Mad Max: Fury Road

Year: 2015
Director: George Miller
Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Abbey Lee, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough, Courtney Eaton


Plot: In a post-apocalyptic world filled with chaos and insanity, one man is caught in the middle of an escape plan spearheaded by a female warrior who wants to save the wives of a lunatic warlord.


Review: I hadn't watched the original Mad Max trilogy, but I thought I knew what to expect going into this film. After seeing it, I assure you, even if you knew exactly what to expect, you'll be blown away by it.

Writer-director George Miller, who created the original Mad Max films that starred Mel Gibson, has wonderfully brought a hellacious spectacle of a movie that just might be the year's best adventure. Mad Max: Fury Road basically feels like one long chase sequence from beginning to end, but damn if it isn't so much fun to behold.

There is a plot though, don't you worry. A man called Max is all alone in a desert world filled with crazy people. He gets captured by War Boys, a bunch of foot soldiers who follow Immortan Joe, a warlord with five wives who controls a large water supply that the poor folk depend on. His right hand woman, Imperator Furiosa, hatches a plan to turn on Joe and take his wives away to her home far away, and Max gets caught in the middle. Also along for the ride is Nux, a War Boy who seeks to redeem himself after failing Joe.

If there's one thing that really stands out in this film, it's the amount of vehicular carnage on display here. It pretty much rivals all the Fast & Furious films combined. Crashes, explosions, suicide dives, flips, and a huge sandstorm all come together beautifully. Never has destruction looked so cool on screen. And then there are the vehicles, costumes, sets, cinematography, music....it's insane and yet gorgeous at the same time. You'll have to see it for yourself to know what I mean. Miller is truly a genius, I salute him and his entire production team for creating a world that is visually remarkable and making action sequences, from vehicular destruction to a simple hand-to-hand scrap look awesome.

The cast's three main leads, Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult all deliver outstanding performances. Hardy plays Max as a man of few words but says a lot with his fists and eyes very well, just as he did in Warrior and Lawless. Theron gives Furiosa a fine balance between toughness and delicateness, while Hoult succeeds in making Nux a character worth pitying and eventually root for. Hugh Keays-Byrne makes a good villain as Joe despite wearing a mask throughout the film. While the women chosen to play Joe's five wives look like mere pretty faces, to their credit, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Abbey Lee, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough and Courtney Eaton manage to stand out in their own way, with each of them having their own moment to shine.

If there is a downside to this film at all, it would be Max himself looking like someone who is shoved into the main plot instead of being the focal point of the story. Not much background is given to Max, save for visions and nightmares he keeps having of his dead family. But this is a small complaint, which doesn't really matter when you're in the middle of seeing him and Furiosa kick ass.

I can't say it enough. Mad Max: Fury Road is the most adrenalin-pumping, ass-kicking film of the year. Highly recommended. (9/10)