mindless violence with harsh, survivalist set design

Rating: 7/10 (22 June 2015)

There's an issue of sorts among Australian (and to an extent New Zealand) males about what masculinity is, what is means to be 'tough', 'resilient', 'fearless' etc in these post-colonial countries, and the complex can't be more feverishly illustrated than in "Mad Max: Fury Road".
Also, I can't help but feel that the overwhelmingly positive newspaper reviews are more a reaction to the long-held discrimination of sexism in the US, as they insist over and over again that the film is 'brilliant', 'unforgettable', and 'must-see cinema', essentially because there's a bald-headed female warrior on the run from a tribe of barbarians, trying to protect females from a clan of deformed, repulsive mutants and skinhead freaks with guns.
Although, yes, that is a noble reason to retool an action franchise, it was also done in the mid 80s by Sigourney Weaver in Aliens (back when the original Mad Max trilogy was circulating in video rental stores), and actually the chief antagonist in Fury Road notably resembles the Predator from 1987 if you squint a little.
So whats all the fuss about? Not sure really - MM:FR has a sense of black comedy to the essentially threatening undertones of the film, and some thoroughly awesome cinematography and production design regarding the vehicles, but it's essentially just a chase movie, and there's only so many ways you can frame a punch to the head, a wild leap from a moving vehicle or a screaming car crash until you realize the entire movies about trigger happy machismo (or whatever the femme equivalent of machismo is) and dangerously shot stunts - the film doesn't have any notable dialogue or character development at all.
Apparently, if this is the new 'gold standard' for hard boiled action escapism, I have to say that it's a much better film in 2D than 3D; also DVD versions of the release appear to have one or two gross details removed, not that it detracts from the non-stop tension and ambitious prop design throughout.