What A Lovely Day Indeed

Rating: 8/10 (20 May 2015)

I have to admit, I'm not a fan of the original Mad Max trilogy. I'm not necessarily saying that they are bad films, (well the third one is) they just never seemed to leave an impact on me. However, this film is so good I went to see it twice.
Mad Max: Fury Road isn't technically a sequel, nor is it a remake. It's a reboot of a beloved franchise. As you can imagine, although I'm not a fan of the series, my expectations were pretty low. Especially in this day and age where Hollywood keeps churning out more and more terrible PG-13 remakes of well-respected action films from the previous century. However, the reviews for the film were phenomenal so I offered for some of my friends to come see it with me. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised as it far surpassed my expectations.
When I first heard that Tom Hardy was going to replace Mel Gibson as the titular hero I was actually quite excited. Tom Hardy is one of my favourite actors of our time and he has demonstrated on more that one occasion that he has a flare for accents. Although I thought someone like Hugh Jackman would be more suited for this role as he is able to perfectly blend humour with seriousness. Also, he's Australian so he wouldn't have to put on an accent like Tom Hardy does. However, after watching this twice, I think Tom Hardy did a good job. There were times where I could hear a hint of Bane and even Christian Bale's Batman in his voice but this film doesn't use much dialogue because George Miller wants to focus more on visual story-telling, which I'm all for. I love 2001: A Space Odyssey after all.
Tom Hardy isn't the only great actor in this film though. Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult both give excellent performances also. Nicholas is able to pull of the Australian accent well and Charlize Theron finally provides us with a female protagonist on par with Ripley and Sarah Connor. Even Hugh Keays-Byrne returns to franchise to play an even more intimidating villain. You could really identify with the heroes and you wanted things to go their way. As for the villains, you wanted them to fail so that hope could prevail.
The best part of the film of course is the action sequences, which there are many I might add. I love slow-paced thrillers but I'm still a guy, a guy who is a sucker for pretty explosions (just not when Michael Bay does it). Every sequence is well thought out and perfectly executed. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time as I was completely in awe of what I was witnessing on screen. It really was as Tom Hardy said, we were getting a glimpse into George Miller's mind. His direction was superb although things got crazy and a little silly at times. Despite this I felt worried for the characters on screen as well as the actors who played them. Most of the effects on the film were practical which I'm pleased to see. I despise how in action films today there is just CGI everywhere so it was refreshing to see an action film successfully utilise practical effects which look much better in my opinion. However, the CGI that was used looked spectacular and was always necessary.
Thankfully, this film has substance as well as style. Some people have said that they don't understand the story but I understand it perfectly. Honestly, it's not hard to decipher. I'm excited for the upcoming sequels where hopefully they will expand upon what was created with this film. I love the social commentary and the environmentalist message that this film had to offer and it really made me think about the corruption that power can bring and the horrible consequences that can come from wasting the earth's natural resources. As far as I'm concerned there was no Matrix level complexity to the plot.
In conclusion, this film is amazing and you should definitely go and see it. I will say that it is definitely a guy film though. However, if you love fast-paced action, explosions, awesome cars, an action film with a plot and Tom Hardy then this is the film for you. Seriously though, who doesn't like that stuff?