George Miller, the
septuagenarian director, returns with his latest Mad Max movie - Mad Max: Fury Road. No Mel
Gibson here, but replaced by the ladies favourite, Tom Hardy. Also featuring a
few other well known names including South Africa’s finest, Charlize Theron,
Mad Max takes it forward for the next generation.
Using a dazzling array of amazing
stunts (here’s to the old school) and minimal computer aided special effects, Mad Max features a
dystopian world where everything seems to be miles away, and the people are
all a bit strange.
The world in which they live is
one I would never like to live in, but it draws you in with its dystopian vibe
and barren landscape. Tom Hardy grunts his way through the movie, and for all
that he plays the titular character, the main character, it could be argued,
that Furiosa (Theron) is the main hero(ine?).
The bad guys are suitably
clownish and crazy with a side order of sinister and evil. The movie is pretty
much a road trip from one place to another – then they turn around and come
back again. Although light on story, the movie is a dazzling array of stunts
and explosions and there is an awesome guitarist with flames coming out of his
guitar which pretty much plays for the entire movie as the soundtrack.
The cars (sorry, I think I would
be better placed saying vehicles) are characters unto themselves and are often
garishly made. Imagine The Fast and the Furious cars with horns and pipes and
spikes and a jaded paint job and you wouldn’t be too far from this movie.
The movie is really quite good
and I enjoyed it even though it was light on story and heavy on action. But, when a movie is this gripping, you can forgive such fallacies.
There are a couple of points
about the movie I want to raise though – this includes the fact that Mad Max
doesn’t really feature in this movie as much as he should have, and there was
not a lot of dialogue or work for Hardy to do – apart from being tied up and
being grumpy. Nicholas Holt’s character Nux, was suitable crazy and helped
keep up the frenetic tempo we would expect the film to be. He also gets the
best line: “Oh what a day, what a lovely day!” Theron does a good turn as the
heroine taking the slave girls away from the antagonist, and trying to save
them. She is suitably kick ass and is a strong independent woman.
The movie overall is a good one,
and there is talk of a few sequels too – hopefully Max will be featured more in
it, but if not, maybe there’s more scope for a Mad Maxine or something. Who
knows?
Mad Max: Fury Road is available on DVD, Blu Ray and download/streaming now.
POPSCORE: 8/10
What am I talking about? Mad Max: Fury Road
If you like this try: The original Mad Max movies, Fast And the Furious (if you like the road trip/car racing part), The Book of Eli, I Am Legend (both of these if you like the apocalyptic loner thing)
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