Movie Review: "Mad Max: Fury Road"

- by Steve Garcia, 19 May 2015

There are four films in the Mad Max franchise now, and the last one was released about 30 years ago. As a whole, this franchise has had some of the best, most influential action scenes of all time. Today in 2015, Mad Max: Fury Road continues the franchise, but is it worth the watch? Hold on to your hats, ladies and germs: we’ve got a movie review!

Movie poster. Click to enlarge.

Mad Max: Fury Road is a little flick about a guy named Max (Tom Hardy) who gets caught up in the middle of an escape mission between a monster named Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) and a woman named Furiosa (Charlize Theron). Taking place in an apocalyptic wasteland, no prior viewing of the previous installments of the franchise is required.

Now that all the background stuff is out of the way, I’m going to cut right to the chase: this might be the greatest action film of the decade. It was out of its mind! Taking risks that exponentially paid off in the end, director George Miller presented audiences with a beautiful symphony of chaos that hit every possible nail on the head. Everything from the characters to the setting, to the music to the emotion was spellbinding.

And the action! Oh, the action!

This movie never stopped. From beginning to end, the apocalyptic wasteland that is the world of Mad Max sucks you in and never lets you go. Every punch hurt. Every bullet stung. Every explosion (which were all beautiful, raw, practical effects) brought forth another chaotic smile to my face. A smile that stretched from ear to ear. The total scope of the vehicles charging into a cloud of sand and destruction was absolutely breathtaking.

The gem of this film was Charlize Theron’s Furiosa: the epitome of female action heroes. While it may be called “Mad Max,” this was really her movie. When you find out what her goal in the film is, and the lengths she is prepared to go to achieve them, you can’t help but leap out of your seat every time she performs the next scene.  Nicholas Holt’s character Nux, was also a standout as he (strangely enough, given his background) grounded this film and offered a sense of humanity throughout the ride.

To sum it all up, I just can’t praise this movie enough. Mad Max: Fury Road delivered in every possible way that an action film should. The cinematography was stunning. The action scenes were groundbreaking. Every character, from beginning to end, was worth spending screen time on. People go to the movies to be entertained, and if there’s anything that this film did, it was entertain audiences with some of the most magnificent sequences that have been missing from movie theaters for a long, long time. “Epic” is a word that has been overused to the point of being meaningless in this day and age, but believe me when I say that that is the best possible word I can genuinely use to describe this masterpiece of annihilation. As far as the year in movies is concerned, 2015 is over. Mad Max: Fury Road won the competition.


Have you seen it yet?! How did you like it? Let us know in the comments below! 
Also, you may want to check out this article on the cultural legacy of Mad Max.

Tagged: movies & TV, Reviews.

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