Road Warriors

Rating: Null/10 (28 May 2017)

Tom Hardy takes over the role made famous by Mel Gibson in this fourth film in the 'Mad Max' series. The plot has Max reluctantly team up with a renegade female trucker transporting the abused, pregnant wives of a tyrant to safety; distrust turns to mutual respect as the pair fend off attacks from the tyrant's underlings. Right from the opening monologue, 'Fury Road' feels like a decidedly different 'Mad Max' film; add in cutaways to Max's memories of a young girl and the action hero is more conflicted and haunted here than ever before. The film additionally does something different by giving Charlize Theron much screen time as the gutsy trucker with her own insecurities as she searches for her hometown as a safe place for the wives. These two angles do not mesh all that well together, with Max oddly relegated to a supporting character despite a deeper than ever glimpse into his psyche. The limited exposition also leaves open unanswered questions regarding blood transfusions, whether fertility is an issue and what everyone's obsession is with painting their teeth. Some elements (a rock guitarist strapped to the front of one truck) also come off as simply weird for the sake of it. And yet, if never entirely successful, there remains something to like in George Miller taking the material in new directions rather than just recycling what has been done before.