Review of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) by James S — 14 Jul 2016

Right let's get some things off the bat, it's great, fantastic wonderful, if you like action movies this is kind of the neplus ultra, but there is a problem and it's a really, really big one. Namely, it's too long, about half an hour too long,and it's only 2 hours so about a quarter of it needs to go, I don't care if it's amazing stuff kill your darlings, if you'd never shown the film no one would notice it gone. The last time we had a film that we could say "how great it is to have a summer blockbuster that's actually fantastic and gets nominated for loads of oscars" was gravity, and that was 90 minutes long and was essentially an exploitation film with a huge budget, got in, told the taut thriller, got out, wonderful. When a quarter of your film gets tiring, especially in a film of this kind of break neck pacing, that's a major problem.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the film, I own it on DVD, the cinematography is amazing, the effects stunning and oscar winning, the costumes even more amazing and also oscar winning, no where else will you find a blockbuster film showing in multiplexes with a major antagonist wearing nipple clamps, I'm sorry but that alone will make it always have a place in my heart.

Taut pacing, a convincing world as immersive as Blade Runner, and several kick ass ladies, make Mad Max: Fury Road a success, and an instruction manual for how to do Hollywood action in the future.