Through chaos comes order

Rating: 10/10 (9 June 2015)

Max is back! Of that there is no doubt.
I went into this film as a fan of the originals, but also fully aware that this wasn't going to be a direct sequel of any kind. It's 30 years since Mad Max last took to the big screen, time, technology and even actors have moved on now. The film would be different, of that I was sure.
They got rid of any concerns about continuity pretty much right away by declaring with the appearance of the Interceptor (which the last time we saw it was at the bottom of a gully, in lots of pieces and very on fire) that there wasn't any continuity. Right from the outset too, they made it clear that this was a film that was telling you not to get bogged down with the details, just take it as a story from one of Max's encounters out in the wastelands and enjoy the action.
Then there is a new actor in the roll that Gibson made his own. Hardy is a physically expressive actor who uses his body to bring presence to his character's and I would think that with Max being a man of few words, this was a part of the reason he was cast. This is a more brutal world than the one we saw in Road Warrior and Thunderdome though, so what we get is a more brutal Max. Where as Gibson's Max lived on his speed and ingenuity, Hardy's Max seems more driven by brutality and instinct.
It's still the Max we know, the nomad of questionable morals and of few chosen words, who's given over living for just surviving. But this seems to be a Max who's been out there in the wastelands much longer than he had been the last time we saw him and is a few steps closer to complete insanity. It's a much lonelier, mistrusting and feral version of the character than the one Gibson left us with some 3 decades ago, but it's a version that works exceptionally well. Few actors do boarder line insane and have physical presence at the moment as well as Hardy does.
The big question for me, as it has been for many others, was how would it hold up against what many consider to be the best of the Mad Max originals, Road Warrior...
Well, consider this. Road Warrior was ground breaking for it's time and the real stand out scene was without doubt the final chase with the tanker. For the budget they had and with what had come before, it was astonishing! Now, take that (admittedly quite long in itself) scene and turn it into an entire 2 hour extravaganza. That's brave!
If you're going to do that, you've got to make sure that it is a new encounter for the new character and not just a remake of one of the most iconic action scenes ever filmed. Then if you're going to do that, you've then got to make sure that the quality of the action at least meets that of Road Warrior's, if not excels above it. With a film that's (and I'm not joking here) at least 80% action, that's a tall order.
So did they do it? A resounding yes! This is an action film and makes no excuses for it. There is no clever twist, no love interest, not much dialogue and not much that on paper makes it much to shout about as a great film. But purely as an action film, it's an absolute masterpiece.
The action is plentiful, beautifully shot, brutal, chaotic, relentless and merciless, but interestingly, it's as much of a plot point as anything else in the film is. A particularly nice touch were the aerial long shots showing where everyone was in relation to each other as they converged across this vast, barren post apocalyptic landscape. It truly takes center stage above all else and much like Road Warrior did almost 35 years ago, sets new benchmarks in what an action film can do.
The thing is, when you consider that most astonishingly of all is that the vast majority of stunt work was done using practical, physical effects in this digital age, every action film that is released from now on, CGI or not, will be compared to Fury Road's many, many excellent scenes. It is simply that much of a game changer with action film standards!
You've got to take this film for what it is. A no holds barred, old school action film of the very finest level. Of those, it really is one of the very best examples of on screen action ever put to film.