Socially relevant without lacking one bit in entertainment.

Rating: 9/10 (3 November 2016)

When looking through the reviews by other users, I was surprised at how many negative reviews had been written for a movie with such high ratings. It seemed that there were two main issues that the negative reviewers had: 1) Max being a secondary character to Furiosa, 2) the motif of feminism being too prevalent. I agree that this really is not a movie about Max; it's more about the environment as a whole and how to live in it beyond just surviving. Perhaps people felt that this was not in keeping with the spirit of the original movies, but of course I haven't seen them. In regards to the feminism issue, I think it's great that George Miller decided to mold his world to make it socially pertinent. It's understandable that viewers feel offended and annoyed by Miller bringing his opinions into his movie, but the function of art is to impact the culture of its time. To disagree with what an artist or a director or a writer is saying in his or her work is one thing, but to say that they should refrain from saying something of importance is essentially censorship. Feminism and how women are treated is a pretty important issue, and it's great to see a big studio movie such as this comment on it in a meaningful way. People complain about how women are portrayed in movies, but Immortan Joe's concubines are shown as marginalized in a way that doesn't sexualize or objectify them on-screen.
In most cases, movies tell stories, but in this case the content was less about a sequence of connected events and more about the world that everything took place in. This is probably a big reason why it won so many Oscars for costumes and makeup and set design. It's not just that they were impressively crafted- they also contributed to the story and the world of the movie in an important way. The wasteland is basically a giant battleground of drug cartels. The people are actually competing for water and gasoline, but the resources seem to be treated more like drugs than essentials. One thing that was very thought provoking in regards to the unique world was how the older women talked about our present as if it were a golden age, because most people today even in well-off countries don't talk about our world like it's a time of prosperity.
Max's ability to live apart and not rely on any larger group for his survival is potentially interesting. More prominent, however, is how Nux and Furiosa live in relation to the world. Nux and the War Boys are servants of the system, worshiping Immortan Joe to the point that serving him is more important than their own lives. In some ways this is true since Immortan controls all of the water, but he takes it a step farther by creating a sort of heaven on earth. Furiosa is the opposite of Nux. She has had enough of the polarized class system and decides to use her standing as a member of the higher class to turn the tables.
In a craft sense, there is so much to be impressed with. The set design and makeup is top notch, of course. Acting was not as prominent, but all of the performances served the purpose. Even though there was not that much compelling dialogue or scene structure, I still consider this a well-crafted script for how proficiently it was able to pack character arcs and themes into a story that mostly consists of action set pieces. The combination of camera direction, score, cinematography, and action choreography resulted in some of the best action scenes I've ever seen. If you really watch what happens during the action scenes, the characters are really not that skilled combatively. They know how to handle themselves with weapons, but none of them have action hero-level skills like we are used to seeing. The fighting is very chaotic and explosive, but I never felt like the main characters should have died. They get banged up a bit and shot at a lot and the danger felt real, but it also felt like it was realistically evaded.
I would generally recommend this to anyone, even if you don't like action. It won't be as palatable if you don't care for action, but there are a lot of points within the story that make it worth watching. If you are an action person, this should be a treat for you. I can't say whether this is good for fans of the original Mel Gibson movies, but this is worth watching as it's own entity anyways. Overall Rating: 8.6/10.