A revolutionary new take on action films

Rating: 10/10 (15 September 2015)

The film may be called Mad Max and it may start and end with him, but anyone watching soon realizes that Mad Max is actually about her with Max providing the vehicle (no pun intended) for her story. It is she who is trying to free the birth mothers and take them to "the green place," her story of redemption for past sins as much as Max's redemption, and she who the film's villain, Imortan Joe, is trying to kill (in fact Joe never so much as acknowledges Max's existence at any point during the film.) Charlize Theron's performance is a refreshing defiance of the typical female role of helpless love interest and shows that a strong female lead playing an emotionally scarred, physically tough character can be just as believable as male actors. This film, and Charlize Theron in particular, left me wondering why more films don't have stories written for strong, independent women if characters like Furiosa are the result we can expect.
Max (Tom Hardy): Where the character of Furiosa wore her emotions on her sleeve, the audience had a much more difficult time discerning what Max was feeling or thinking due to his extremely limited dialogue and his largely quite demeanor. Hardy's performance was subtlety at its finest. Since his dialogue was so limited he could not act through his words, as most roles do, so instead he used his eyes and his body language to convey his character's inner turmoil. The jittery manner in which Hardy moves throughout the film is one example of how he effectively demonstrates Max's borderline insanity without speaking, another being the way his eyes are constantly shifting back and forth in his head.
The director George Miller should be applauded for his decision to use as little CGI as possible (only about 10% of the film is CGI) in order to make the film appear and feel as realistic as possible (the flames shooting out of the guitar are in fact real). Using the Australian landscape combined with enhanced color filters to make the film as vibrant as possible, Miller was able to achieve his goal of creating a uniquely colorful post-apocalyptic world; this was a conscious effort by Miller to prevent the audience from feelings of bleakness and destitution. This method was simple yet also highly effective.
Another area where Miller imprints his directional style is his transitions throughout the film. There are several moments in the story where there is a shift in the story's pacing, usually from a high action sequence to a much slower one, and a lesser director might have struggled with these transitions appearing choppy. Instead, Miller uses scenes like these to further enhance the audience's feeling that they are not only watching a car chase, but they are experiencing it. One example is the scene where we see the flare in the desert after storm slowly dim and fade to darkness as the music builds and then suddenly the scene switches to bright morning sunlight with bright sand and a very slowly rising Max. This quick shift from high speed to an abrupt halt is not unlike suddenly braking in a car and gives the film greater depth in a very subtle way. Another example of this technique is that right after Max is caught while trying to escape being branded and has been shown at a higher film rate, he is thrust back inside the cave and we are immediately shown the brand on Furiosa's neck. In addition to creating a car-like transition, this also serves as a way of introducing Furiosa and immediately creates a connection in the audience's mind between her and Max.
George Miller and his co-writers also strengthened this film's story by avoiding the temptation to fall into overdone and tiresome clichÃ©s. Having the intestinal fortitude as a storyteller to kill off Nux, a young boy who the audience grows to like and sympathize with, rather than sparing him to preserve a happy ending, was a bold and commendable decision. The greatest trap, however, that Miller avoided, was the temptation to have Max and Furiosa form a romantic relationship by having Max kiss her when she was on the verge of death. Not only would this have weakened her character significantly and turned her into yet another damsel, it would have shattered the bond they had formed over their shared desire to achieve redemption. Sometimes it is not what directors and screenwriters do that makes their stories successful, it is what they choose not to do.
Another significant part of what made this movie interesting and unique was the many creative concepts that Miller brought to this post- apocalyptic world. The types of War Boy warriors: pole cats, flamers, war rigs, etc. as well as the many different car designs, especially the rocker vehicle, gave the audience something to look at as well as making the film less like a typical car chase. The concept of Mad Max being a universal donor and used as a blood bag, which ends up saving Furiosa, was also very clever. At the heart of the story is the concept of the War Boys being half-lives who are trying to reach Valhalla while also worshiping V-8 engines; this along with the idea of "witnessing" with chrome and being reincarnated shiny and chrome like cars is a very creative concept of a fictional religious cult.
Mad Max: Fury Road is a revolutionary new action film which incorporates strong female characters and a unique story in addition to breathtaking visuals. These visuals are not overdone and neither is the story. This film is fast paced and action packed, yet somehow also makes great use of subtlety through Miller's directing and Hardy's acting. Charlize Theron's performance is incredible, particularly in the still limited genre of an action film, but even more impressive than her acting is the creativity and skill that director/writer/producer George Miller brought to this film.