Review: Mad Max: Fury Road

IMDb

Title: Mad Max: Fury Road
Distributor: Village Roadshow Pictures
Director: George Miller
Writer(s): George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nick Lathouris
Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, and Nicholas Hoult
MPAA Rating: Rated R for intense sequences of violence throughout, and for disturbing images.
Running Time: 120 min
Synopsis: In a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, two rebels just might be able to restore order: Max, a man of action and of few words, and Furiosa, a woman of action who is looking to make it back to her childhood homeland.

What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 98% "Fresh", Top Critics: 98% "Fresh", Audience: 94% "Liked It"
Metacritic: Critics: 89 out of 100, Users: 9.1 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 87 out of 100

My Review

Source Material: A continuation of the Mad Max franchise.

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: Non-stop action from beginning to end. This is very much a high octane film. Some of the best action I have seen in years.

• Comedy Elements: I laugh at some of the ridiculousness shown on the screen. This is an action film through and through.

• Dramatic Elements: The drama plays out in the tension of the action sequences.

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: Mad Max take play in a post-apocalyptic world, so there is a good amount of Sci-fi elements.

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 7.5: There is very little dialogue in this film. Tom Hardy as Max, probably has the fewest lines in the entire film. Most of his performance was grunts and groans. I really enjoy seeing Nicholas Hoult play the eccentric war boy named Nux. I would say the star of the film was Charlize Theron. She was the driving force behind the film. She portrays a great strong female lead.

• Cinematography: 9:  What makes the action in this film good, is the cinematography. This film does a great job at placing us, the audience, in the driver seat without placing us in the driver's seat. Most action films will use a shaky or jittery cameras to represent "being-in-the-action" but this film utilizes fluid and continuous shots to achieve that very same goal. I also liked the contrast between daytime shots and nighttime shots. The daytime was bright and orange (primarily because the film takes place in a sandy wasteland) while the nighttime was dark and blue.

• Direction: 7: George Miller is known for Mad Max, Babe, and Happy Feet. From my understanding, this film was more or less been a passion project for Miller, that passion was shown on the screen.

• Editing: 8: The cinematography and editing make the action in this film believable and watchable. I thought one of the major flaws of the Avengers: Age of Ultron was the pacing but in this film its one of its strengths.

• Screenplay: 6: I personally felt there wasn't enough development of the characters. For me, the only character that had a "clear" motivation was Furiosa (Charlize Theron). Most of that clarity came in the form of exposition, which didn't come until there was a slight break in the action. Let's be honest, we are not going into a Mad Max movie looking for a deep story. As long as there an action packed car chase, we fulfilled our exceptions of a Mad Max film.

• Sound and Music: 9: The action was great, the cinematography was great, but the music was fantastic. The music was even more of a driving force than Charlize Theron. I believe the music is what elevates this film into the good category for me.    

• VFX: 8: I like that most of the effects were practical, and If they weren't kudos to the vfx guys and girls.       

Overall: 7.5: I left the theater happy and I enjoyed the film overall, but I think it could have a little bit better story.