Initially I had no interest in seeing the latest installment to the Mad Max series because a) I hadn’t seen any of the previous movies – I was too young when all that shit went down and b) the trailer made no fucking sense to me. Basically all I got out of the theatrical trailer was that the movie was set in the desert and there were a lot of car chases involved.

BUT when Philbert Ortiz Dy gives it five stars (out of five) and when Jessica Zafra says that a movie is worth watching again, one gets intrigued. Not to mention the fact that people all over the world were touting it as THE best action movie EVER, it feels like a social duty to see it.

Here’s the round up of George Miller’s (Happy Feet) Mad Max: Fury Road.

Please note that there may be spoilers. Read at your own risk.

THE STORY:

Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy – Inception) was just minding his own business in the desert, trying to hold in his sanity and dealing with the haunting flashbacks of his dead daughter, when he gets captured by the War Boys – a group of maniacally devoted soldiers under the helm of tyrant Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne – Mad Max). Max is tagged as a “high octane universal donor” and is given to sickly War Boy Nux (Nicholas Hoult – X-Men: Days of Future Past) as a living blood bank. All hell breaks loose when Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron – Prometheus), a highly regarded slave tasked make a trade in a neighboring town, runs off with five of Immortan Joe’s wives – Toast the Knowing (Zoe Kravitz – Divergent), The Slendid Angharad (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley – Transformers: Dark of the Moon), Capable (Riley Keough – Magic Mike), The Dag (Abbey Lee) and Cheedo the Fragile (Courtney Eaton). Immortan Joe calls all of his War Boys to retrieve his “possessions” and Nux jumps at the chance for a glorious death, and tows Max along for the ride.

THE GOOD:

1. The really well built and well thought out post-apocalyptic world. Despite the lack of narration, it was clear that the people living in that desert wasteland followed some semblance of law. Sure, that law was mostly rooted on survival and thus everything is gritty and grimy, BUT the rules were consistent and were followed throughout the film.

   

2. Charlize Theron was dazzling as Furiosa. It really was very difficult to take your eyes off her during the movie.
3. The action scenes. I kid you not when I say that the action starts two minutes into the movie and doesn’t let up until the film’s last five. I made the mistake of bringing with me a large iced tea and my bladder was screaming in agony by the time I went to the bathroom. Why? Because I couldn’t stand the thought of getting up and missing something in the movie. While definitely over the top and somewhat ridiculous, the actions sequences were shot cleanly; everybody can be clearly seen throughout the confusion. None of it felt gratuitous, which, at this day and age, was very, very refreshing.

   

4. Nicholas Hoult gave a depth to Nux that I don’t think many other young actors could provide. It’s a two dimensional character but Nicholas Hoult made him memorable. It’s just a shame that he seems to be type casted to these wimpy roles because based on what I saw on Skins, Nicholas Hoult can do some pretty edgy dark stuff too.

   

5. The story was relatively simple and pretty much as straightforward as it gets. A friend from work tells me that he tried to watch the original Mad Max movie but couldn’t finish it because “the movie didn’t’ really age well”. Somehow I don’t think that will be a problem that Fury Road will encounter down the line, because the way the movie was shot was epic enough to stand the test of time.

THE BAD:

1. Mad Max as a character, because he was just barely there. I assume that this is just the first of many Mad Max films but the movie could’ve literally survived had he not been in it. Another friend from work who saw the movie before I did said that Max was basically just an extra character in the story.

   

2. What was the deal with Max’s dead daughter? It was teasing and teasing and teasing throughout the movie that I was sort of surprised that they didn’t get around to actually resolving that plot point.

THE UGLY:

1. It’s probably a smidge too long. I’m nitpicking here, of course and I only say that because of my bladder.

All in all Mad Max: Fury Road was an incredibly entertaining movie. There’s something to be said for a film when one disregards the call of nature just to see a movie through from end to end. Performances were exceptional all around – probably better than the movie actually deserved – and the direction was so on point that you don’t get the chance or the time to question anything in the story. I’m not the world’s biggest action film fan, but I have to say that this was one of the better ones I’ve seen in years. It might not be the best in the world but it’s definitely one hell of a movie and one hell of a set up for the franchise’s reboot.

THE VERDICT: 8.5/10.

*All photos are lifted from Mad Max: Fury Road’s IMDB page.