A Visually Captivating Roller-coaster

Rating: 8/10 (28 February 2016)

'Mad Max: Fury Road' is a very entertaining action movie that has a lot of style to make up for its lack of substance.
This is mainly due to its visuals and action. The film is one of the most visually captivating I have seen in a while. A combination of great cinematography, fast pace editing and creative uses of colour kept my eyes fixed to the screen. For example, I liked how George Miller tried to sneak monochrome into this action blockbuster with the black and white bursts during lightning strikes and the blue-tinted monochrome during the nighttime scenes.
The first car chase in particular was extremely engaging. It is edited at such a fast pace that it accentuates the calmness of the moment after it. The fast paced action is accompanied by Junkie XL's score, which sets the mood and makes the film feel "epic."
I also liked that, despite this being given $150 million, Miller was still able to create a unique film. On top of the costumes and vehicles, idiosyncratic details like the morbidly obese man with the weird foot, the blindfolded guitarist and a scene involving a doctor (saying anything more about it would reveal an important plot point) help make this film feel like a creation instead of a product.
Although I like this film a lot, what's stopping me from loving it are the characters. They aren't as much of a problem for me as they were in 'Carol' or 'The Revenant' since those films were more character-driven while this film is more focused on action. However, the action does need to stop for the story and the moments in which the film takes a break would be more enjoyable if the characters were more fleshed out. Plus, the chase scenes would have been emotional and intense instead of just visually captivating.
The only other problems I have are that the acting could have been better and some of the dialogue felt dubbed. These are quite small in comparison to how impressive the visuals are and how entertaining the film is as a whole. Even if you are not a big action fan, you should see this film.