The Best Action Movie of the Decade

Rating: 10/10 (17 May 2015)

"Mad Max: Fury Road" is the action movie I've been waiting to see in my five years of film reviewing. I haven't been waiting around in agony like a Southern belle longing for her Rhett Butler — I have, instead, been continuously leaving the theaters of various actioners pleasantly charmed. But thrills, yes, thrills, have been kept at a minimum. Sure, it's fun to see CGI, likable actors, and bombastic set pieces mix it up with the delirium of a succulent martini. Yet, these days, action movies seem serviceable, great for two hours but not for much else. They don't stick with you: you end up ranking their greatness in the scheme of other films in their franchise. Immediately after "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" last year, for instance, my sister and I spent most of the ride home arguing about whether it was better than the original "Avengers", hardly talking about what we liked about it, what made it such a success.
The minute I grabbed a seat for "Fury Road" last night, I didn't know what to expect. The first three "Mad Max" movies, ending thirty years ago with the imaginative "Beyond Thunderdome", were cynical explosions of dystopian disaster, where the mindset is kill or be killed and the lead character, the titular Max, isn't so much a hero as he is a wounded guy trying to survive. The "Mad Max" movies are so seminal because the action is so unforced: the remaining population is so willing to slaughter for the final drops of gasoline to propel their decked out vehicles that the films may as well be called Mad Max vs. The World. No one is ever, ever safe. You can count on Max to survive, but you can't bet that the world will be a better place after he fends off his latest opponent. Fiery and desolate, the balmy lands of the post-apocalyptic future are never much of a haven. Max isn't a hero, rather a man who can work a gun and a car and who seems to constantly be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Fury Road" has been called a reboot of the original franchise, but reboot seems too plain a word. Reboot suggests laziness, a "RoboCop" no one's in the mood for. With the same director at the helm, George Miller, "Fury Road" is a reawakening, a rollicking continuation, and a startling return to form. Certainly, it is the most brutal of all the "Mad Max" films, not for the screeching sissies of the population. But it is also among the finest action movies in the history of cinema. We have been able to stomach superheroes smashing goons into the buildings of New York City, probably killing hundreds of civilians in the process, for so long — here, consequences are really consequences. The characters are vulnerable, however heroic or villainous they may be, and the action sequences produce just as much of a thrill as they do a shudder. For once, something humane in us lights when someone gets crushed by a mountainous vehicle.
Tom Hardy, replacing Mel Gibson, portrays Max Rockatansky, a loner deep in the Australian outback attempting to hide from the dangers of the recent collapse of civilization. Only a few minutes into "Fury Road" is he kidnapped by the War Boys, the henchman of the tyrannical Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), who leads and controls a strenuous territory with a massive water source. The War Boys are essentially half-dead young men — Max, in response, is provided as a "blood bag" for the sickly Nux (Nicholas Hoult).
Meanwhile, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), an ally of Joe, takes off on her war rig to collect gasoline from a nearby pipeline. But after driving off road, it becomes clear that she has something else in mind: she has brought Joe's five wives along with her, who act as his means of breeding. So a chase ensues, the nefarious foes close behind. Max and Furiosa finally meet when Nux catches up to the rig — and a partnership is formed. Left is a series of car stunts, tour de force performances, imaginative cinematography, and a feel-up of a dystopian society refreshing among a sea of ones filled with sexy teens and Hunger Games.
The aesthetic of "Fury Road" is something of a punky, raging pulp novel: cars are covered in metal spikes, guns are an extension of the arms of the characters. Night scenes are drowned in a cerulean blue, the days a ferocious orange; bullets, eye patches, and skulls aren't simply decor — they're part of the landscape, as natural as the air, as the dirt. Even part of Joe's entourage is an electric guitar player, who strums whenever sh*t is about to go down. These touches may be laughed at by some, but as a part of Miller's vision, they're something of a wonder.
And while the film may include the name Mad Max in its title, Furiosa is the hero of "Fury Road", and the female action hero we've all been waiting for. Long gone are the busty Black Widows and Lara Crofts: with her metallic placeholder for an arm, oil warpaint, bald head as a stab at gender reversal, she is an embodiment of zeroed in anger. Theron's performance is, by turns, explosive and vulnerable. You won't be forgetting Furiosa any time soon.
You can disagree with me all you want, but "Mad Max: Fury Road" is the best action movie of the decade. Before you completely write this statement off the map, though, consider this: what was the last action movie that really surprised you, really slapped you around and didn't ask if you wanted to take a five minute smoke break? This is visionary filmmaking, action or otherwise.