it was not thought through.

[frith]

I figure I misremember the details and that it wasn't "enough fuel for 120 days" because it would be just too silly to state that it wasn't enough to cross some desert.

Yee...ess, Nux was showing signs that his 'metal head viking warrior' demeanor was a bit shaky, so I guess that when his Valhalla dream got shattered, he was ready to choose a new path to glory. Maybe. ^_^

[beren_writes]

Most of the details have gone from my head, I just remember thinking, that must be a hell of lot of fuel, but then, given that it's such a rare substance, no one seemed to have any problem with it throughout the whole movie :)

If you indoctrinate someone and then shatter their dreams, weird stuff can happen. :)

[moth2fic]

I'm seeing rave reviews all over the net - always from women... I want to see it!

[beren_writes]

Hope you enjoy it.