Another hopelessly flawed reboot from Hollywood

Rating: 1/10 (26 July 2015)

Do yourself a huge favor, go watch the first 10-15 mins of The Road Warrior (after the narrator part) and think about what makes it so compelling. I'll give you a big hint, it's because they used to actually practice the craft of storytelling in movies instead of just special effects. After just 15 mins of The Road Warrior you know all you need to know to be completely hooked into the story. More importantly we meet Max and through just a few scenes we get to KNOW Max, both as the requisite underdog bad-ass character but also as a man with compassion in his heart (witness the bond with his dog or the music box that he gives to the little kid). When we KNOW characters in this way, we CARE about them, we identify with them, we root for them, we love them and become completely immersed in their world. That's what makes a good movie, no amount of special effects, explosions or hot chicks in skimpy outfits can supplant that simple fact. And that's the big problem with Fury Road. The characters are one-dimensional cardboard cutouts that we don't care about. After watching the first 20 mins of this steaming pile of crap I still didn't know who any of the main characters really were and I certainly didn't care if they lived or died. Yes it has gorgeous action sequences, cool weapons and explosions oh my! But it's completely bereft of anything that draws you in emotionally and that makes it a huge failure. Add to that a story arc that doesn't make a helluva lot of sense and a baffling disregard for the value of oil (they waste it with abandon even though it's scarcity is why they are fighting in the first place). Unfortunately blockbusters like this are increasingly becoming the norm from Hollywood, I fear we'll get to a point in the not so distant future where nobody even remembers what a good action movie is like.