PROLOUGE: This review is longer than I usually do but I was so taken by this movie I couldn’t hold back much although I did edit and delete some fine stuff.

MAD MAX Fury Road  4.0***

        Mad Max Fury Road is Director George Miller's return to the franchise he started way back in 1979 with Mad Max and 2 sequels.. This movie is  one continuous rush of action and high octane exhilaration !!!!. It is absolutely filled  to the brim with over-the-top unbelievably  ridiculous action sequences that keep you on the edge of your seat totally  amazed at what Is happening on the screen. Now this film doesn't have much of a plot  but seriously you're not going to see this movie for a heavy plot. Also, in case you have not seen the earlier Mad Max movies, no worry…. you don’t need to… the story is independent and stands alone from the previous films.

The setting is once again that of a stark, distant, chaotic future, after normal civilization has collapsed and just about everyone has gone crazy. Max  ( Tom Hardy) is still a loner survivalist, on the run from his past. He is kidnapped by the really BAD guys called War Boys, an army under the leadership of a cruel dictator named Immortan Joe They take Max back to Joe’s camp…or better to say, hell hole.  When a beloved cultist commander of Joe, named Furiosa ( Charlize Theron), goes rogue and makes a run for in in a supped up tanker truck and takes with her  five of Joe’s enslaved wives, Joe gets really pissed off and  leads his whole army after them …. an army of deviants and mutants along with their fantastically evil vehicles To begin with during the awesome chase, Max is  chained to  the hood of Joe’s vehicle facing the hood ornament, a skull   In these opening chase ACTION scenes, the viewer goes through something that could only be described as the place where hell touches Earth, with lighting storms, sand storms, wind storms, and just about everything else that can be thrown at the viewer. Ax pulls through, escapes from Joe and his deviates and teams up with Furiosa who is trying to lead the women to the place where she grew up, in hopes of a better life.  And the chase continues.

 

This harsh unforgiving universe is fully developed, with just about every hellish detail up on the screen, every element coming together in an almost  magical way for not much is spoken so as to allow  the camera to capture the emotions, reactions, and powerful images, a hard-to-believe and impressive achievement when one considers the number of spectacular moments throughout the entire film.          

 

In this film, vehicles burn, crash, tumble, fly, and spit fire continuously, and the drivers and riders are uniquely strange and fearsome  There is power, disgust, hate, hunger, envy, and almost anything else you can think of emanating from everyone and everything on the screen, You can feel every emotion by letting the movie grab you and throw  you into total shock and awe, not believing  what you are seeing.  To make it even more unbelievable is that 80% of the effects seen in the film are real practical effects, stunts, make-up and sets. CGI was used sparingly mainly to enhance the landscape, remove stunt rigging and for Charlize Theron's left hand which in the film is a prosthetic arm.

 

Charlize Theron dominates her role as Furiosa. This is truly her movie, and she is amazing in it. But hey, the Max is back. Tom Hardy is a perfect replacement for Mel Gibson who was in the other 3 Mad Max movies…. perfect as the ultimate road warrior. He and Charlize  have great chemistry and work well off of one another.

The overall scope of this film is just incredible. The world Director George Miller has created is nasty, gritty, and just plain disgusting at times but so so realistic for post-apocalyptic times. Overall, Mad Max Fury Road is a breathtaking experience, filled with amazing action sequences and some of the best looking visual effects I have ever seen.  

 

A MUST see for action fans and SHOULD be seen on the big screen in a theater. WARNING: This movie is  probably just too intense and violent for most ladies. But if you handle that , this is one of the best action movies ever.

 

Rated R for intense sequences of violence throughout, and for disturbing images.

 

Clark

 

PRODUCTION NOTES:

1. The movie was shot in real time sequence which I believe enhances the story .

 

1. In creating the look of the film, Director George Miller laid down two rules for the production to follow. Firstly the cinematography should be as colorful as possible in order to differentiate the film from other post-apocalyptic movies which typically have bleak  desaturated colors. Secondly the art direction was to be as beautiful as possible, as Miller reasoned that people living in the post apocalypse would try to find whatever scraps of beauty they could in their meager environment.
    
    
2. Instead of the reboot being a remake of Mad Max (1979), revealing how Max  became The Road Warrior, George Miller decided that the reboot will take place in the post-apocalyptic Australia, years after the new Max (Tom Hardy) lost his family, because he did not wish to do a remake or retell the story that had already been told and he wanted to update the universe and the wasteland and wanted new moviegoers to remember Max as a man with nothing to lose after losing his family.
    
3. The flame-shooting guitarist in the movie is Australian artist/musician Sean Hape, better known as Iota. In an interview, he said the guitar weighed 132 pounds, and shot real gas powered flames which he controlled using the whammy bar.

 

1.  
    
   BELOW is a link for a You Tube video about the incredible and amazing vehicles used in the movie. Even if you’ve already seen the movie, you’ll enjoy seeing this video.
    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgkawcew2u8&feature=player_detailpage