Movie Review: Mad Max: Fury Road

Story:

“In a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, two rebels just might be able to restore order: Max, a man of action and of few words, and Furiosa, a woman of action who is looking to make it back to her childhood homeland.” There’s more information about the movie at IMDB.

Review:

This movie is everything good about the post apocalyptic genre and I was really excited for it. I’ve only seen the first Mad Max so you don’t need to watch any of them to get this movie.

There aren’t a lot of narrative twists and turns. It’s pretty much what the trailers promised. Solid relentless action for two hours. It’s chaotic but you still know what’s going on and who’s attacking who. That’s usually my biggest complaint with action movies, not being able to see what’s going on or figuring out where everyone is.

The choreography of the action is amazing and imaginative and a lot of it was practical stunt work. The way the camera swings around just makes the entire thing flow beautifully.

It had me completely sucked in and caring about the characters even though there’s very little character development done through dialogue. It’s all done through the way people act and the choices they make. As it should be.

Not a lot is explained in this movie. It’s all done through the set design and costumes. It’s the little details that make the world building brilliant. How the cars are modified to be more suited for battle and that even as the war rig breaks they never stop to fix it. They fix it as they’re moving.

We’ve seen this story before and we know the character motives but it’s the action that makes it different. And the fact that the person who saves the women is a woman. Charlize Theron plays Imperator Furiosa and it’s more her story of hope and redemption than Max’s. He helps them but they don’t need as much help as you’d think.

I understand now why all the men’s rights activists hate this movie. It’s women helping women and it passes the Bechdel test. There wasn’t one of those moments when I roll my eyes and wish women had better roles in movies. Other than damsel in distress. Here You’ve got pregnant women and older women saving people and fighting for their own freedom.

There’s a sense of desperation throughout the entire movie. From the people at the beginning who worship Imorten Joe as some sort of god who brings them water to later when they realise there’s no where left to go. What’s the point in going on? Why would you want to survive? That’s what I found myself thinking half way through the movie. Everyone is struggling to stay alive but what for. What sort of future can they have? And ultimately it’s about what ever hope you manage to find has to be flexible enough that it can change with your circumstances. You have to find something to live for.

If you like post apocalyptic craziness you’ll like it or if you’re looking for a good action movie. Don’t see it in 3D though there’s no point. There’s only one moment at the end when it looks like a guitar flies out of the screen that I remembered it was meant to be in 3D.

This is going to be one of my top films of the year and it’s now one of my favourite action movies ever. I highly recommend it.

I’m going to watch it again because I know there’s stuff I missed the first time but first I’m going to watch Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome.

Also there’s this brilliant mash-up of the opening to the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Mad Max: Fury Road. It works surprisingly well.

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