Better story, fantastic special effects, completely impossible to suspend disbelief

Rating: 8/10 (26 June 2015)

The reason why Mad Max was great was because it was all new. Low budget film created in an era that just started getting over movie censorship with completely unknown actors by completely unknown film makers and in a different style. It shocked the studios, it brought Mel Gibson almost accidentally in the film business and shot George Miller through the stars. The reason why it all happened in the desert was that it was an Australian film and because it was cheaper. It showed guts, originality and created true art in an otherwise classic revenge scenario.
The sequels were different, better budgeted, more post- apocalyptic, more action packed, with more action and, frankly, that is what most people remember about Mad Max, unfortunately.
Mad Max Fury Road is better acted, better written and better directed by the same George Miller. The huge budget allowed for all types of wacky things. But it was nothing but a rehashing of the two sequels. It was not a reboot of Mad Max, but a reboot of the mad tribe car chase wacky races.
All the well designed characters, all the wonderful scenes filled with tension and nitro, all the epic scenes of people worshiping the guy who gives them water by pouring it on the dry rocks, they all fail when one imagines Dastardly and Muttley in one of those cars chasing "the war rig". The various weird vehicles and attack methods were just rehashes of scenes from Mad Max 2 and 3, even the bad guy was a rehash, from the original at least. This might have worked back then in '81 and '85, but it doesn't work now. It all looked so over the top that it was impossible to feel any real thing. It was just like watching cartoons.
Bottom line: the movie entertained me and it was better than average, but I have to penalize it for wasting obvious talent in writing and acting on pointless scenes of ludicrous road carnage and on rehashing the silly part of the Mad Max universe. It gave people what they wanted, but not what they needed and turned Mad Max into yet another comic book character.