Oh what a film, what a lovely film!

Rating: 9/10 (27 May 2015)

'Mad Max: Fury Road' can best be described as the film equivalent of an adrenaline shot! A literally breathtaking movie, that offers the best action seen in years, even though relying on a somewhat thin plot.
Still, this doesn't mean that there is no story whatsoever. Director George Miller, the mastermind behind this whole franchise since the very beginning, does a nice job of familiarizing the viewer with the crazy post-apocalyptic world he created. Set in a desert wasteland somewhere in the future, this world is weirdly appropriate mixture of BDSM, steam-punk and motor-heads. Our hero Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy, who replaces the original Mel Gibson) is captured by the so-called War Boys, an army who belongs to the crazy tyrant Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), whom they worship like a god. Joe rules over a region, called the Citadel, with endless water supply, yet limits the water rations of his people to a minimum to assure his leadership. One day he sends out a War Rig, driven by his lieutenant Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), to get fuel and bullets, which just like water are rare goods in this world. But Furiosa has other plans: Together with Immortan Joe's wives, his 'breeders', she plans to free herself. As Joe finds out he and his army of War Boys start to pursuit her. Max, who's being used as 'blood bag' to a sick War Boy called Nux (Nicholas Hoult), has to come with them, strapped on Nux's car. From here on a crazy movie emerges, that defines the expression action-packed in a new way! Explosions, car-chases, fight-scenes, everything happens at once, at an insane speed, captured by the camera in the most beautiful and iconic way one can imagine. The movie clearly benefits from the practical approach they took. One catches himself to cringe at some of the impacts seen on screen. The few CGI-heavy sequences fit in well with the rest of the film. The great soundtrack and sound-editing make this one of the liveliest movies of the last couple of years, maybe even of all-time. Thankfully the movie doesn't solely rely on its fascinating action. Instead it manages to bring in a lot of interesting characters and a thin, yet perfectly functioning plot. Especially George Miller's ability to establish his characters and give all of them interesting personalities is impressive, considering how little talk there is throughout the whole film. Particularly Imperator Furiosa deserves to be mentioned here: She is, probably even more so than Max himself, the main character of this movie. Her hope and search for freedom is what this story thrives on. Furthermore she is one of the strongest female characters in recent movie history, both meaning that she is kicking ass, but also well written, developed and understandable which is often a problem with female leads. The wives are also worth mentioning. They could have easily become one-sided forgotten characters, or even worse, annoying 'eye-candy', who depend on a man to save them. Instead all of them have their own character-traits, which make them likable and individual. The plot itself functions mostly as a justification for all of the insane action, but still offers enough substance to involve the viewer emotionally and intellectually. Some might even shed a tear here or there. Yet, one thing must be said about the dialogues. As I mentioned earlier there isn't a lot of talking in this movie. That's no problem. However, the use of dialogue is one. Instead of letting the imagery speak for itself or implementing things in the dialogue, important plot-points are often just spoken out directly which comes off a little weird from time to time. This is, seen in the greater context of the movie, forgivable, but could have been done in a smoother way. Performance-wise Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron are both great as lead characters, even though Theron's star shines a little brighter in this one than Hardy's. That's no surprise since Max mostly communicates via grunts and gestures whereas Imperator Furiosa is a more fleshed-out character, who experiences far more emotional changes and who develops therefore a closer emotional attachment to the viewer than Max. The supporting cast is solid throughout, led by a brilliant Nicholas Hoult. Model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley bounces back from an awful performance in the awful Transformers 3 as the 'lead' wife and Hugh Keays-Byrnes is a wonderful villain. If somebody is faintly reminiscent of the first 'Mad Max' seeing him - he played the main villain there, too.
'Mad Max: Fury Road' offers everything one might hope for and probably even a little more. The mostly handcrafted action is obviously the selling point of this movie and that alone is worth the entrance. Still every action-sequence serves to develop the story as a whole, which even though short offers enough turns and twists to keep the viewer interested. As a whole this movie is a brilliant showcase for all studios on how to revitalize a beloved movie franchise in a fresh yet recognizable way. If this turns out to be George Miller's last movie one can only congratulate for ending his career with what might be the best action-movie of all-time.