Mild Max

Rating: 6/10 (28 May 2015)

I have only seen bits and pieces of the original Mad Max films so I won't be making any comparisons between the two. Without a doubt, this was one of the most unique movies I've seen. I have never been able to say about a movie that it was the weirdest and darkest, but very well-made films I have ever seen until I sat down to watch Mad Max: Fury Road. Still, I felt very mislead because it didn't advertise the fact that there would be less than 150 lines of dialogue in the whole that definitely resulted in the lack of character depth and acting in the film. Despite some of it's shortcomings, Mad Max: Fury Road delivers in it's promise of a movie that is ninety-nine percent action with some of the most realistic effects ever seen on the big screen.
I am a huge fan of Tom Hardy. I think he is a great actor whose best films still lie in front of him. But, if you are going to hire a great actor in a big budget action film, give him something to work with. It is pretty hard to act in an action movie when you get virtually one line of dialogue ever five minutes. I would not be surprised to learn that Charlie Theron(who has the most screen time) and Nicolas Hoult had more lines that Tom Hardy. I understand, I understand this is an action film, but that is not an excuse for lack of character depth and development in the movie. Yes, Max is just a "Road Warrior" whose mind will always be the same, but that does not mean he has to be a static character throughout the whole movie. The only person whose character changed during the movie was Nicolas Hoult, a supporting actor. I feel that any good movie needs a good amount of character development to make the story interesting and exciting, especially for an action film.
Enough about the bad aspects of the movie. Now, we are going to talk about the without a doubt best part of the movie, the action. So basically, the whole movie is one giant car chase with minimal breaks in between. Naturally this calls for some great action sequences. From what I read on the movie, George Miller(the director) wanted to use CGI very sparingly and use as much on-set action as possible to give the movie a very realistic style. He achieved action filmmaker Hall of Fame by using so. Never have I quite seen explosions and action sequences in a film quite like the ones in Mad Max: Fury Road. So many times during the movie, I kept asking myself "how the hell did they film that?" The answer even if told to me, I probably still wouldn't be able to comprehend.
The screenplay as I said before is mainly just one incredibly well-filmed car chase and since it is based in an apocalyptic desert wasteland where a warlord is hunting the main protagonist down, there can't be much clearly outlined direction says the plot is as Max said in the first few seconds of the movie, "Survival."
Keep in mind that this movie is very dark in it's action with incredibly intense action sequences not for the faint of heart. If you can handle that though and like to see good action movies, I recommend you see Mad Max: Fury Road while it is still in theaters.
For more of my reviews, go to my website at reviewsbywest.com