Max or Furiosa?

Rating: Null/10 (8 September 2015)

With a bare bones script and set in a bare bones landscape the movie wacks the audience with visuals and helter skelter chaos in what boils down to one long pursuit through a rocky desert that recalls Mad Max 2: the road warrior.
Is this the road warrior redux?
Perhaps it is in a way, but then it's infused with a touch of borderlands(the game) for it's over the top weird characters, with names like: The People Eater, The Doof Warrior and The Bullet Farmer. There is no way describing them, they have to be seen. The movie keeps a stringent pace once it get's going, which is almost right from the bat, after we are (re)introduced to Max and the setting. Tom Hardy is a worthy successor to Mel Gibson, perhaps even better for he has a rather more edgy attitude, which is why Max is called Mad after all. In the first scenes he gets captured and while he tries to make his escape, he finds himself dragged along as war trophy perched in front of a car that is part of the pursuit of the War Rig, a massive truck-trailer combination commanded by Imperator Furiosa(Charlize Theron) who is trying to escape the War Boys of the Tyran Immortan Joe with his most adored treasure: his five nubile wives.
The chaos increases when the first of the pursuit catches up with Theron and Max tries to escape them, while the War Boys try to kill him, Furiosa and get the War Rig to stop at the same time without killing the wives. Once the first of the War Boys have been dealt with by Max and Furiosa, the fight is between them at first, but eventually necessity turns them into allies. Later on they are joined by Nux, a Warboy who is forced to switch sides.
A lot is smartly interwoven with the pursuit. There is the awkward love relation that develops between Nux and one of the girls. There is a kind of respect developing between Max and Furiosa. There is even some pondering that gives the movie a deeper feel. And there is even a very Boschlike scene when the War Rig travels to a swap-land where the Crows live.
The fight scenes are a marvel to behold, almost everything fanciful is flung at the War Rig: pole riders, trucks, bikes, monster trucks, armored cars, flamethrowers, hooks, chains and a high speed saw among them.
All in all this is a well made movie in which the star is Theron who overshadows even Hardy due to her personality. It's not because she pretty in this one, -for she is not- she is gritty, dirty and bald, but it is because she brings Imperator Furiosa to life. It makes me wonder whether the next installment in the series will be called Mad Max.