Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Rating: 10/10 (7 June 2015)

Mad Max: Fury Road stars Tom Hardy in the title role of Max, along with Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa. This film features a fairly simple premise: two rebels unite in order to escape the tyranny of an evil ruler who goes by the name of Immortan Joe.
Tom Hardy has long since established that he can be an action star in great films like Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, but as Max, we get something a bit different. Hardy's character requires him to become believable to us without an overload of dialogue or the use of flashbacks mid-movie, and yes, it is a success. Through the use of "actions speak louder than words," we follow Max in a chase scene from the beginning and we are immediately invested in how his character will fare against "the bad guys," no thirty-minute epilogue required.
While Tom Hardy may play the title character, this is truly Charlize Theron's film. Much like Max, we aren't introduced to Furiosa through the long and time-consuming usual process, we are just dropped right into her story and she takes the movie over rather quickly. From the first moment that the villain is introduced, we completely understand why Furiosa is taking the course of action that she is. Theron has always struck me as a fine actress, and definitely an action star, but her role in this film took her to a whole new level on both counts.
Mad Max: Fury Road features a great deal more than two fine acting performances with likable characters though, as it will, without a doubt, be one of the most visually beautiful movies to enter theaters all year. Yes, it is greatly in a wasteland, but it isn't just any boring green-screened desert you'd find in some other movies. Something about the way that the scenery and landscapes are shot just adds so much to the film as a whole because it draws the audience in in a way that almost feels like its members are also in search of a place unharmed by the wasteland along with the film's characters. Along with the scenery, the action sequences are wonderfully shot also. A complaint that many people, including myself, have with certain action films now is that there's no possible way of following what on earth is happening during action sequences because of the way they are shot. They are difficult to follow, and you have no idea where anything is exactly taking place. In Fury Road, with the way the sequences are shot, these problems are not present. With quite a great deal going on in each action scene, it's very difficult to get lost with what exactly is happening because of how the film is presented to the audience.
While the action sequences alone are enough to get just about anyone excited, another excellent puzzle piece this film has to offer to amp up the excitement is the music. It is nearly impossible to not feel the tension build as the antagonist's group of vehicles are in pursuit of Max, Furiosa, and company, but that tension is coupled with intense blood-pumping music that is being played on a vehicle with drummers and a guitar player by itself, insane. The purpose of this was no doubt to also excite Joe's pack of vehicles, but instead does just as much for the audience.
While everything in this film is unbelievable, the main thing that is absolutely breathtaking is that the effects are, for the most part, practical. To see just ten percent alone of the things in this film and think "wait, that was not a computer doing all the work?" is mind-blowing. Even more mind-blowing is the fact that it's far more than ten percent of the movie. Finally, no CGI fire effects or a computer taking the place of make-up artists.
Mad Max: Fury Road is made with a feel of dedication. Both with that of the franchise, and that of the obligation to give the audience a well-earned, great film. In a world full of reboots and sequels, Fury Road will stand alone as not one fans of the original series will have to ignore later because it let them down. George Miller has brought his franchise back to life in a major way and created, quite possibly, the action-spectacle of the decade. Tom Hardy sales yet again that he is a great action star, and Charlize Theron shines in one of her grandest performances to date. The involved created a magnificent action film that will, without any doubt whatsoever, be one of the most intense and gripping experiences that audiences will have in theaters all year.