Mad Max: Fury Road 2015

Sometimes I'm amazed about how such mediocre movies can be pumped and overhyped for so little...I mean it could have almost been a decent action movie if it was a little bit shorter, and had at least one tiny bit of developing in the storyline beyond "cool machines driven by freaks chasing in the desert".. All in all beside a great costumes design and props what you are left with, is just some sort a giant shallow videoclip, with a great visual reworking of the post atomic imaginary introduced from the first Mad Max. Oh yes and plus some half naked models.
It's true, after all those useless blurry, hyperkinetic camera movements we got overdosed in the last decades, it's refreshing to see some more traditional shooting with a proper image composition...on the other hand Fury Road to (badly) counterbalance one good thing, need to add something really wrong, hence I have the feeling it will be remembered for one of the worst night photography seen since who knows when maybe the 70s...I mean blue filtering for the night sequences?! c'mon is that a joke?!...in the age of the uber ISO settings digital camera brought even to consumer market? Is really depressing to see so blatantly fake night scenes in a big budget movie...and for no imaginable reason.
I was about to let it go half the way, honestly I made it to the end just out of curiosity...not for the movie itself which became boring pretty soon, but because I was desperately looking for that special something that should have made this movie worth at least some of the praise I had read from audience and critics alike. Needless to say, there was nothing until the end...just you know, the desert...

Finally got to go to the cinema recently to watch the new Mad Max film, and just got around to completing my review on it all. I honestly thought I wouldn't get to see it at the cinema as it didn't seem to be the sort of film I could drag my wife along to. But thanks to the wonder of the @wittertainment podcast, she was willing (if not eager) to see what all the fuss was about, especially as she had not seen any of the other Mad Max films before. I on the other hand remember them from my younger days, and recall the excitement and intrigue that came from this post-apocalyptic world. Granted, we had lost Mel, but I felt Tom Hardy was an excellent choice to fill the role.

What was this film about you may ask? Well, the world has been turned into a wasteland run by those that controlled the oil (and without all their faculties in place). Max has lead a heartbreaking past, and one that has left him in emotional turmoil that he may never fully recover from. The world is full of car gangs, insanity, aggression, and heroes of grey.

Upon sitting down to watch the film, I was ready to just forget all the woes and stresses of my current days, and just be washed over my the film. I must say, this was the perfect choice for such a requirement. The action scenes were close to non-stop, I recall a few quiet periods during the film, but these did not last for long. Now, it is hard to explain how this is a good thing, many times you may hear people go to films and whinge about weak dialogue, or lack of depth to a film, this is not something you hear people comment on with regards to this instalment in the Mad Max saga. I feel that the main reason for this lies with the strength and integrity of the actors and writers. Whilst dialogue was limited, emotion was portrayed in actions and facial emotions, giving another way to show how the world has moved on, and talking is no longer the requirement it is today.

Further to this, there are several points for discussion (and often arguments) afterwards such as portrayals of feminism and physical disability portrayed on film, especially in a film that feels superficially simplistic on the surface. They could easily have gone with various stereotypes of film, and sold to the same audience as all the other high-octane action films, but instead they carefully laced some strong thoughts into the story.

Overall, this was an excellent film, both fun to watch and exhilarating. Also, whilst the story and plot points are not complicated, there are some very interesting visuals and more subtle points to the story which are in some ways more interesting because they are pushed to the background (as though the fact that a character is female, or has a disability is inconsequential, and the story does not care). So long as you aren't of the faint hearted, I would certainly recommend this film though if you were considering it, just don't expect to relax at all.

I really liked this film. I am going to be disappointed in the other films I end up seeing this year. The action is amazing and the visuals are endlessly impressive. I also could not get over how effective the sound was. After seeing the film with my son, I told him at times my heart was racing and I was gripping the arm rests of my theater seat.

I've heard the complaints that "Fury Road" is anti-male. Geez, it is no more anti-male than "Commando". And why is everyone so obsessed with measuring how "strong" the female characters are in action movies? I didn't even think about how fine a leader or how tough Furiosa was. She was what she was, regardless of gender. I actually think George Miller did a disservice to the character because her image was more "manly" than that of the brides she was saving. I'm not certain why Charlize Theron's normal look wasn't acceptable for the part. Maybe I missed the reason...

