140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW
Original filmmaker Miller returns to his most famous (human) character with intense, unrelenting, disturbing & completely nuts thrill ride.
Spoiler-free Movie Review of Mad Max: Fury Road:
Everyone is absolutely loving the new Mad Max film, Mad Max: Fury Road. They are right to do so. It’s a great picture.
I had serious misgivings when the project was announced. I’m weary of our reboot & rewrite first mentality to modern filmmaking. The original Mad Max trilogy was fairly brilliant. What’s more, while the pictures were great, it’s not as though they were anchored by some brilliant story that needed to be brought to a new generation. They succeeded in spite of, and possibly due to, some of the most minimalist writing of all time. These were highly successful films that deserved every bit of praise directed at them – they punched their weight and did so quite well.
A few things changed my view on the reboot, though:
- Finding out that the creative team for the original pictures were behind Fury Road. This was pretty much the only reason I needed. My oft-stated aversion to reboots is nearly always absent when the reason for a new picture is the desire of the original filmmakers to revisit their own work. I completely understand and relate to a director wanting to improve upon a vision they weren’t fully able to realize earlier in their career.
- While Mel Gibson was born to play Max Rockatansky with that wild-eyed crazy that worked a lot better before you realized he was playing to type, I do like me some Tom Hardy. The guy is extremely adaptable and talented.
Ultimately, though, my decision was made for me by the great buzz, most particularly from my friend Benn Robbins. Benn writes the occasional review for Forces of Geek although I’m trying to recruit him for the New Hong Kong Cavaliers. We often clash on our opinions, but in the best way possible, with total respect for each others well thought-out arguments.
I’ve never seen anyone go so totally fanboy over a picture. Saw the movie like four nights in a row. The first week. Actually before the first week. The film’s actual release date was May 15th. I saw it the morning of the 16th and homeboy had already seen it four or five times. (Must be nice having press access…) So if someone I respected was that crazy for the movie, I had to give it a real shot.
Somewhere between a reboot and a sequel, Fury Road features the same main character, Max Rockatansky, the same car, (1973 Ford Falcon XB GT Interceptor) and really nothing else concrete that nails this down as a sequel. But it really could be Mad Max 4. Other than the fact that he keeps having flashbacks to a little girl that presumably is meant to be his daughter, there isn’t anything in Fury Road that directly contradicts anything that’s come before. [Max’s child in the first film, Sprog (?), was male.]
Co-writer/director Miller labels the film a “revisit” as the films have no clear chronology. Perhaps it’s as some have postulated, that the Max stories are each narratives, given at different times by different people and consistency is mixed up in legends passed on by mouth. If so that’s rather clever; even if it isn’t, it’s a great idea and I’m going to accept it and leave it at that.
No matter how you classify it, Fury Road is definitely a standalone film (even if sequels are coming), requiring no prior history with the character or films. It completely retains the same feel and spirit of the original trilogy, while still having room stylistically to be updated. The production design is truly excellent.
I’m not going to spend too long on the story, as they really aren’t the main draw with these films, but following Max’s emotional arc is one of those things that muddy the water on whether this a sequel or not. He seems as distanced and broken at the outset of this picture as he is in The Road Warrior, but also comes to terms with his humanity quicker, which possibly argues that the events of Beyond Thunderdome did happen. You can argue it either way. The point is that the story is a good one.
As with all of the films, Fury Road takes place in post-apocalyptic Australia (actually, the only allusion to the films taking place after a nuclear war is in Thunderdome), where resources are scarce and life brutal. Everything depends on gasoline and water and everyone spends the entirety of their existence focused on survival. The main baddie of the film, Immortan Joe (interestingly played by the main villain, Toecutter, of the original Mad Max, Hugh Keays-Bryne) is head of his own little slice of Wasteland paradise. He has an army of scrawny, bald, white-painted War Boys, a stockpile of water and plants, a fleet of hopped up vehicles and a harem of women for breeding.
Thus is formed the main crux of the story; Joe’s top lieutenant makes off with his property (the pregnant women), and we spend 120 minutes chasing them. Max? He’s dragged along, actually chained to a car as a living blood bag after he is captured and his car taken from him…for the third consecutive movie…(this plot point could use a little work.)
