Slightly overrated, but entertaining enough

Rating: 7/10 (2 July 2015)

Wow, it's the same thing almost every time - when a movie receives extreme praise from both audiences and critics, it is wise to be a little skeptical, because it's probably not that good. And while this is a pretty entertaining movie, it's nothing too special.
I wanted to like it, I always want to like movies, but I'm giving my honest opinion here.
It does have some really cool elements though, and some nice cinematography, some awesome shots. But I found it to be rather uneven. We have long action sequences, that are not really that exciting, to be honest. It got a little dull. It's basically the same thing for 2 hours. But spread evenly around are small things, details, that bumps it into awesome-territory, then the action bumps it down again.
This was how my brain was thinking during the movie.
It went from: 'Is this all there is'?
To: 'wow, OK, yeah that's pretty cool'.
To: 'This is not that entertaining'.
To: 'Oh, that is awesome though'.
And so on. See? Uneven.
And where was all that gore and violence I was promised? We see a bunch of dudes getting run over, but there is so little gore that I felt like this was PG13 most of the time. I don't mind PG13, but when a movie is rated R, I expect more than what we got here. (could it be they were aiming for PG13, but got an R and didn't have time to edit?)
It probably doesn't help me much that I don't like this kind of dry, deserty post apocalyptic crap. But considering I don't like it, I did like the movie relatively well. Parts of the main plot I am totally sure I've seen before. I don't want to spoil anything, but right? Haven't we seen exactly this in some cartoon for children or something?
The acting was fine, I don't really have much to say. Immortan Joe was pretty cool, Max was a little weird. Charlize I have nothing to say about, but she did fine. Mel Gibson should absolutely have been in it though, he has some real charisma, which this movie is lacking. (I know he's an a- hole, but he's still a good actor)
The effects look pretty decent for the most part. I've read that there is a lot of practical effects used here, which people go on and on about, I don't care that much, I just want to see cool stuff. CG or not. There is definitely CG used in Fury Road, too btw. Not all of it is great either, actually.
So, all in all. Uneven movie. Some really good parts, other parts are not that good. Some ideas work very well, others no so much. I'm looking at you, air soul heart grab thing. Among other stuff.
I think you have to like cars/engines/driving, and SAND to really dig this movie. Plus it helps to be a huge fan of the old ones, I guess.