Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Director: George Miller
Story: George Miller, Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris
Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron
Music: Junkie XL
Time: 120 minutes
Bottom-line: Bit overhyped; maybe not my type of film  

Following The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road leads the Oscar nominations with a whooping ten, including Best Picture and Director! George Miller directs the fourth installment in the Mad Max franchise, and Tom Hardy replaces Mel Gibson for the titular role. While most critics and audience liked the film, I for one, find it not as great as the reviews and ratings say; to me, ten Oscar nominations seem absurd!

Hardy as Max

Oh, what a day! What a lovely day!
Set in the future, following a nuclear holocaust, the world is now a desert with barely any water or gasoline. One survivor is Max Rockatansky, (Hardy), who is captured by the “War Boys”, the army of a tyrant: Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). One of Joe’s soldiers is Imperator Furiosa (Theron), who is given responsibility to ferry gasoline between Gas Town and Joe’s Citadel. En route, she takes a detour away from Gas Town, and we come to know that her mission is actually to protect Joe’s Five Wives – one of whom is pregnant – and take them to safe custody. Joe sends an army after Furiosa to capture her. In the road battle that ensues, Max and Furiosa team up, despite their initial hostilities. How the two of them fight out Joe’s army in one extended road battle is what the film is about.

Theron as Furiosa 

For a budget of $150 million, the settings, cinematography, visual effects and costumes were outstanding! There is nothing new about the filming techniques; I’ve seen better action films and much better cinematography, but for a pure action film such as this, the director and the crew did well to pace each sequence and film it precisely to keep all the viewers gasping for more. I liked the portrayal of the post-apocalyptic world too: the way the people have become so emaciated, their desperation for water and most importantly, their will to survive. Though I am not usually a fan of gun violence or continuous action, Fury Road interested me because of the new style of action - to see new weapons, new types of armies and of course, all those monster truck type vehicles induced a liking for the movie in me.

Though on screen we are just shown one long road battle, the central theme of the story is supposed to be survival, though how so is still not very clear to me. Yes it is obvious that Furiosa, Max and the others are all looking for the Utopian “Green Land” and they all are willing to help each other even by sacrificing themselves when needed. (Spoiler) But when they eventually find out that the land is not what it was and they turn back, is it supposed to symbolise that there is no ideal place? And in the end why does Max disappear into the crowd? These are few things still unclear in my mind.

Keays-Byrne as Immortan Joe

As far as acting is concerned, Charlize Theron steals the show. Being almost unrecognisable with her new haircut and grease-stained forehead, she plays a powerful female hero, leading the pack of Wives to safety, away from the gang of men in hot pursuit. Her character is like The Bride in the Kill Bill films but on a grander scale. I think Theron is one actress who does a sublime job at playing strong-willed heroes, particularly after her career-best performance in Monster. Tom Hardy hardly has any expression or dialogue, and occasionally mumbles out a few words. His performance in The Revenant is a dozen times better than this one.

The war rig 

So I guess Mad Max: Fury Road is just not my type of film. I still fail to see how it is rated so high; probably because it revived the series in a grand manner, but otherwise there’s not much to it. It is "just another action film", but the action is terrific, no doubt.

My Rating: 3/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 97%