massively over-rated

Rating: 4/10 (3 June 2015)

I am unsure where the rave reviews for this movie are coming from, certainly the film does not deserve its current position in the IMDb top 250.
The film supposedly takes place between Mad Max 2 and 3, immediately robbing the audience of any sense of jeopardy for Mad Max.
There isn't much of a plot ( and some sources claim that the film didn't even have a script ), just a long desert chase which gets repetitive very quickly.
We are given a new actor in the role of Max Rockatansky, Tom Hardy. Sadly, Hardy is less than stellar in the charisma department, and his performance is ineffectual. In addition the film sidelines Max in order to showcase other characters and reduces him to an ineffectual character on the rare occasions when he is given something to do.
Charlize Theron is Furiosa, the real star of the movie. Her performance is better but, despite a cascade of social media claims to the contrary, the idea of a warrior woman is an old and tired one even for the Mad Max franchise.
The film is mainly a seemingly interminable drive through the desert. Pacing is terrible and I wasn't engaged by the characters.
the saving grace is the cinematography, which is beautiful, but not enough to redeem the film as a whole.