Believe the Hype!

Rating: 10/10 (5 July 2015)

Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)
Rating: 5/5 stars
With exhilarating action and a surprising amount of narrative heft, "Mad Max: Fury Road" brings George Miller's post-apocalyptic franchise roaring vigorously back to life. The film delivers and delivers big time. There's no clearer or more succinct way to put it. 30 years after last appearing on the big screen, Mad Max roars back with a vengeance.
Miller once again gears up for a post-apocalyptic action-thriller with "Fury Road", the fourth outing in the "Mad Max" film series. Set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, almost everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life such as water and fuel. Within this world exists two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order. We are reintroduced to Max, still a man of action and few words who seeks peace of mind following the loss of his wife and child in the aftermath of the chaos. The second insurgent is Furiosa, also a woman of action and one who believes her path to survival and possible salvation may be achieved if she can take a handful of oppressed, tormented, incarcerated beautiful young women across the desert back to her childhood homeland. Max and Furiosa team up in the most unlikely of alliances - and for polar opposite reasons - to stand up to "the man", get their hands dirty, and get the job done.
"Fury Road" has visionary moments, speed, and a wild sense of daring. You stumble out of the theater giddy about what films (even action movies) can actually do when their set their mind to it, transported by the breathtaking velocity in this battering ram of a picture that just goes, goes, goes, and then keeps on going. Even after two viewings, I feel as though I've only scratched the surface of "Mad Max: Fury Road". George Miller's bleak, badass actioner is astonishingly dense for a big-budget spectacle, not only in its imagery and ideas but in the complex interplay between them.
It also represents a certain kind of hope that's highly implausible to materialize - for as technology continues to improve and digital effects wizardry enhances exponentially, here's an old-school master that refreshingly gets to the basics and uses the powers at his disposal for good rather than to score an easy way out. The action is fast and furious and totally bonkers. And yet the style is totally in keeping with its predecessors while being innovative and boldly new: Old West showdowns meets funk mayhem meets feminist drama. Seriously! But the movie has so much more to do with the architecture of the frame and Miller's delight in throwing things right at the face of the audience than any sneaky feminism. There's a kind of kinetic genius to the movie, which is essentially one long chase, adrenaline-pumping chase sequence.
We have to admit that Hollywood's franchise hunger has reached the point where any level of cynicism regarding a sequel, reboot, or re-imagining is defensible, and given that it had been 30 years since the last "Mad Max" installment, one could be forgiven for approaching this Tom Hardy-led continuation of the saga with a somewhat jaundiced eye. But all that time away from the franchise clearly gave Director/co-writer George Miller plenty of ideas, because "Fury Road" is that rarest of blockbuster beasts: an action- thriller that isn't content to merely string together set pieces. In fact, it's a surprisingly thoughtful film, one whose message is afforded equal importance alongside epic action sequences arranged with balletic, eye-popping grace. Amidst all this, Hardy's Max Rockatansky remains a man of few words - in fact, he spends a good deal of the film with a mask covering his mouth - but alongside co- star Charlize Theron, he grounds the movie's gonzo outbursts with palpable human emotion. Believe all the hype, and then believe it some more. "Mad Max: Fury Road" will melt your face off, and then slam it back on.