I realize that Women in film have often been undercut, misrepresented and minimized. But that isn't present in EVERY movie. I suppose this movie could be viewed by some with men being the cause of all of the problems with the world, but the lead male characters were ultimately generous and integral to Furiosa's success. I actually enjoyed seeing the tough old ladies mixing it up with the men during some of the later chase scenes. But am I required to read that presence as a promotion of Feminism? I don't want to. I'd rather promote equal-not-special if equality is truly what society desires. Do strong female characters need to be pointed out all of the time? Why can't they just "be"?

"Fury Road" also contains commentary on religion that is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. I can't speak for other religions, but as a Christian, I have been taught to glorify God with confession of sins, good works, praise and contentment. I'm generally coming up short on all of those things, but I'm bummed about the implication that Nux isn't "right" until he sacrifices himself for someone else. Glorifying God includes good works, which I personally think would include sacrificing yourself in a car wreck if it came to that.

The still photos taken from this movie are amazing. I can't believe how so many of them look like separate works of art.

When I saw the reviews for this movie my first thought was "Every critic has lost their minds... even me."

The story is about a post-apocalyptic wasteland - the fight for survival has twisted the remnants of mankind, turning most into mad, vicious gangs. In this chaotic world two rebels may be able to restore order while seeking their own forms of redemption: Max, a man who just wants peace after losing his wife and child and Furiosa - who thinks finding her childhood home is the answer.

What a lovely day to be talking about Mad Max: Fury Road, because the trailers and the reviews for this movie have been off the walls mad. I mean five out of five star's! wow, just wow. The last Mad Max film came out in 1985, so it's a been a long time and so was this movie, as development took a long time. So I was curious and a bit shady for this movie, by seeing if George Miller (The director of the original films) was going to bring to the table. Now after seeing the movie and having a long thought about it, this movie is freaking awesome, no actually this is the best action movie of the year and probably the decade.

George Miller goes back to his roots and he doesn't disappointment. After all these years later he's still got it. He filmed all the action scenes with care and effort, because most of the action in this movie are mostly practical effects and that right there shows that Miller is going back to old school of action, and it's perfect. You are the man Miller!

The movie itself is mad and I do mean freaking insane. There's a guy in this movie who plays a flamethrower electric guitar on top of a speed vehicle and all through out the movie he was rocking it out. I don't know why, but little things like that made this movie so mad that it's enjoyable.

Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky was good, I mean he wasn't as good as Mel Gibson but I still think he did a great job. Most of the time Max doesn't talk all that much, I mean most of he's lines are "huh", or "Water", but he has a couple of lines in the movie and it sounded epic all the time.

Charlize Theron (as Furiosa) is basically the main character and Max is the supporting character. Charlize Theron was like a female version of Max in a way, because her character steels the whole show as her character is a strong female bad-ass that kicks so much ass that it's very rare in action movies today to do that. Now think of all the strong female character's in past action movies, well that's Furiosa right here.

The action scenes can be best describe as incredible and freaking crazy. The stunt work used during the movie was f**king amazing. There actually used practical effects mixed with CGI during the action scenes which looked so good and much better than over using effect's to make something look incredible and I know they used some CGI for scenes where it needed it, because it would be too dangerous or impossible to do, but for the most part it's all practical effect's. NOW THIS IS HOW ACTION MOVIES SHOULD BE DONE! THANK YOU MAD MAX: FURY ROAD FOR DOING THIS!!! Okay, I had to get that out there and sorry for shouting.

Immortan Joe (played by Hugh Keays- Byrne), and yes he was in the first Mad Max movie, but here he plays a different villain this time and a menacing one as well. He was like a mix of Dark Vader and Sweet Tooth from Twisted Metal (Video Game). He was awesome villain that didn't take sh*t from anyone and always looked like he was going to cause a whole lot of trouble every time he's on screen.

The cinematography was just beautiful and some of the best looking shoots so far this year. I can't believe I'm saying that for a action movie that's been in development for years and it payed off perfectly. This is very rare for this to happen as a lot of movie franchises that have been in the making for years and years would normally come out to late where every body just lost interest and give up waiting, and the movie itself would turn out not so good, but here is much different. This movie broke new grounds of coming out late but still being a amazing thrill ride.

The other women in the movie know as the five wives are not just there to look pretty and be saved by any man, no they kicked ass in the movie and they actually did something. The five wives were strong women and this isn't just a mans movie, I mean most of the movie is the women kicking ass and being awesome. They kick more ass then Max ever did. That's why I got to give this movie praise for that.

Now for the problems: I tried to look for things that didn't quite work for the movie and to be honest I couldn't find anything that I thought wasn't good. Well there was some slow parts in the movie but the slow parts where the action clams down for now it fills it's time with character development and back story and it worked.

