Dryworld: redemption through alliance and equal partnership

Rating: 7/10 (25 May 2015)

I liked it... okay... It's visually stunning (I would expect nothing less from George Miller), and has some powerful moments, but it seems like the writers and director love their mechanical engineering and intricately choreographed mayhem more than any other parts of movie-making or storytelling. It's mostly (epic) car chases and blowing stuff (and extras) up, with occasional scraps of plot, dialog and character development tossed in 'cause somebody told them they had to.
But I like the idea of a character who starts out having given up on hope, love, kindness, mercy, altruism and justice, but who nonetheless discovers that "doing the right thing" provides him with an opportunity to quiet his own inner demons. And Charlize Theron's character (Imperator Furiosa) is great, though by now, the trope of the "anti-damsel-in-distress" is becoming very familiar in our "post-hipster", "many-layers-of-I-see-what-you-did-there" era.
I can see why this film has the Men's Rights groups' panties all in a twist, and I like it a lot better for that. But of all the Mad Max films, I still like Thunderdome (for all its flaws) the best. And of course I identify with Max, and I really like the idea that he also discovers that he can be a trustworthy "reliable" ally (rather than just a partisan) even in a fight that isn't really "his", and without being a "white knight" in the process -- his equal partnership with Furiosa is what I like best about the whole movie. And the very last scene, between Max and Furiosa is truly great.
But seeing Tom Hardy as Max, rather than Mel Gibson, is a little like seeing Chris Pine (rather than William Shatner) as Captain Kirk. Hardy and Theron are very good, but I spent the whole movie thinking things like, "Daniel Craig? Naw... Scarlett Johansson? Naw... Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana? Hmmm, maybe...".
But seriously, I think MMFR is entertainment for the damned -- for an audience that knows that we are, in real life, complicit in torture, murder, war crimes and enjoying our wealth while others starve. And we know perfectly well that the answer to the question "Then who killed the world?" is "We did.". We have set the gears of climate change irrevocably in motion and now all that remains is the shouting and screaming.
The prospect of a nightmarish near-future "economy of scarcity" and dystopian society where desperation routinely brings out the very worst in human nature is no longer a stylishly cynical cautionary tale -- it has become a sort of coping mechanism -- the difference between knowing that you MIGHT get some terrible terminal illness and finding out that you actually have it.