Feels a bit like the old Max, but disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (14 May 2015)

I'm old enough to have caught all the original Mad Max movies when they hit the silver screen here in America.
It was entertaining but I felt sort of let down. I expected more of original formula. As much as I like Tom Hardy in other movies, he honestly couldn't carry the Mad Max character. Then they tried to make up for it with some weird horror like montage/flashbacks. I got the feeling this "Max" had either gone insane or maybe he was on some serious drugs.
Mel has this sort of spark to him. His version was much stronger, more masculine, sort of like a superhero. Harding on the other hand seemed weak and kind of mushy.
I'm starting to feel that Gibson would have been better again despite his age. Sure maybe he couldn't crawl under a truck anymore, but Arnold and Stallone carry an action movie fine and they are even older!
It did have the Mad Max feel to it at times, but for the most part it seemed to have a lot more of the modern feel.
Unfortunately this time Miller must have been wooed and couldn't resist the temptation to over do special effects like 90% of most action movies are these days. I'll say it again, and again, if you don't have story you don't have anything.
Does every movie need to be one and half hours plus of pure SFX? It got to a point were the movie seemed too implausible and surreal.
And then it seems like Miller was thinking "screw it, I'm going to make this movie really mean something!"; and make this weird dynamic about some political statements all over. Miller seemed have gotten soft in the head. The originals were like "Watch this wild strong guy try to survive in some apocalyptic wasteland" and that was all we needed.
This move just doesn't have that magic. The original Max really had this edge to it. And it had a lot of character.
In the end it's a pretty entertaining movie, but like me you'll probably leave a bit disappointed if you were a big fan of the originals..