Mad Maxina

Rating: 5/10 (15 May 2015)

This will be hard to properly score. Is it a good movie? Definitely. Is it a good Mad Max movie? Well, that is a tougher call.
I feel that Tom Hardy was horribly miscast. I trust that George Miller, having directed all four movies, knows what he is doing. But even if we accept that this was an intended shift in Max's personality, I do not feel it's for the better. 30 years is a long time since we last saw Max on screen, but I am not convinced that his modernization" went the right way. We went from witty and visceral portrayal by Mel Gibson to pretty clueless and almost contemplative version, as acted by Tom Hardy. On top of this, his madness" is unconvincing, told through flashes/flashbacks without context and in borderline cheesy manner. With over 400 hours of footage, if these were the best expressions or reactions that editors could find, then I guess the actor simply does not fit. I could see someone like Travis Fimmel as much better Max – where madness would be apparent instead of implied or spelled out. This all just gives way to everything that is great about the movie.
Charlize Theron is stunning. Maybe for more experience, maybe for greater charisma, but this is much more her character's (Furiosa) movie then Mad Max – hence my title above. She exists in stark contrast to Tom Hardy, conveying believable emotion, and more importantly motivation. On-screen, she handles all emotional consequences and is the projection of all resolutions. Is Charlize the new ideal for cold blooded action heroine? Possibly. I would very much like to see more such roles for her, especially since she now proved that what she did in Prometheus was just bad directing/script, not her lack of talent. Great job, the best I saw from her since Devil's advocate. I disagree that other characters are undeveloped. What characters? This is Mad Max universe – a playground for key protagonists with everyone else relegated to little more than props.
Some people are already displeased by script, but let's take a step back and see it in context of entire series. Now, this IS a Mad Max script – a story about ride from point A to point B and back to point A. Nothing more, nothing less then what first three movies were all about. I was happy to see that it avoided some obvious clichés – nobody is truly selfless and nobody goes out of his way to sacrifice his life. And the best thing, there are zero deus-ex-machina moments, a true surprise nowadays. My only issue is that Nux was an obvious red shirt and I'd love if he survived. Cannot have it all.
Setting is executed to near perfection. Wasteland universe is not heavily used in commercial fiction. We have just a few computer games and even fewer movies (Book of Eli ugh). But Miller's rendition of post apocalyptic tribal culture is solid with great integration of contemporary symbolism into fictional future expression (we'll be McDining in Valhalla"). And movie is visually stunning. I watched Jupiter ascending" the night before, which tries to be rich in style, and while this is not similar in execution, it tries to achieve the same effect. And it blows anything seen this year out of the water. Mad Max raises the bar far above where it lingered for quite some time and it will be interesting to see if anything comes even close soon. No sense to talk more about the visuals – go see it, if only to see it in action.
For me, it is 5/10. It deserves more. I would love to give it more. It is an outstanding achievement. But sadly, my disappointment with (intended) main protagonist makes me down-score the movie possibly more than it deserves.