Great ride - shame about the script!

Rating: 6/10 (4 June 2015)

Well, it looks great - and there's even more of those marvelously costumed and made-up bad guys that helped make 'Road Warrior' so memorable, albeit that, there, it was done in moderation. Naturally, it being a George Miller-helmed Mad Max movie, the editing and shots of vehicles powering down that outback highway are to marvel at, although as with a roller-coaster-ride, the best rides are when you get some relief, even if you know thrills are just split-seconds away. Cinematography-wise, it rivals Nic Roeg's 'Walkabout' in its use of barren desert - except Roeg employed thousands less people to tell his story - and more tellingly.
I don't know: 'exposition' is considered by many to be a four-letter word and, in cinema's case, its absence is often justified with the dictum 'a picture tells a thousand words': I'm a great believer in exposition, though, in both film and written storytelling: blanks need to be filled in, and an optimal harmony can be achieved, of show and tell. I'd read about the film's 'feminist' subtext and been somewhat wary of it, particularly when its defenders had cited Charlize Theron's 'Furiosa' heroine as being more critical than Max, himself: now, having seen the film, I don't see that as being a particular problem; at least hers is a more plausible characterisation than Sharon Stone's turn in 'The Quick and The Dead', for example. My main problem is with the basic script itself - and the somewhat muddied/half-baked feminist agenda/sub- plot: like what, really, was the journey really about, and why did they ultimately make the decisions they did; how critical were the 'travails' of the rescued Supermodels, and their pouting and dress-sense; and, especially, what was the deal with those hold-out female warriors - what, exactly, were they holding out for, and from whom; how did they survive for as long as they did.
With regards to basic plot elements I was put in mind of the 'Animal Farm' mantra: 'four legs good, two legs bad', in the films divide of men and women characters; and, indeed, of the nursery rhyme, 'The Grand Old Duke of York', as regards the journey; is that, really, all there is? And then there's arch-villain, Immortan Joe (a welcome return for 'Mad Max' chief villain, Hugh Keays Byrne - albeit in a different guise): How did he survive as long as he did; and surely there would have been at least one ambitious successor, waiting in the wings.
It looked great: it just needed even a half-decent, half-thought out, semi plausible screenplay to make the ride that bit smoother. I'll be returning to 'The Road Warrior' and 'Mad Max', but I'll pass on re-watches or the DVD of this one - unless the Director's Cut gets to tell the whole story.