Movie Review: Mad Max – Fury Road

Mad Max: Fury Road is one hell of an achievement; ‘hell’ being the operative word, given how long director George Miller spent toiling to develop the damned thing.

There was a small part of me, before the screening began, that remained skeptical Mad Max: Fury Road even existed.

I’d seen the trailers. I’d seen the posters. But what if it had all been an elaborate ruse?

The long-delayed sequel to 1985’s Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome was first announced in 2003, yet filming didn’t begin until 2010, by which point star Mel Gibson had become persona non grata pretty much everywhere, and British bulldog Tom Hardy had been subbed in his place.

Production was halted when the conditions in Broken Hill, NSW - somewhat ironically - turned out to be suddenly fecund and the dystopian desert landscape began to look like a Nan’s lush flowergarden.

Director George Miller had his second crack at the shoot in Namibia, mid-2012. Further filming was needed at the end of 2013.

Given all this, it was not unreasonable to think, when the cinema curtains were pulled back in May of 2015, there would be only an apologetic Dr. Miller and some sock puppets to perform the script for us. (I’ve read conspiracy theories with worse grounding than the evidence we had available to us here.)

Instead, something slightly more glorious was unveiled: a gargantuan cinematic achievement with spectacle to spare.

I’ve never seen anything quite like Mad Max: Fury Road before. I don’t know if there’s ever been anything like Mad Max: Fury Road before. I doubt there’ll be anything like it afterwards.

That kind of hyperbole doesn’t necessarily promise a good film, of course. Much of the above could also be said for Freddy Got Fingered. In this, the promise is made good, and then some.

Though a barely Aussie-accented Tom Hardy gets top billing in this future-set thriller, Max actually plays second fiddle in Fury Road.

Captured in the opening moments by a band of marauders known as War Boys, he winds up the “blood bag” of the sickly Nux (Nicholas Hoult).

Rather, it’s Charlize Theron’s laconic Imperator Furiosa who takes the lead, driving the plot much in the same way she drives her armoured, gasoline-transporting War Rig: with divine purpose.

She escapes the clutches of the War Boys’ leader, King Immortan Joe (original Mad Max baddie Hugh Keays-Byrne, repurposed), with his five previously imprisoned wives in tow.

Joe and his War Boys roll out after her, Nux bringing Max along as his personal IV. However, after a massive storm interrupts their pursuit, a freed Max finds himself working with Furiosa and her female cargo to seek out a promised land somewhere amongst the unlivable Australian outback.

Good luck with that.

The above synopsis sounds like there’s more plot – and perhaps dialogue - to Mad Max: Fury Road than there truly is.

Instead, it’s a picture driven by visceral feeling, primal, emotive performances and an uncomplicated narrative (classical, even). Words? Not so much. Director of photography John Seale tells the tale with the kind of visual panache usually reserved for art cinema. The stunt-work is the kind Cirque du Soleil's cast would call "risky."

Most big-budget productions settle for a few canted camera angles and the promotional departments call it “visionary.” They’ll need to invent new words for Mad Max: Fury Road.

Within it you’ll find close to 120 minutes of ceaseless vehicular carnage and a cavalcade of inventive automobiles operated by your trademark Miller oddballs, headed towards destinations reconstructed from his individual imagination. Oh, the places you’ll go. And here we were worried Happy Feet had softened him.

Miller’s movie also has a leg-up on the rest of this year’s crowded bunch of blockbusters by featuring an uncompromising female action hero in the lead, a chained Tom Hardy trailing behind her.

Anti-feminist dude-bro activists have already taken to boycotting the feature on account of its feminist bent.

I just thought I’d let you know in case you needed more reasons to see it. A vote for Mad Max: Fury Road is, unexpectedly, a vote for sanity in today's world.

4.5/5

In cinemas now. Rated MA15+ for strong violence and post-apocalyptic themes.