Over the Top Action with Surprising Depth

Rating: 10/10 (2 August 2015)

Mad Max: Fury Road has some of, if not the most, intense action sequences of any movie. It spends much of its run time giving the viewer a heart attack by throwing Max and company into seemingly inescapable danger. The thing that makes the near non-stop action work is the feeling that our heroes are actually in real danger, keeping us on the edge of our seats throughout. Once one gets beyond the shell shock of the action sequences you will notice an incredibly well directed movie with some surprising heart to it.
The action in this movie is nearly unmatched, so I will not waste time retelling the ways this movie puts to shame all the superhero movies that have been pretending to be great action movies (looking at you Dark Knight). What really makes this movie stand out is it's fantastic pacing and show, don't tell, approach to story telling. The movie does not slow down to have someone hit you across the face with the theming, instead it uses the character's actions and visual symbolism to accomplish its goals. The movie posits that compassion is what makes us human, and it shows us what a world without it looks like. A place where we are all just things to be used and disposed of and wanting to know the name of a person seems frivolous. It does this with what some may argue are strong feminist undertones, pitting a society where masculinity has been taken to the extreme (and thus a lack of compassion) against Max and a mostly female ensemble. The theme is brought home in Max's character arc, in which he starts in "a world of fire and blood, reduced to one instinct.. survive" and ends with him regaining some of his humanity. Mad Max Fury Road is sure to excite with its action, but still has depth not seen in an action movie in some time. In the end this movie places its self squarely in the running for greatest action movie ever.