An epic visual marvel of an action movie, with enough ideas to keep you satisfied and engaged

Rating: 8/10 (12 December 2019)

The opening to Mad Max may well be the most attention-grabbing I've seen, gluing me to the edge of my seat eager to see how the movie unfolds. The energy and visuals continue to amaze throughout, though the early world-building was the best storytelling in the film. The vision of the desolate post-apocalyptic world was so well realized, I was a bit disappointed when I realized the movie was pretty much exclusively going to be a big long car chase. The opening 20 minutes or so, when we see Max chased and caught, meet the ruler and get a sense of how the world works, and meet Furiosa and get a sense of her plan, are near perfect filmmaking and great set up for the characters and world. We do learn more about the girls and crucially more about the people working for the ruler through Nux, a stowaway turned traitor, but the movie is light on character development, dialogue, and plot. That's not all bad - Miller is committed to making a thrilling visual action movie, and he undeniably nails that. The action is so well shot it makes similar action sequences feel fresh and exciting. There is some relevance to contemplate as we see Furiosa certain that there is a green place where she grew up, only to realize it was an illusion in her mind and that her only real hope is realizing the potential of where she has been living and taking control there. I admire Miller's commitment to making a great action movie and not forcing a bunch of dialogue or romance in, but while I marvel at the craft and visuals of the action, especially early, the other elements are good but not great, and even the greatest action scenes repeated for 2 hours can't maintain that same level of awe.