Mad Max: Fury Road Review

Years after the end of civilization, the authoritarian Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) enslaves survivors inside a dessert stronghold known as the Citadel. Once a fierce warrior called Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) makes an escape, taking Joe’s five wives, she aligns herself with a wanderer and a former captive named Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy). Protected by their massive, armored truck, they must try to outrun Immortan Joe and his henchman as well as other foes in a dangerous high-speed chase through the Wasteland.

I’ve read everywhere that this is the greatest film ever or just the best film of the year. I personally wouldn’t go that far with my praise. It’s a good film but not a great one. Maybe because when I saw it the first time I saw the film Ex Machina afterwards and I couldn’t help but to compare them to each other. It probably isn’t fair but that’s just human nature. I also never saw it in 3D either time and I have never seen any other Mad Max film before. I have been saying this a lot in all of my reviews but this has to be the best looking film I’ve seen this year from the cinematography, to the color palettes (yes I know most of the film takes place in the desert), and the contrast between each really makes things pop on screen so those kept my attention throughout. I will admit to being a little confused about the story as I wasn’t sure what was going on until around halfway through the film. Despite not having ever seen a Mad Max film, I should be able to figure out what is going on pretty quickly. I also found the story a little repetitive since most of it takes place in a truck running through the desert with a few occasional car battles to liven things up. I got bored when there was no action taking place. If the film spent a little more time in the Citadel at the beginning, it may have helped as it wouldn’t have made the middle as long. I didn’t care as much for the wife characters either but luckily they did not get too much focus. Nicholas Hoult plays a War Boy named Nux who I found quite annoying but did not get in the way of the stars of the film who were Theron and Hardy. The films is called Mad Max but Imperiosa is really the main character of the film as she gets most of the screen time and the emotional moments but I didn’t mind because of Charlize Theron’s performance where she was able to make her go through a range of emotions and made the character very likeable. Hardy was okay as well with hardly any dialogue. Overall, this is a decent action movie that is beautiful to look at but I wish the story had a little more depth.

Score: 7.5/10

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.