Brian Tallerico stated in his review, “From its very
first scenes, “Fury Road” vibrates with the energy of a veteran filmmaker
working at the top of his game, pushing us forward without the cheap special
effects or paper-thin characters that have so often defined the modern summer
blockbuster.” Miller hasn’t only returned with a new sequel in a money-making
series. The man who reworked the rules of the post-apocalyptic action genre has
returned to show younger filmmakers they’ve been uncertain in their attempts to
be just like him.
“Who was more crazy? Me, or everyone else?” Tallerico
said, “In “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Miller has pushed his Gilliam-esque vision of a
world gone mad to its logical extreme.” The citizens in Max Roackatansky’s city
are no longer just people scrounging for oil or power. They have been turned
into animals of circumstance, either left with one dying need or left without
any appearance of reason. “Fury Road” is a violent film, but the violent deeds
in this world don’t feel like illogical action beings – they appear from not
having many options or a firm sense of complete insanity. Miller’s new look of
Max isn’t a warrior. Now he’s a man determined by the memories of past mistakes
to do little more than survive. Tallerico is right when he mentioned, “He walks
with the ghosts of those he couldn’t save, and his traveling companions have
pushed him to the brink of sanity.”
While falling off this edge, Max is kidnapped and
turned into a literal blood fighter for a wild fighter named (Nicholas Hoult),
who serves the urges of his crazed master, Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne, who
also played the villain Toecutter in the original “Mad Max”). From the beginning,
Miller gives no time to get a feel of this world or the story he wants to tell.
Tallerico said, “The frame rate is accelerated, the editing is hyperactive, the
bad guy speaks through a mask that makes half his dialogue indecipherable
(shades of Hardy’s Bane from “The Dark Knight Rises”), and the horrific visions
of Miller’s twisted future come fast and furious.” Immortan Joe is a
barely-alive mental case, kept breathing by tubes connected to his face and his
minions are similarly deformed half-humans with absolute names like Rictus
Erectus (Nathan Jones) and The People Eater (John Howard).
One of Joe’s most notable fighters is a strong woman
known as Imperator Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron, who, as the movie
starts, is leading a group from Immortan Joe’s fortress to the oil refinery
Gastown when she goes off course. It turns out that Furiosa has kidnapped Joe’s
“breeders,” the women he keeps prisoner (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoe Kravitz,
Riley Keough, Courtney Eaton and Abbey Lee) in an effort to create a male successor.
She’s taking them to “the green place,” to safety. Obviously, Joe sends his men
after Furiosa – incluing Nux, who Max is still stuck to – and the remainder of “Mad
Max: Fury Road” is nothing more than one long continued chase across the deadly
desert. With the exception of one focus of dialogue, the film takes place
almost completely on the run, speeding, chasing, bouncing, and exploding across
Miller’s hot landscape.
Tallerico said, “As a reflection of more desperate
times, Miller has updated the needs of his future world from commodities like
oil to pure survival.” Max has been redone as a fighting, driving force, a man
who “finds his own way,” moving forward in trying to outrun his past. Tallerico
described Nux as “a brainwashed goon, a man-creature who believes that he will
die and be reborn after sacrificing himself for a trip to Valhalla.” Max
eventually gets into the role of the action hero, but, in one of his most
dangerous moments, Miller gives the weight of the story to Furiosa, a woman who
only has one thing that could give her that ray of hope in this ruined world –
the next generation. Theron does undeniably the best work of her career in this
film, cleverly assigning the drive in Furiosa’s soul in a way that runs the
entire film. She does more with a burning look or tightened jaw than most
actresses could with a page of dialogue. Tallerico said, “And one shouldn’t
undervalue the empowerment message at the heart of this film—Eve Ensler, author
of “The Vagina Monologues” consulted with Miller on the script—which suggests
that women, as the creators of new life, will, inherently, always be the gender
that holds hardest onto hope for the future.” Furiosa looks at the craziness of
the male leadership she is under and decides that this is the breaking point. When
one of Furiosa’s women goes into labor and still defends herself and her about
to be born child (after being shot of course) it’s hard not to see “Fury Road”
as an answer to the man nonsense that is always driving the action genre.
However, all of this doesn’t even suggest that the
action here is lost in the message. Tallerico said, “The pacing, the sound
design, the editing, the music (courtesy of Junkie XL and some of Joe’s freaks
who play drums and electric guitars during the action), and even the emotional
stakes are all so far above average that they make just about any other
car-chase movie look like a quaint Sunday drive by comparison.” The first chase
in “Fury Road,” as Joe’s men catch up to Furiosa and her female cargo, is one
of the most remarkable action scenes in film history. This is just getting
started. There’s no doubt in saying that, if you think something in “Fury Road”
is the most edge-of-your-seat action stunt you’ve seen in years, you really
need to only wait a few minutes to see something better. This is a movie where
you keep thinking that its reached its peak and then, all of a sudden, that
moment is left behind with no recollection.
From the first minute, Miller and his team do
something that so many other filmmakers fail to do – they defined the geography
of their action. Rather than simply shaking the camera around in the simple
hopes of making tension, they keep giving the audience the overhead shots and
clear physical heights of what’s happening and where they’re going. Then
everything explodes. There are a handful of crashes, explosions, and flying
bodies in “Fury Road,” and yet the movie never repeats itself, especially as
the emotional moments increase with each segment. Miller knows when to let the
pace go on neutral when it needs to, which is rare, and then he switches gears
and bandages you to your seat.
“Mad Max: Fury Road” is an action film about recovery
and revolution. Tallerico is right when he says, “Never content to merely
repeat what he’s done before (even the first three “Mad Max” have very distinct
personalities), Miller has redefined his vision of the future yet again,
vibrantly imagining a world in which men have become the pawns of insane
leaders and women hold fiercely onto the last vestiges of hope. “Fury Road”
would be remarkable enough as a pure technical accomplishment—a film that
laughs in the face of blockbuster CGI parties with some of the best editing and
sound design the genre has ever seen—and yet Miller reaches for something
greater than technical prowess.” He holds upward the action template that he made
with “The Road Warrior” and argues that Hollywood shouldn’t have been copying
it for the past 30 years, they should have been building on it. “Fury Road” is
a challenge to the entire generation of action filmmakers, insisting them to
follow its overconfident path into the genre’s future and, like Miller, try
their hardest to create something innovative.
Although I understand why Nostalgia Critic would say
this is another chase movie, like “The Road Warrior,” I like that he started to
appreciate the film, especially when he compared it to the classic Willie E.
Coyote/Road Runner cartoons. The movie doesn’t rely too much on dialogue, but
rather their strong visuals, riveting chase scenes, and great action. This is
hands down the best in the franchise. If you have not seen this yet, you are
missing out. Don’t read my review, go out and see it now. I promise you, you
will be blown away by it, and I give this a high recommendation.
Now we have come to the end of “Mad Max Month.” I hope
all of you enjoyed it and I hope that I recommended an excellent franchise for
all of you. Wait until next month for another great action series, whose latest
installment I saw not too long ago.
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