Having never seen any of the original Mad Max films, I had little interest in seeing Fury Road for the longest time. The trailers dropped, received limitless praise, and I figured this would be one of those summer movies that I get around to seeing eventually. What I didn't expect was for my introduction to the world of Mad Max to be one of the most technically and visually impressive films I'd ever seen. The fact that this film also contains absolutely stellar performances, writing, and direction is just the icing on an already delectable cake.
The story concerns the lone road warrior, Max (Tom Hardy). Haunted by visions of his deceased daughter, he wanders the post-apocalyptic wastelands of Australia, managing to do little more than survive. After being captured by the automobile-themed cult known as the War Boys, Max finds himself wrapped up in the plans of Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron); the one-armed official has gone rogue, commandeering a war rig in an attempt to usher the Five Wives of King Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) to freedom. What follows is a two-hour long chase through an arid wasteland as our protagonists flee the massive army of weaponized vehicles that pursues them in search of revenge. The plot is simplistic, but this is the kind of film that is moved forward by compelling characters rather than a compelling story. The entire thing can be summed up as a chase through the desert, but such an oversimplification of what occurs throughout the film's runtime is an injustice to the final product. The performances, characters, and action all take center stage here; while the effects are some of the most astounding I've seen in any movie before, they never take precedence over the characters. A visual or action sequence can be as cool as it wants to be (and by god are the visuals and action sequences in this movie cool), but there isn't any tension behind the events on screen if we don't care about the people involved. Luckily, the main cast of this film manages to be truly interesting despite how wild and out-there the situation they're in happens to be.
The real protagonist of the film is, oddly enough, not Mad Max himself. Tom Hardy feels much more like a supporting character, which is honestly one of the only gripes I've got with the film; while what we get is really genuinely good, I would have loved to have seen more of Max. As it turns out, Charlize Theron's Furiosa is the real star of the show. Both protagonists are interesting and enjoyable to watch on screen, but Theron simply does more in regards to the plot; Max is just sort of along for the ride. It says a lot about the quality of the film when the biggest complaint is "the already great protagonist isn't quite as great as the really great secondary protagonist". For me personally, however, the highlight of the cast was Nicholas Hoult as Nux, one of Immortan Joe's War Boys. Like all War Boys, the character is a fanatical follower of Joe, convinced that if he serves his great purpose, he will one day join the heroes of legend in the afterlife of Valhalla. All his life, he's been indoctrinated with Joe's ideology; this kind of insane outlook is literally all he knows. I don't want to say anything more for sake of spoilers, but the character ends up being easily the most interesting facet of an already truly interesting movie. The villains are really quite enjoyable as well; they don't have much more depth beyond "evil bourgeoisie dictators of the wasteland", but they don't really need to be anything more than that for the film to work like it does. Their motivation is clear and understandable; they're kings of the end of the world and want to keep things that way. This is a movie in which really compelling protagonists rise up against really awesome-looking antagonists and it all works flawlessly because, at the end of the day, it's not about the villains. They are simply yet another source of death and misery in an already desolate, unforgiving environment. It's about our protagonists and how the journey they've embarked upon affects and changes them as things progress.
Of course, a monumental amount of praise needs to be given to everyone responsible for the visuals in this movie. From the artists who designed each manic vehicle, to the effects coordinators who made everything explode properly, to the stuntmen who risked life and limb, this movie is the absolute epitome of the phrase "a feast for the eyes". The film uses mostly practical effects, giving everything a very organic feeling of grit and danger; when CGI is employed, it meshes with the actors seamlessly. Filmmakers everywhere take note; this is how you make an action movie. Every bit of machinery, architecture, and gear employed in this universe is just so absurd and strange, yet it all makes perfect sense within the film's own logic. One might look at some of the trailers and promotional images and wonder "what purpose could a mobile amp carrying a guitar-playing lunatic possibly serve? What is the point of those goons on the sway-poles brandishing chainsaws?"; believe me when I say, it all makes perfect sense within the movie's own logic. It's all completely ridiculous, but it's not unreasonable to imagine a scenario where this could actually happen; the culture surrounding this post-apocalyptic wasteland is strange, yet familiar at the same time. It all feels like a world that, long ago, was once like the one we're living in now.
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