Beautifully choreographed, theatrical, road-violence.

Rating: 7/10 (15 May 2015)

The good: Very well made. Similar feel to the original films. I very much liked the subtle environmental message and plethora of powerful female characters (without being preachy), and found that truly original. All but a few side-show characters have visible vulnerability, which was again refreshing. Charlize Theron was very good, and I can understand why her character will be expanded upon in the following film. The action and machinery is, of course, epic, and reaches the level of art in of itself.
The not so good: This is the worst performance I've seen from Tom Hardy. His accent is weird, which I suppose works from the point of view of audience ambiguity (which means more people will potentially identify with the film). However, he is too laconic/taciturn, and needed more dialogue. Can't help feeling Max's character is a dinosaur, which possibly explains why he won't feature so much in the next film(s). At no point in the entire film did any of the tyres on the rig get blown out. In Mad Max II, that was one of the first things the baddies went for (for obvious reasons). Consequently, the entire film doesn't hold up well in the believability stakes. The plot is thin, and there's even less dialogue than the aforementioned Mad Max II. Perhaps I'm becoming a fuddy duddy, but I feel Mad Max II is still a better film, overall.
The Irish Film Classification Office gave this film a 15A rating. I feel a 12A would've been more appropriate - there is no swearing, full frontal nudity, graphic violence (i.e. people losing limbs). Not sure what other territories classify it as, but it should be something that fathers and tweenies (or above) can reasonably happily go and see together. Alex liked it.﻿