Review of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) by Samichsupernova — 14 May 2015

Oh, man. I don't have words for this film yet. Maybe there are no words, since what George Miller and his team put onscreen defies description and transcends language. But here's my attempt.

With technical precision that seems effortless but must surely have taken a small army to manage, Miller weaves his unique, fantastic vision of post-apocalyptic chaos and carnage into a work of piston-pumping poetry, all set to Junkie XL's adrenaline-fueled soundtrack. Without hyperbole, I can say right now that this one of the all-time great action movies. It makes Furious 7 look like a badly edited Mario Kart replay.

I'm not gonna lie, there was a moment of vehicular mayhem where I shed a manly tear. T'was one of hope, for my heart had almost forgotten what heights pure cinema was capable of. It's got a minimum of CGI, fantastic stunt work, great set design and art direction, breathtaking locations, and strong performances, even from the supporting cast. This is the movie I've been waiting for my whole life, ever since I smashed little Matchbox vehicles against one another as a child and made comics about sentient cars.

There's no prior franchise experience necessary. If you're a connoisseur of action films, you miiiight want to try being in the best theater you can find this weekend. I just can't wait to see it again and am gonna do so as soon as possible.

As far as performances, Tom Hardy makes a fine Max, Charlize Theron's Furiosa is up there with Ripley as one of the most badass women in sci-fi, and Nicholas Hoult's Nux is very entertaining. The dude who plays Immortan Joe (he was in the first Mad Max, too) is just perfect, the kind of larger-than-life big boss whom you can imagine inspiring lifelong devotion. Whether or not the story boasts a "feminist agenda" in having a number of strong female characters is up to the eye of the beholder, but it didn't bother this cis, straight man. If you want my real opinion, I think the gender-war-fueled backlash is all hyperbole designed to sell more tickets, and anyone offended enough to not want to see THE FIRST MAD MAX FILM IN 30 YEARS probably needs to have their man card snapped in half.

I really want to congratulate everyone involved in the production of this film. I don't even mind if this ends up being the last great action film, but wouldn't it be grand if this was really just the start of a new breed of action films? I'm really, really hoping that Miller gets a chance to make the sequels that he already has scripts and storyboards for. Tom Hardy is apparently signed on for another three films.