Overall rating: Forget "Pitch Perfect 2", this is the movie you should see at cinema. As a movie reviewer myself who wants action movies to be more then turn your brain off and enjoy whatever slob mess there in front of the screen, but what I want is a movie experience that I can look back on and say "Now that, was one heck of a movie."

After watching "Mad Max: Fury Road", I can say I had alot of fun! If I was rating this movie based on how much fun I had I'd be giving it a nine out of 10. But alas my rating system is based on what I feel the quality of the film is. No I'm not talking points because I had fun watching and I just genuinely feel as though the movies a fine seven outta 10.

There are a lot of aspect in the film that were genuinely impressive. The cinematography was pretty great, the computer-generated imagery was used sparingly. There were some parts that didn't feel visually quite real, but for the most part it wasn't enough to take anybody out at the movies and most of all he was just fun it was like if Death Race 3 wasn't awful.

I'm not gonna complain that there wasn't really much to the story because anybody can tell that the movie wasn't really trying to be heavily story-driven. In all honesty, if the movie is going for the cool and fun factor, I'd rather have it be like this one, where it doesn't spend an eternity dicking around in between the cool and fun scenes. In "Mad Max: Fury Road", the story was just enough so that the cool and fun seems didn't feel stupid and pointless. I like how over the top and ridiculous it was and I wouldn't want the movie to be any other way. In fact I hope the next movie goes even further.

Believe it or not I was reminded of "Army of Darkness" during the fight scene with the chain in the struggle for the gun. There are a few things that annoyed me about the presentation of the movie but they were fairly minimal. There are a few of those family flashback hallucination shots they were a little cheesy, and yeah I know we're talking about the same movie where there's a dude on top of a car playing electric guitar while riding to his death. But I think it's important to differentiate between cheese during something fun and cool
and scenes doing something that's supposed to be dramatic and serious.

As someone that does a lot of editing, there were a few things that were distracting and took me out of the film for bit. When slow footage is sped up to make it look fast, some people just the slow footage sped up to make it look badass.

Overall, this is a FUN and ENJOYABLE MOVIE!!!

"I exist in this Wasteland. A man reduced to a single instinct: survive."

I witnessed the hell out of this! Fury Road is non-stop Nitro fueled action from start to finish, easily in my top five action movies of all-time.

The action sequences are phenomenal, from the choreography, to the timing of everything, and the way it's all captured beautifully with wide shots and excellent cinematography. You'd think that with so much action it would get redundant after a while but this movie has perfect pacing. It carefully takes pit stop breaks every once in a while when it's needed, just like a road trip, so you don't get an action overload, and it does so without ruining the momentum.

The characters are very interesting despite the limited character progression. A lot of it is due to the acting and the nonverbal communication. The best character interaction we get is between Max and Furiosa, it's fascinating watching the slow complicity building up between them, it's one hell of an evolution. Everyone on the War Rig becomes a member of the team in order to survive and that's the emotional core of the movie right there. Nicholas Hoult's Nux is arguably the most interesting character study in all this, what an arc! The villains are everything you want in a movie like this, Immortan Joe and his War Boys are equally detestable, funny and even downright scary at times.

The world-building is fascinating, it gets me so immersed. The score is awesome and great addition with the guy playing the electric guitar. I applaude the use of practical effects over CGI for most of this movie. The cars all look so unique. The costumes and makeup make the characters so badass. The hand-to-hand fight between Max and Furiosa might just be my favorite moment but the third act is one of the most intense i've ever seen in an action movie. A masterpiece!

When I saw the reviews for this movie my first thought was "Every critic has lost their minds... even me."

The story is about a post-apocalyptic wasteland - the fight for survival has twisted the remnants of mankind, turning most into mad, vicious gangs. In this chaotic world two rebels may be able to restore order while seeking their own forms of redemption: Max, a man who just wants peace after losing his wife and child and Furiosa - who thinks finding her childhood home is the answer.

What a lovely day to be talking about Mad Max: Fury Road, because the trailers and the reviews for this movie have been off the walls mad. I mean five out of five star's! wow, just wow. The last Mad Max film came out in 1985, so it's a been a long time and so was this movie, as development took a long time. So I was curious and a bit shady for this movie, by seeing if George Miller (The director of the original films) was going to bring to the table. Now after seeing the movie and having a long thought about it, this movie is freaking awesome, no actually this is the best action movie of the year and probably the decade.

