I can't say that I was excited when I heard that George Miller was returning to the world of MAD MAX, especially without Mel Gibson. There have been so many revived '70s and '80s franchises and most of the new installments are terrible though they try to glide by on nostalgia. Then there were all of the delays and test screenings. Word that this time around there was no screenplay, just thousands of storyboards. None of this sounded great. 

 

A year ago, a friend of mine who loves the MAD MAX series saw a test screening. He came out disappointed. He described the opening of the film to me. I didn't want to believe it. Having just seen it, I still don't want to believe it. Max stands next to his car and a two-headed lizard crawls around behind him. As if the two-headed lizard isn't bad enough, Max kills it and eats it raw. Huh? And the tone felt more spoof than gritty wasteland to me. What a terrible opening scene. But it gets worse. A war party shows up and Mad Max, The Road Warrior, gets behind the wheel of his car. And he lasts about 30 seconds before crashing and being taken prisoner. Huh? This is our reintroduction to Max Rockatansky? By his creator George Miller? And let's not forget about the dull voice-over. None of which was necessary.

 

Thankfully it's not long before Max tries to escape… but he fails. And he basically spends the first half hour prisoner in a movie called MAD MAX: FURY ROAD. Did I mention he has a metal mask on his face and he's chained to a War Boy named Nux? 

 

Had Mel Gibson returned to the role as an aged, out of his prime Max who needed to get his sea legs back, maybe I would buy this opening. Mel would have played the hell out of it and made you feel for Max and how he just ain't what he used to be. But Gibson has passed the role on to Tom Hardy, who should be a fantastic choice. I'm a huge Tom Hardy fan. The man is a brilliant actor. But for most of the first half hour and change he plays Max like a caveman who grunts and motions to things. He speaks occasionally and certainly is capable of it. If the metal mask on his face made it hard for him to speak, I would buy that. But that's not the case. In the series, Max is a man of few words. But he can talk and he's articulate, so I don't understand the choices made here. Finally Max is given a tool to use to remove the mask, but instead of asking for help and having someone take it off in seconds, there are a couple more scenes where he frantically tries to remove it as if he was a caveman. Eventually Hardy settles into the role, but he's not particularly memorable in it. He doesn’t bring anything to it that a dozen other actors couldn't have. And that's a big disappointment.

 

The picture belongs to Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa. She is fantastic in the film and carries us through all of the action. I could go on and on about Theron in this role. She plays the hell out of it.

Another standout is Nux played by Nicholas Hoult. He goes on perhaps the biggest journey here and Hoult does wonderful work with this bizarre, confused character. It is compelling work. 

 

The villains in FURY ROAD are not great villains. Immortan Joe, his son Rictus Erectus, and his Lieutenants all have a few moments here and there, but they are villains because we're told they are. They really don't have any stand out love to hate them moments. Maybe this is the result of not writing a screenplay.

 

In the best film of the series, THE ROAD WARRIOR, guns and ammo were precious commodities. Here there are tons of guns and seemingly endless ammo. And although Max steals a cache of automatic weapons late in the film I don't ever remember him or his allies using them. Way too many guns and bullets for my taste in a MAD MAX picture, especially considering how many other amazing gags there are with different kinds of weapons.

My last major beef with the film is the cheesy CGI. Max is haunted by images of his past, though they are not images from the previous films for some reason. And these images spring up right in front of him via bad CGI. Luckily most of this is during the lousy beginning of the film and doesn’t really go on forever. Though during a climactic crash of vehicles there is some really cheesy use of CGI that again is more reminiscent of spoof than the wasteland. I'm sure it looked really "cool" coming out at the screen in 3D. Ugh.

 

Now for the positive. One of my favorite sequences occurs about 30 minutes in when Max comes face to face with Furiosa. It's a great fight sequence that results in them becoming reluctant allies. 

 

And from that point on, MAD MAX: FURY ROAD races from one big action set piece to another. Make no mistake that an action master is behind the wheel in legendary Director George Miller. While yes, we have seen Max drive a truck pursued by hordes of villains in a better film, Miller raises the bar on the action to amazing heights with the blockbuster budget he has to work with here. There is so much going on, so many great stunts and gags that it definitely requires repeat viewing. 

 

While much of my review is negative, two-thirds of this picture is fantastic! Making that first half hour or so that much more disappointing. It should be called FURY ROAD since it is not Max's story, but for brand purposes they would obviously never do that. I would certainly love to see more of Furiosa though I have no idea where that story would go. But if Miller returns to the wasteland for more adventures with Max, I certainly hope he puts him front and center next time. I recommend MAD MAX: FURY ROAD because it is incredibly well made and very entertaining, I just wish more care had been given to Max himself.

STARRING:

Tom Hardy

Charlize Theron

Nicholas Hoult

Hugh Keays-Byrne

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Riley Keough

Zoë Kravitz

Abbey Lee

Courtney Eaton

 

DIRECTED BY:

George Miller

 

RELEASE DATE:

May 15, 2015

 

STUDIO:

Warner Bros.

 

RATED R