Movie Review: Mad Max: Fury Road

I just caught the new Mad Max (Mad Max: Fury Road) from director George Miller.  The trailer made me excited, and then I lost interest a few days later.  And, then I heard it had an 88 on Metacritic with almost half the reviews in, so I figured it was something worth checking out.  Miller directed the first two from the late 70s/early 80s.  The first became a cult classic, and the second became a critic's favorite for the decade, both generating huge profits and turning Mel Gibson into the next big thing before he skyrocketed to fame with Lethal Weapon.  The third installation--released 30 years ago--fell short of expectations, and the franchise hasn't been revisited until now.  Miller hasn't been the most prolific director, yet he has had something to offer with each subsequent project.  The Witches of Eastwick was fun romp and blockbuster hit.  He reteamed with Susan Sarandon and landed the both of them twin Oscar nominations for Lorenzo's Oil (his for screenwriting).  His last live-action feature (He also did well with Happy Feet) was the very underrated sequel, Babe: Pig in the City.

Now, he has gone back to his post-apocalyptic world where water and gas are scarce, and most people are destitute.  The desert landscape is filled with punk villains covered in zombie-like makeup and ruled over by a nasty warlord.  One of the strengths of the film include its untraditional role as a sequel.  Fury Road follows its own path, so to speak.  Max (Tom Hardy) is a bit of an unassuming passenger in these proceedings.  The introduction quickly and whimsically establishes the mythology of Mad Max, and then inserts him into a story that is not his own, but that of Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron).  He's there to assist in her plight as a renegade escaping the clutches of Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne)--a delightfully dastardly villain, among an assortment of delicious foes--while helping others do the same.  It's also a shrewd movie, helping to sidestep some of the comparisons to Gibson, whose inextricably tied to the character.  So, there isn't much to the performance of Hardy, as his role is quite underwritten--literally.  He doesn't say a lot.  And, oddly, his accent is difficult to place.  Is he doing his own?  Is he treading lightly on some kind of Aussie-ish brogue?  We don't really know, as there are few words, mostly delivered in some kind of muffled Bain-like tone.

Max battles demons from the past within himself, as well as external forces that seek to contain him, and learns that the only remedy isn't escape, but to assist those in need, which is not limited to just Furiosa, but the ragtag group of characters she takes under her wings (from self-preserving pregnant supermodels--including the surprising tolerable Zoë Kravitz--to a band of nomadic rebels).  Furiosa's backstory feels even more stilted and anemic.  Theron's stalwart, kick-ass heroine is a step-up from her Aeon Flux, but the movie itself keeps her--and Max--from completely shining and taking their proper light in the movie.  There isn't much to be said for the other actors as they're given little to work with, but for a good portion, Nicholas Hoult is like an itch that won't go away.

The element that takes its lion share is the production design and Miller's demented sensibilities.  The visuals are lush and full of energy: a musician suspended by bungee cords that plays notes set afire, an abrupt cut to beautiful women quenching their desert thirst with water like they've appearing in a Carls, Jr commercial, etc.  On one hand, this film is quite style over substance.  The story is simple, void of much storytelling.  About 75% of the movie is on wildly-designed wheels going from Point A to Point B back to Point A.  It's essentially a chase flic with a creative concept, and minimal development.  And what there is to the characters often isn't very interesting, sometimes clunky, and where the dialogue fails to raise much engagement (at one point, the line "Remember me?" is delivered as a soft punch, that, unfortunately, is the highlight of the dialogue).  Its two-hour running could have easily and rightfully been paired down to the 90 minute-length of each of the first two movies.

That being said, I have to say I haven't seen a popcorn film quite like this in a really long time.  A good portion of the action sequence (and well, this film is mostly action sequence) is quite breathtaking and well-orchestrated.  Miller's world here is a fully realized conceptual force.  Much of the verve and style of the first two Mad Max films is there; only, they get a big budget treatment, without robbing the proceedings of their raw flair and amusement.  So the uniqueness of this venture is quite something to savor with the eyes.  Unfortunately, the script itself doesn't hold enough candles to this quite mesmerizing imagination of Miller.  But, then, this movie was written by storyboard artists, so what can one really expect?  Go see it.  See it on a big screen with an incredible sound system.  See it in 3D.  See it knowing full well you're not getting perfection, but you're being treated much better as an audience then you have in a really long time.