Ultimately a fun nightmarish ride worth time and money, despite its obvious flaws.

Rating: 6/10 (26 May 2015)

One long battle of car chases and explosions set in a futuristic outback. Gasoline and water are apparently very valuable, but we see no character treating them like scarce commodities. There's not a whole lot of dialogue to establish what's going through the minds of these underdeveloped characters in a fictional world, but here goes a shot: At some point during a scuffle within a scuffle, Hardy and Theron team up to help the five wives of cult leader Keays-Byrne flee his wretched wasteland (no, they don't bother with trying to save any of the children or old people we saw for some reason, just five beautiful women). However, it is commendable for using CGI sparingly. Director Miller intended to make the film feel like one continuous chase, and his accomplishment is at the price of establishing interesting characters; not to mention that it's impractical for the audience to be pumped the entire time—a roller-coaster has to go up and down. The flame-shooting guitarist was undeniably savage though. There ends up being too many unintentional callbacks to Hardy's performance in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES: a mask covering the nose and mouth, blood transfusion tubing, the weakness of hope, use of a sawed-off shotgun, etc. Ultimately a fun nightmarish ride worth time and money, despite its obvious flaws.
** (out of four)