Unapologetically Absurd - But Fun

Rating: 8/10 (26 May 2015)

An accurate (and funny) description I heard of this movie: "If war broke out during Burning Man - this would probably be what it looked like..." Super-elaborate costuming - including for the vehicles, which I heard were all carefully crafted and engineered (much more effort than I would have expected - but great that it wasn't all CGI!). I heard innovative stuff was done with the cars in order to fuse vehicles together - but still making them roadworthy and safe (I suddenly want to know more about "the making of" for the cars for Mad Max) And that's where it is trademark Mad Max - with a hero (who obviously doesn't want to be a hero) who is really good at getting out of almost-impossible situations and really weird cars that have been bolted together from the remainders of other cars - with lots of extra armor and spikes.
It was a 2 hour chase scene - and unapologetically so. It was a bit contrived when Max was insisting that they had to go back from where they started - so the entire movie is spent driving pointlessly in one direction and then (after picking up a few more people) driving pointlessly (and needless to say - recklessly and homicidally) back in the other direction.
And while they definitely delivered on spiky cars driving back and forth in a brutal death match - fighting over very limited resources in a post-apocalyptic world - I have to admit that it would have been nice if it made any bloody sense at all - just as an extra. I know that's not what this movie was for - but it would have made it so much more better if we had any clue what some of this was all about. Why were those guys painted white (with black eyes and a sort of skeleton zombie appearance) and what was the deal with the suicide fighters spray-painting their teeth silver? There's obviously some kind of cult-religion going on here with the lead-baddie being the icon of this strange pseudo-religion - but not much is explained except in bits and pieces that never quite come together.
The tanker full of breast milk makes no sense at all. I guess it could be a source of protein - but far more protein could have been cultivated in growing beans or keeping domesticated animals than in taking the time to pump all that breast milk.
And that guitar dude - seriously? I know it's just showing off and is kitschy as all get-out - and it was almost laugh-out-loud funny. But what is this guy supposed to be? The main baddie's minstrel? And why waste fuel or flammable substances on making a guitar into a flamethrower? (just to look cool?) And that's not even mentioning the whole ark of drum-beaters that were following the entourage. When going to battle - I guess you'd want scary-sounding drums - but I would have thought all the flame-throwers, exploding bombs, hand grenades, bullets, grinding engines and exploding cars would have drowned the drums out really. Or were they just trying to explain the soundtrack? I heard a rumor about complaints over a "feminist agenda" in Fury Road That being said - the seemingly all-women's tribe on motorcycles in the middle of the desert (but previously in some special "green place") was about as unlikely as the rest of the movie... It was nice to see a female heroine who wasn't weak - and a bad-ass amputee at that. And it was also nice to see older women (talking all-white hair would-be granny types) all suited up in leather and kicking ass. It was a refreshing change - but I didn't feel it was anti-men.
Some complained about Max not having many lines... When has he ever? He was never known to be a talker. I actually thought that the actor playing this version of "Max" did a good job of seeming almost-too-traumatized to really do much talking - as if talking was too troublesome. He had a jerky, hesitant way of talking that sort of fit with someone who probably never gets much of an opportunity for civilized conversation.
In a Game-Of-Thrones crazy world - where every other show seems to be copying them - it was nice not to have some exploitative and disturbing sex scene in this version of Mad Max - which was almost surprising. They show an awful lot of violence - but not much nudity and zero sex. Everyone is too busy driving for that, I guess. Were it not for the all the gun play and people being run over in cars - it could have been rated as PG-13.
For a good portion of it - I felt like I was sitting through a rather long music video - especially with the white make-up of the main baddie (resembling the 80's rock band KISS) and he had this strange breathing apparatus that reminded me of Darth Vader - except with big teeth on the breathing mask part. I guess that's one way of making it look cool to be on oxygen. But why is this guy like this? Why did that one guy need to be hooked up to Max for a blood transfusion in the first place? not explained. I suppose we have to wait for the next Mad Max movie to explain all the white make up and skull cult-religion maybe - if they remember, what with having to put all those spikes on the VW microbus...
I just heard there's a comic book series that this movie was based on - and now all the gaps in the story makes a weird sort of sense - maybe. It's possible this made so much more sense for those who read the comic books - or maybe not. It was fun anyway though - as long as your expectations are not terribly high.