Furiosa: Pregnant Chicks and Bane without lines

Rating: 6/10 (26 May 2015)

Let me start by saying, I loved Mad Max as a kid. And Gibson was half the appeal of Mad Max. He truly melted into the character and made it his own. I'll start with the good. Truly epic effects; which is what I went in knowing I'd see. The explosions, the cars, the scenery. It oozed with Road Warrior goodness. Truly beautiful and breathtaking. Never an overkill; especially not for this movie. It felt like a roller-coaster ride from hell. I NEVER do IMAX, but wish I did for this film. Sadly, I will not re-watch it.
The somewhat bad; Tom Hardy is a very talented actor. In this movie, I just had a hard time seeing it. It being Max. Throughout the movie he is given a handful of dialogue, and most of it is very quietly spoken. Somewhat like the Max from Thunderdome. However, other than the intro, I found Hardy's Max boring and one dimensional. Even his accent was bland and completely unlike Mel Gibson's Max. There was his first line in the beginning of the film where it was super scruffy and hoarse voiced Australian Max. And the rest of it felt like Bane without lines. The location of this story is Australia. The people should probably be somewhat..... Australian sounding. I was quite upset about Hardy because I know what an amazing actor he is, especially when given a great piece of writing. This was not it though.
Charlize Theron.... As I said before, this movie was centered around Furiosa and the pregnant girls. She played her character well, and I think that's because Theron always does exactly what directors tell her. And I can respect that. I don't think Charlize Theron is majorly talented, but she does what she's asked of in respect to direction. Which is a commodity in Hollywood. And a blessing for directors.
Eve Ensler..... When I heard this, I dropped the movie by a star. Why was this movie partially written by the chick who developed The Vagina Monologues? This is Mad Max for effs sake. Are you kidding me? I feel her input took away from the realistic scenery of a post-apocalyptic world. 130 lb Charlize Theron in a fist fight with 240 lb Tom Hardy... riiiiight. Women all placed in sexually appealing clothing and somewhat exposed.... So the message is, all the men are disgusting, vile evil people. And ALL the women in the movie are sexy, beautiful model types that can do no wrong. Riiiiight.
I learned that apparently George Miller is a feminist. And I lost a lot of respect for him. Although I don't believe in feminism; his opinion would not keep me from respecting his craft or watching his films. I lost respect simply because I don't care for political messages forced into any movies that I'm unaware of prior to entering into.
And whether or not you want to believe this movie was politically charged, doesn't matter. This movie was NOT about Mad Max. I just pray that the next installment actually includes him in his own movie.
And what was with the guitar guy....?? I really could've done without that. I mean, I get it, these people are crazy, and sadistic... But the guitar dude strapped to amps seemed kind of..... lame. Maybe it was a cool scene in IMAX.