Mad Max: Fury Road - Cinema Review

The easiest thing to do would be to gush about this film's strengths since it is a fantastic film. However for some pointless high-minded moral, unbias and objectivity rationale i'm going to try and list as many legitimate and potential criticisms as possible before getting to the good stuff. The film's been out a while so there's a thousand other places singing its praises. Let's look at some possible reasons why you might not enjoy this film.

Firstly as with any highly stylised story, its quirky nature can be both appealing and off-putting to different people. The dialogue is sparse and filled with in-world terminology and slang. I didn't find any of it too difficult to grasp the general meaning of but this could make the film confusing and/or inaccessible to those not prepared.

Unofficially this film is Mad Max 3 which brings the common concern of needing backstory and context from the other films to understand this one. I didn't find this a problem at all and whilst i hear there are several little references to its predecessors in this, the only major ones are flashbacks plaguing Max himself, which are pretty blatantly spelt out as dead friends he failed to protect. You might not know how exactly he failed to protect them but its not neccesary for the story and works simply but effectively as a character trait.

Some have described Fury Road as one long car chase or set-piece, both as a good thing and a flaw. The story is very self-contained and straightforward with ninety percent of the action focusing on our characters in, on, around and ocassionally under vehicles, however the pacing is actually very comfortable and natural. There are appropriate breaks in the action. The slower, quieter moments where we learn about the characters and reflect on past events. That said, this isn't a character-drama and things won't stay still for too long so it's possible some might find this repetative and displeasing but, again i never found myself tiring of the frequent, not quite relentless action.

I sincerely hope this and Winter Soldier are signalling a return to stuntwork and practical effects.

Those expecting an intense realistic gritty post-apocalypse could be disappointed as while there is grit, and the plot logic mostly holds up for a cinema viewing at least, there are also some goofy aspects. Important to note that i'm not saying the film is light-hearted, it has very dark and mature themes but one of those themes is insanity and this is portrayed in many different ways, some of which are quite comical. I feel like restating that many of the traits potentially turning people away from this film can equally be aspects many love about it. Fury Road has character and identity which in modern action films is in woefully short supply.

I'm struggling to think of many other criticisms. I suppose if we want to dip our feet into controversial waters, the remarks surfacing from MRA's about this film being misandrist, to me, seem completely unfounded. There are some excellent strong, well-written female characters in this film but they don't feature at the expense of the males or vice versa really. Max himself is an anchor or vessel for the audience. A very common feature in storywriting when the world is so outlandish you need someone comparitively normal for the audience to relate to.

Having said that though, Max is definitely not overshadowed and has plenty of great scenes. It just happens that the main female character, Imperator Furiosa has an equal number of cool scenes, which given that it seems an underlying subplot of the film is daring to trust anyone in this crazy world, it makes perfect narrative sense to have two equally capable main characters.

I am now out of criticisms. The story is simple yet brilliantly told, the dialogue is restrained but considered. Purposeful and powerful. Visually the film is the a welcome paradox of a gorgeous wasteland. Vibrant sandy tones with delightfully inventive art design. Rusty, dusty and gusty; the endless orange deserts somehow don't become repetative and with night comes an intense icy blanket of blue shades.

The character designs are also refreshingly creative, as i mentioned earlier, this film has such a unique identity of its own and plenty of interesting ideas it puts to full use. Everything is meticulously detailed and fits in with the world perfectly. This is even more impressive when you consider how little CGI, Fury Road uses, compared to today's standards.

When CGI is used it's brilliant, when it isn't, it's still brilliant.

The pacing as i mentioned is exceptional. This feels like a film that could have so easily been a broken mess but the editing is tight, the cinematography elaborate and energetic, the choreography of the action scenes is frenzied, brutal and desperate. I felt like i saw a fade to black a few too many times but this is such a nitpick of a problem i don't even know how it factors in. 

All the main actors are superb. Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron are the outstanding highlights but Nicholas Hoult is impeccable as the eccentric, naive and blindly loyal Nux the War Boy and Hugh Keays-Byrne perfectly portrays the mad warlord and main antagonist Immortan Joe. The supporting cast have moments or even snippets of lines that don't gel quite as well but this could be nitpicking again and is probably unoticeable to many.

Speaking of barely noticing, i was fully aware of the awesome soundtrack on my first viewing that blends in and out of the film's world due to crazy bungee cord guitarists and drummers hyping up the antagonists as they ride, but parts of it are actually synched to the action in the film. Beats in the song may well match "beats" happening in fistfights on screen. I only noticed this on my second viewing so it might have been a singular instance but it helps enhance the film's style and rhythm. Overall i think as strong as the film is it would be significantly damaged in terms of tension and excitement without such a brutally frenetic score.

So in summary, do you like post-apocalyptic action films? If no, then this probably isn't for you. If yes, then you absolutely must see Mad Max: Fury Road as it is very likely the best one this year.