MOVIE REVIEW - Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

To be honest I was not expecting to enjoy Fury Road as much as I did, not because I don't like the old films, far from it. I'm a huge fan of the franchise and Mad Max 2 (or The Road Warrior as it's known in the America land) is one my favourite films of all time, heck I didn't even mind the black sheep, Beyond Thunderdome. I just expected Fury Road to follow the Mad Max template and trigger some nostalgia that left a smile on my face. It achieved this but gave me a few things I didn't expect, plot, story, characters and strong females. The latter is somehow bad according to a Men''s Rights Activist, which is a group that exists if you can believe it or not.

Mad Max Fury Road is a reboot and not a direct sequel to the old trilogy. So new comers can jump into this film without worrying about the lore, although it helps to understand that Max is a loner and is basically an empty shell of his former self. Which I guess can also describe Mel Gibson, who has handed the keys to the V8 Interceptor over to British actor, Tom Hardy who does an outstanding job of playing Max with more anger and brutality than Mel's performance in all three of his films combined. The rest of cast does an excellent job of portraying their crazy, insane persona that characterise this lawless world . Although some of the characters and their American accents (especially Theron's fake one) sticks out like a saw thumb amongst the mostly Australian cast.

Bearing in mind, the star of the film really isn't Tom Hardy or Max, it's actually Charlize Theron and five wives that Max must save from the clutches of the evil Immortal Joe (which, believe it or not is played by the same guy who portrayed Toecutter in the original 1979 film). According to some people this means George Miller was bullied by feminists to push their agenda by making a film that empowered women and have all the villains played by men. I disagree with this assumption, since this is still technically a bloke's films. Car chases, guns, explosions, heavy metal and by the end of the day, the women are still rescued by a man, Max of course. Heck this film is basically an anime harem and every man's dream, I mean most of the film is Max with six beautiful women. You still think this is a film for feminists and women? Heck it actually turns me on to see a middle age women whacking dudes with a gun like it's a baseball bat.

Now that we have established it's a bloke's film, let's continue the review. As I mentioned before I didn't expect the film to have decent charactersation, to make me feel when a character died or was suffering. Although like the old films, dialogue and plot is still kept to a minimum with the action taking centre stage and boy, what a ride it was. Just imagine the final tanker chase in Max Max 2 but now times hundred. Someone at University described the film as exhausting, not because it's boring but how much goes on, it's like a constant sugar rush that leaves you all jumpy and stuff. This film must have been a continuity nightmare with so much going on, even my brain had difficulty processing everything that was happening on screen. This is the most visually interesting film I have ever seen and can't praise the action enough.

It seems every scene has something that draws your attention, like the musician pictured above with a guitar that actually spurts out real flames with no CG trickery. This is the film's greatest accomplishment with 90% of the effects being real or practical. It makes the over the top action more organic and engaging to watch than other films that rely on computers to animate the stunts. The film's sound mix takes full advantage of all eleven channels with each explosion and gunshot filling the drums of both ears.

Mad Max Fury Road is definitely the biggest surprise of 2015. Not only did the film exceed my expectations but is a strong contender for the best film of 2015. Very few action movies achieve the same level of pacing as Fury Road while maintaining strong characterisation and I can not wait to watch it again when it comes out on Blu-Ray later this year.

RATING - 5/5