It's good, but it's not The Road Warrior

Rating: 9/10 (26 May 2015)

Spoilers, ye be here.
I went to see this with high hopes, and that's always a bad idea. The action was solid, the acting decent and the plot interesting. None of those three things was outstanding, though the cinematography for every action sequence was quite enthralling. What we have here is a spiritual successor to the original trilogy (can we please just forget the third film?) that works well, setting the tone perfectly for future installments, but which still needs work as a stand-alone production. I, for one, would like to know how Furiosa found and escaped with Joe's brides, unnoticed, how she came to be in charge of a rig in what's supposed to be a predominantly male society (I have no problems with this, but given the world structure it NEEDS explaining), how Joe and his disturbingly- malformed cronies came to be in charge in the first place, and how Max lost his family. I suppose a run-down of Furiosa being taken as a child would be a good inclusion too.
We're given hints of these important points, but no outright explanations, which makes the movie feel like an out-and-out popcorn flick that is amazingly rated on this site. My only major complaint is that the five wives were just there. They existed only to serve the plot and added very little as individual characters. And I have no interest in getting into the supposed feminist message here. It's actually anti-slavery and little else.
Overall, nothing is 'outstanding', but nothing is terrible either. This is a solid movie that should, and will, do well at the box office, that will captivate audiences and that will ensure Mad Max is reborn as a long-time series once again.
I live, I die, I live again.