Excellent in many ways but ultimately wanting...

Rating: 8/10 (19 September 2015)

I have to admit I was somewhat disappointed by 'Mad Max: Fury Road' if only because the super hype led my expectations to be way too high. There's a lot to love in this film and it is obviously a very meticulously planned and executed picture. If we are judging it on it's technical merits and the imagination behind it's world than 'Mad Max' could be considered masterful. I want to stress how gorgeously shot and imagined the movie is. The action sequences are painstakingly choreographed and have thematic weight to them.
The problem as stated earlier is that when it comes to dissecting the script it is so flat on emotions and characters. I'd be surprised if there was even a good ten pages worth of dialogue in the film. There just isn't any real sense of conviction other than the story dictates that there must be to move the pieces from A to B. The characters are all competently brought to life by very talented actors but I think there is just the surfaces of characters. When Furiousa has her moment explaining a vague back story it actually seems sort of goofy as if Miller and his screenwriter collaborators were just making up big Science-Fictiony words. Frankly Max in particular feels entirely superficial as a character. I think it's a movie where the aesthetics are so impressive that you just have to look past a very weak story with very weak characters.
I think if 'Fury Road' were released in the eighties it wouldn't be considered the masterpiece many consider it to be now. That 'Fury Road' is raised to such a level is a testament to how bad action films have become and not how excellent this particular film is. . You must know 'Mad Max Fury Road' has a lot of excellent things about it if this seems to be a review that tanks the film. I think people going in for just the experience of wall to wall action will be immensely satisfied. Those who want an elaborate action film with characters in the vein of the better action pictures 'Fury Road' is said to be a successor to will be disappointed. I hate to be the contrarian but there you go