Mad Max: Fury Road
Dir: George Miller
Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh
Keays-Byrne, Zoe Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Josh Helman,
and Nathan Jones
“Mad Max: Fury Road” starts off going one hundred miles per
hour, stops to drink a few energy drinks, and continues going even faster.
Director George Miller, who directed “Mad Max”, and “Road Warrior”, and
co-directed “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”, crafts one of the most visceral,
frenzied, and energetic action movies of the year, if not the last few years.
The beating, bursting pulse of this film is the exceptional George Miller, who
without much dialog or extensive story constructs a violent dystopian world
that consumes and swallows the viewer, and then promptly asks for seconds.
The location is a harsh post-apocalyptic landscape; the dust
that carries in the wind devours remnants of cities long forgotten. The people
are broken, ruled by merciless leaders who destroyed humanity with greed and
war. Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) is a survivor and loner road warrior of few
words who is haunted by visions of his deceased family. Max is captured,
tortured, turned into a transfusing “blood bag” for other vicious warriors, and
forced into a brutal chase lead by a tyrannical leader named Immortan Joe (Hugh
Keays-Byrne). The task is to recover Joe’s five wives who were stolen/saved by
a tough-as-nails woman named Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron).
George Miller builds an immersive world here, one that
doesn’t depend on detailed scenes of exposition or complex character
developments. Instead the director utilizes subtle expressions, purposeful
gestures, and crafty camera pans and editing cuts to drive the story forward; a look or
movement into a certain direction is sometimes all the story needs to
communicate danger, approval, or uncertainty. Whether the smirk and thumbs up
from Max during a tense moment on a speeding tanker or Furiosa’s long gaze into
a desolate horizon, the audience understands everything that is being said
without words. This type of storytelling has the potential to go terribly wrong,
especially with the vast amounts of action being thrown at the screen, however
in the brilliant hands of George Miller the film feels more suited for the art
house than the grindhouse. It’s a visionary director bringing the world of his
mind onto the silver screen, a seemingly uncompromised film of near flawless execution.
The film takes a linear path, one clear direction of mayhem
in flame throwing, gas guzzling beautifully designed vehicles; one even having
the towering amps of a heavy metal concert with a guitar wielding animal
attached to the roof. The movement of the story is secondary, it’s very easy to
recognize where the group will end up, but the decisions of characters push the
film forward, bringing to light themes associated with revenge, reward, and rebellion.
The cast is outstanding as well. Tom Hardy speaks volumes
with his subdued actions but, as the film displays during a scene between the
two actors, Hardy sits passenger seat to Charlize Theron’s stunning Imperator
Furiosa. Theron matches Hardy’s screen presence, even at times shadowing every
other actor on the screen. Bringing back Hugh Keays-Byrne, who played Toecutter
in 1979’s “Mad Max”, was also a nice touch for fans. Nicholas Hoult is good as
a crazed “wardog” of Immortan Joe’s army. Hoult’s wild-eyed portrayal fits the
characters kamikaze-like devotion to the rewards of the afterlife.
It’s interesting that a film like this exists in the current
summer box office scramble. “Mad Max: Fury Road” is a hardened, no-holds-barred
genre film from the creative mind of George Miller, who exhibits that after
thirty years of waiting, the dust that settled on the “Mad Max” franchise was
only waiting to be furiously blown off again.
Monte’s Rating
4.50 out of 5.00
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