Another Amazing Chronicle of the Nomad Known as Mad Max

Rating: 9/10 (16 May 2015)

Frank Miller has created a staple in the action movie genre, Mad Max: Fury Road is one hell of a ride! Thankfully, Miller chose not to reboot the franchise starting with a dreadful origin story, instead he chose to follow along the path of 1981's The Road Warrior. The movie picks up after the death of his family where he struggles to survive on his own while he is continuously tormented by their deaths. We know just enough about Max to make the character work, but enough is left hidden to make him a cryptic warrior.
The brilliance of the movie is, of course, the action sequences which were mostly done via actually stuntmen. Something about knowing/seeing real people attempting all these crazy scenes/stunts makes the movie much more exciting and authentic. Fury Road is so fast paced and loaded with action galore, you never know what Miller has up his sleeve and what he is going to throw at us next. Though there was a moment or two where the movie seemed to be in action overload and a change of pace was needed. But what really drove the movie home was how he placed all this great action in an obscure, bizarre world where tyrants reign supreme. It's interesting to see the same things that we value today carry over into the post-apocalyptic world, food, water, and, of course, fuel. The world may be a wasteland, but some things never changed, the disparity between people will forever remain.
It was also great to see Max taking the backseat and letting Furiosa (Charlize Theron) and the wives lead the movie. They, along with the clan of women, kick just as much if not more ass as Max and the War Boys. Fury Road is being praised for its thoughtful representation of females in the movie, which is absolutely true. Telling this tale with women is partially what makes the movie work so damn well. At the same time, Max is represented as the nomad who is caught in a war of two different parties and is doing nothing more than surviving. The core of the movie may be about Furiosa and her reaching for freedom but at the same time this is just another chronicle of the rogue warrior, Max.
Mad Max: Fury Road will EASILY go down as the best action movie of 2015, if not one of the best of the past 25 years! It's safe to say that Mad Max is here to stay, especially since Tom Hardy is signed on for THREE more films! Style and action haven't mixed this well in years!