George Miller goes back to his roots and he doesn't disappointment. After all these years later he's still got it. He filmed all the action scenes with care and effort, because most of the action in this movie are mostly practical effects and that right there shows that Miller is going back to old school of action, and it's perfect. You are the man Miller!

The movie itself is mad and I do mean freaking insane. There's a guy in this movie who plays a flamethrower electric guitar on top of a speed vehicle and all through out the movie he was rocking it out. I don't know why, but little things like that made this movie so mad that it's enjoyable.

Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky was good, I mean he wasn't as good as Mel Gibson but I still think he did a great job. Most of the time Max doesn't talk all that much, I mean most of he's lines are "huh", or "Water", but he has a couple of lines in the movie and it sounded epic all the time.

Charlize Theron (as Furiosa) is basically the main character and Max is the supporting character. Charlize Theron was like a female version of Max in a way, because her character steels the whole show as her character is a strong female bad-ass that kicks so much ass that it's very rare in action movies today to do that. Now think of all the strong female character's in past action movies, well that's Furiosa right here.

The action scenes can be best describe as incredible and freaking crazy. The stunt work used during the movie was f**king amazing. There actually used practical effects mixed with CGI during the action scenes which looked so good and much better than over using effect's to make something look incredible and I know they used some CGI for scenes where it needed it, because it would be too dangerous or impossible to do, but for the most part it's all practical effect's. NOW THIS IS HOW ACTION MOVIES SHOULD BE DONE! THANK YOU MAD MAX: FURY ROAD FOR DOING THIS!!! Okay, I had to get that out there and sorry for shouting.

Immortan Joe (played by Hugh Keays- Byrne), and yes he was in the first Mad Max movie, but here he plays a different villain this time and a menacing one as well. He was like a mix of Dark Vader and Sweet Tooth from Twisted Metal (Video Game). He was awesome villain that didn't take sh*t from anyone and always looked like he was going to cause a whole lot of trouble every time he's on screen.

The cinematography was just beautiful and some of the best looking shoots so far this year. I can't believe I'm saying that for a action movie that's been in development for years and it payed off perfectly. This is very rare for this to happen as a lot of movie franchises that have been in the making for years and years would normally come out to late where every body just lost interest and give up waiting, and the movie itself would turn out not so good, but here is much different. This movie broke new grounds of coming out late but still being a amazing thrill ride.

The other women in the movie know as the five wives are not just there to look pretty and be saved by any man, no they kicked ass in the movie and they actually did something. The five wives were strong women and this isn't just a mans movie, I mean most of the movie is the women kicking ass and being awesome. They kick more ass then Max ever did. That's why I got to give this movie praise for that.

Now for the problems: I tried to look for things that didn't quite work for the movie and to be honest I couldn't find anything that I thought wasn't good. Well there was some slow parts in the movie but the slow parts where the action clams down for now it fills it's time with character development and back story and it worked.

Overall rating: Forget "Pitch Perfect 2", this is the movie you should see at cinema. As a movie reviewer myself who wants action movies to be more then turn your brain off and enjoy whatever slob mess there in front of the screen, but what I want is a movie experience that I can look back on and say "Now that, was one heck of a movie."

A triumphant return to the reckless mayhem and guilt-free indulgence of the early '80s action/adventure bubble. Max puts foot to floor right from the opening bell and never lets up, somehow topping itself over and over again, even when it seems like there's nowhere left to go. It's joyous anarchy, a world that thrives on all of society's dirty secrets; completely post-apocalyptic crazy but also a little more familiar than we'd like to admit.

Of course, it's a visual powerhouse - a glowing example of art direction, stunt driving, cinematography and character design that's damn near unrivaled in modern cinema - but it's also an audio behemoth. Like Inception's deep bellow or Terminator's ominous rumble, Fury Road can convey a looming sense of dread through its frequent, effective use of bass. You feel that rumble? The ride's starting back up again. Junkie XL's accompanying soundtrack is a perfect tonal match, the right blend of fuzzy, maxed-out guitar licks and incessant, pounding tribal drums.

Perhaps most impressively, the film doesn't feel obligated to dig up every last bit of backstory on its way to the finish line. If anything, it revels in leaving that to the viewer, whose imagination is bound to fill in the blanks for such a broad, wildly eccentric cast of characters far better anyway. It's a raucous success, a lethal dose of sensory overload that hits like a two-hour surge of adrenaline. I loved it, constantly shaking my head at the experience and laughing at myself like a little kid at his first R-rated movie. Loved every minute.

