Rapid Review: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

“Once, I was a cop. A road warrior searching for a righteous cause. As the world fell, each of us in our own ways were broken. It was hard to tell who was more crazy… me… or everyone else.”
– Max Rockatansky

SYNOPSIS: An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and almost everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life. Within this world exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order. There’s Max, a man of action and a man of few words, who seeks peace of mind following the loss of his wife and child in the aftermath of the chaos. And Furiosa, a woman of action and a woman who believes her path to survival may be achieved if she can make it across the desert back to her childhood homeland. – via IMDB

The costume design and makeup was just… so perfect for this movie.

Fury Road is more bizarre than I can even describe, but it was just so perfect!

The action was incredibly well choreographed and the fights were highly entertaining.

Fury Road was stunning to look at, and all that dust and desert captures that whole dystopian future perfectly.

Furiosa was beyond badass. Much love here for the women holding their own, let me tell you!

Immortan Joe and some of the costume design and makeup was beyond creepy. Well done to the team for that! He was also one lunatic of a villain to be facing off against, sheesh. My fiancé thinks Immortan Joe was badass and awesome as hell.

There were all these inexplicable moments laced throughout it, and cracked characters laced throughout. What a lovely day? In the middle of an enormously dangerous car chase? I’ll say!

And then, of course, we all need to take a moment to appreciate that Tom Hardy will always just be glorious.

Wow! Yes, that’s it! Wow. I was beyond thrilled when my cinema still had this in for me to go and see (it is a miracle if anything is on longer than two weeks, and my pesky exams took up all my time when this was released and I was sure I was going to miss it on big screen). This is something you want to see on a gigantic screen, stretched out massively in front of you. Why? This might be like Gravity, and let me explain that statement. Like Gravity, Fury Road doesn’t really have an in depth or amazing story (come on guys, this cannot be denied) but it looks phenomenal and is shot well and is one heck of a trip and you want a massive screen for it. Gravity looked amazing, but with no story and a smaller screen, I think I lost some of the enjoyment. After reading many rave reviews for this, I was afraid I would be disappointed. I think knowing that there was no intense story saved me from being a little bit disappointed in the movie. Ultimately, Road Fury is an epic two hour car chase across the desert with insane costumes, a rock concert on wheels and the titular Max being a side character in his own movie (more so than usual). For all intents and purposes, that alone would have been enough to bring the movie to its knees, especially seeing as Charlize Theron would take up the bulk of the screen time. You should know how I feel about our fellow South African, so I was very, very wary about seeing her. But good gravy, believe it or not, she didn’t irritate me whatsoever, and she gave a damn fine performance for a badass character. Yes, I said that. She owned this role. Then there is Tom Hardy. Obviously I am going to talk about him. While he had virtually no lines and surprisingly little screen time, I thoroughly enjoyed him and really, Hardy truly has his gorgeous moments. Hmmmm. Nicholas Hoult was adorable, as always, and his character Nux was someone that was so nasty but redeemed himself wonderfully later, Barry and Larry and all. He stole the show whenever he was on screen There were so many cool things about this movie – like the throwbacks to the older movies – and a big awesome for me were the ladies being strong – very cool, seldom done. Junkie XL wrote a great score to carry the film and it worked every step of the way, and I loved how it tied in to the crazy guitarist on his amplifier and drummer podium (I cannot stress enough how entertaining that was, made me think of Brütal Legend) and the costume design was amazing all round. Then there were the cars. That was just… those designs. Between the costumes, the makeup and those terrifying cars, you must know that the movie truly was something to look at. Fury Road was more bizarre than I can really describe, it was crazy, but is was a stroke of genius, too, even with the lacking story – it was purely an all-out assault on the senses.