Visit to Wasteland Waste of Time and Money

Rating: 3/10 (7 September 2015)

In a Theater this is nothing less than an assault on your senses, but on the smaller screen you need an actual story and this film doesn't have very much of one.
George Miller gives us several good ideas about what a Post- apocalyptic Australian future would look like, but he's had his entire life to think about it, so I would expect at least SOME good ideas after having decades to mull it over. But this is mainly a bag full of "tricks" to entice every teenage boy into the theater and out of his allowance: From loud cars, to loud thrash metal, to loud electric guitars (that shoot flames - one of the many, many Phallic symbols in this film) all the way to the group of bikini clad, nubile young models who are actually wetting themselves down. (Can anyone say: "Wet T- Shirt Contest?")
Tom Hardy is probably the best actor of this generation and all his talent is so wasted here. In fact, the character of Mad Max is superfluous to this entire film. He's only here as an excuse to get us back to this time and place. But Hardy still manages to get in some good acting licks. He has a way of bringing out the "humor" (yes, I said "humor") in the character of Max without trying to behave like Mel Gibson. The way Hardy runs around and the way he uses the file on the face mask is reminiscent of Max fighting in Thunderdome, without actually imitating Mel Gibson.
But this film is all about Charlize Theron (Kudos to her agent for getting her top billing at the beginning of the film). It makes me think maybe Miller had a crush on Charlize and constructed this entire film as an excuse just to hang around with her.
In a nut shell, if you're over the age of 14 and actually want a story to go along with all the "cool cars" and "loud noise", you're out of luck. This movie is a bunch of massive hype with the big "selling" point during the months of promotion being that "a lot of the stunts were done in real life instead of CGI". Uh. That is actually the way almost EVERY film made before the year 1990 was created too. So what's so great about that?
The actual "trick" of making a BIG film is to BALANCE it with enough INTIMATE moments that make you sympathize with the characters enough to care what happens to them. (A good example of this being done right is James Cameron's "Titanic") But in this film I don't care if all the characters die. Except for Nicolas Hoult, who used his few moments and lines to make me care about his character, Nux. This was no easy feat amid all the dust and noise, so I'm anxious to see what he can do in other films. But after watching this film 4 times (I wanted to give it a fair chance to win me over), I'm done. Mel Gibson was smart to give this one a skip. You should do the same.
As for Tom Hardy, your time is better spent watching one of his former films over again instead of wasting it here. Pick one of his films where you can actually see his face and hear his voice. This Max could have been portrayed by hand puppets and none of us would be the wiser. Who knows? Maybe it was?