This move is like a video game where the space bar, X, or A buttons are involuntarily pressed at all times, thus the audience never sees narrative cut scenes. Those of us who enjoy story aren't even encouraged to care as this movie is one seamless action sequence after the other (with the exception of some brief walking around before the main cast mounts a parade of motorcycles). I'm still left with these questions:

Who is Max? What was he doing just before he was discovered in the desert? Where does he come from? Who and what are the images he keeps seeing? Why does he offer to save the group he has joined only a day earlier? Is he a Messiah? Why is Furiosa attempting to rescue the birthers? Would it not have been easier to escape by herself? How did she come to live so far away from her family? Why does Immortan keep the water so locked up? Because it's dry? Then why on Earth are they wasting enormous quantities of it with a waterfall-esque spigot? How did Immortan come to be the leader of his group? What are his motivations for his power? Why are some of his people albino and others red as the earth? What separates them and makes their struggles unique?

If you're willing to overlook all of these things, then this might be a decent movie. But for as much hype as this movie got, I expected a really great story WITH really great action sequences. Sadly, this is more like a violent children's picture book.

I was excited as a fan of the originals. Played the VHS tapes till death and memorised lines etc. Yes even the third one with Tina Turner in it.

I was very disappointed with this as a movie never mind a Mad Max movie. It would have been better adding slapstick and marketed as a spoof called Miffed Max: Irk Road of displeasure.
Many simple little things from the start annoyed me like Max's escape. Super Max? No struggle at all. Also there's a water shortage and I presume food shortage etc... where did all the bodybuilders come from? This stuff is fine in an old exploitation movies but this is supposed to create a somewhat realistic feel of a society suffering. Did I just see someone with botox?
Too much CGI. Takes you out the movie and because of the way the action is shot with the CGI it looks like a video game cut scene at times. Sadly that's probably what they wanted. CGI occurs when they didn't even need it. Tacky.

Gibson didn't even have to speak as Mad Max and he did a better job telling us how he felt than the potatoes in this. What is Tom even saying/grunting half the time? He's took the hollywood male gruff voice trend to a new level. Sorry George Clooney you've been beat.

Mad max 2 was shot in a way that the action felt dangerous and gritty, almost as though you part of in it, where this has a standard hollywood staged feel but with more of it. Odd how some extra twirling around and jumping on cars on top of what they already do in movies nowadays is supposed to amaze us. More slumped on the seat than on the edge of it action. Not engaging.

Where is the feeling of isolation in this movie? Not just visually but in the characters? Where are the awesome natural looking visuals? We get overbearing visuals that try so hard to look epic. This movies looks like a screen saver.
The characters? Awful. What's going on in this movie anyway? Who cares. It takes forever to get our first bit of suspense between the main charcaters and it's taking a mask off Max. Wooo. Keep it on for Christ's Sake! Even the music sucks during that scene.
On the whole this movie crams in as much staged action as possible and hopes you buy into it with the all the hype and positive critical reception. Who did the wardrobe for this, Richard O'Brian on April Fools? Needless makeup at every opportunity... cuz kids love them colourful superhero movies.
Even the most ridiculous post apocalyptic movies have better plots. If you're gonna have no plot and loads of action least have some memorable dialogue or a bit of meaningful dialogue. 150! I just watched 150 Millions pounds worth of turd that they couldn't even remotely polish.

Side rant: I knew that Kermode would love this trash. What did he hate about transformers? Lot's ov CGI. Aimed at a specific market. All action shot in a particular style. No plot and loads of explosions to compensate. Couldn't hear anything..... weird he liked this then.

This is the cinematic quintessence of the most literal interpretation of the word "Spectacular". If you have the capacity to follow subtle "show, don't tell" narrative beats and character motivations, and appreciate precisely timed plot developments and environmental storytelling organically affecting the progression of the plot, then you will appreciate a perfectly laid out narrative, with uncannily perfect balance of dramatic tone and thrilling presentation. It's simultaneously uncanny and bizzare, while also being groundedly human.

Everything gets filled in exactly as you need it to understand the narrative and writing developments. And god damn are the action scenes exquisitely designed and performed, and the sound design explosive and punctuated. It's musical—sometimes literally—but it all works flawlessly.

This is one of cinema's greats.

Notes: I actually never watched any of the previous films in their entirety. Also, I watched it in a kind of bastardized "bootleg Black and Chrome", since I could only get the full chroma version in 4K, full quality, and resorted to turning my saturation to zero. I know it's not the way it was intended, but I was sold on the monochrome from short clips, and it really does focus the presentation even more, and I understand why Miller considers it the definitive way to see it.