So let’s get to the koala in the room – the secret feminist agenda of Mad Max: Fury Road. Seriously? Are we even having this discussion? Grow up, people…
Yes, Fury Road features a seriously strong female character in the form of Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) who is so integral to the story that she is arguably the main protagonist of the film. Countless articles that I’m not reading have been published about: a) how Fury Road is a secret feminist film, and/or b) how upset fanboys are about it.
Maybe I’m missing something (and if so I’m thrilled to be missing it), but I haven’t heard anyone grousing about the supposed feminist agenda of the film. I haven’t heard anyone complaining that Furiosa is a more important character than Max. Hell, I haven’t heard anyone complaining about anything – this movie is getting ridiculously good feedback.
I’d like to think this is much ado about nothing; that lazy journalists are presuming that because Miller has injected his action movie with decent representation from one half of the human race that troglodyte man-children everywhere must be enraged. Maybe some are, I don’t know. But it really seems to me as though people are trying to manufacture a controversy here. I can’t seriously imagine that there are fanboys who are anything but thrilled about Furiosa and the whole film.
Were the fanboys supposedly up in arms over Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in the Alien films? Because every man I have EVER spoken with about Alien absolutely loves the character.
I personally love the character of Furiosa. I don’t consider her to be the main character of the film particularly, although I certainly understand the argument and don’t object. These types of movies have a history of the lead being almost secondary to the more colorful supporting characters, though; they’re “man without a name” stories for a reason. The last film, Thunderdome, isn’t really even about Max. It’s about the kids. That’s even how the story came to be. Doesn’t mean he isn’t the protagonist…
There are actually a number of strong women in Fury Road and I’m still not shutting myself in my cave in a tantrum. I don’t think other males are either. Let’s all look forward to a day when we don’t have to even talk about this stuff because representation isn’t so novel.
Besides, you certainly need some strong women in this film to counteract the over-familiar brutality to women that is always on display in these pictures. The Mad Max films aren’t misogynistic – there’s brutality enough for everyone in these pictures – but Fury Road actually shows women being bred and milked like chattel, so maybe a second coat of ass-kicking females was the correct choice here…
I’ve never seen a movie quite like Mad Max: Fury Road because they’ve never made one quite like it. The film is so over the top – it’s completely insane. I’ve never seen a movie so completely unrelenting. It’s total intensity for a solid two hours. That’s hard to do. Up until now I would have said it was impossible…
Despite the complete over-stimulating experience this sounds like – and is – I never stopped enjoying myself. Two hours is a long time, but not at this pace.
I saw the picture in 3D, which I usually consider a mixed bag. With the exception of one really pandering shot, the 3D completely enhanced the experience with this movie and never felt tacked on or gimmicky.
The look of the film is truly unique – a neat trick when making the fourth film in a series. It honestly looks very different from the other pictures, while still maintaining the same feel. Production Designer Colin Gibson has really come up with something special.
The set design is inspired – equal parts beautiful and hideous. Cinematographer John Seale came out of retirement to do this picture, and it’s amazing. Every other dystopian future picture looks like someone grabbed the color tone dial off your old TV, yanked it to the grays, broke it off and used the stump of it to scratch the camera lens. But Fury Road is vibrant, full of color. And the filming of so complicated a showcase of action scenes is remarkable.
A lot has been made of the use of so many practical effects in this picture. Reportedly 80% of the effects are in-camera or in some other way not digital. First off, nonsense. I’m not calling shenanigans, but there’s no reason to exaggerate, The overwhelming feel of the film is realistic; the effects are visceral because you’re looking at real steel road monsters crashing and burning. You don’t have to be embarrassed to admit that there’s still plenty of good old fashioned CG in here. The effects and action sequences are jaw-dropping not because they are practical, but because they are daring, inspired and well-executed. Doesn’t matter how you get there…
Mad Max: Fury Road is a fantastic action picture and great summer movie. Is it as amazing as everyone is saying? Yeah, pretty much. It’s not Earth-shattering or anything, but it does what it does very well. Go see it. And since the laws of probability suggest that you’ll see my friend there, say hi for me…
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Pass
The Representation Test Score: C (4 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Tom Hardy Max Rockatansky Charlize Theron Imperator Furiosa Nicholas Hoult Nux Zoë Kravitz Toast the Knowing |
| Rating | R |
| Release Date | Fri 15 May 2015 UTC |
| Director | George Miller |
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller |
| Plot | 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. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 120 |
| Tagline | What a lovely day. |
| Writers | George Miller (written by) and, Brendan McCarthy (written by) … |
| Year | 2015 |
