MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Review

(Warning: this review of MAD MAX: FURY ROAD will contain MINOR SPOILERS, read at your own discretion.)

It’s times like this that I feel glad I write for a more adult-oriented website, because it allows me to express myself in a such a way that would look unbecoming were it for other publishers. So with all due respect to my editors, and to the ethics of film criticism as a whole, my opinion of MAD MAX: FURY ROAD can be summed up like so:

Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. Oh my God, did they just do that? What the fuck. Wow. WOW.

Yes, I kiss my mother with this mouth.

A look at the new Max (played by Tom Hardy) with co-hero Furiosa (Charlize Theron)

Director George Miller returns to the franchise he created in the 1980’s to tell a new story for his Road Warrior. To say that its a triumphant return would be a colossal understatement. The film starts with a bang and from there on in, it never stops moving and never slows down.

There have been a lot of things that have come out of pop culture which have been influenced by the Mad Max mythology – from Fallout, Borderlands and Fist of the North Star to more generalized action film principles. Miller’s return to his baby seems to acknowledge everything he’s inspired, then doesn’t so much raise the bar as he does vault over a canyon with it then blow it up.

Do not, however, be fooled into thinking this film is low-brow by virtue of its explosions. The action and effects in the film – by and large practical with minimal CGI or stunt doubles – exist for internal narrative reasons. The conflicts are physical and raw – in Max’s world, you won’t find any superhumans doing flashy backflips to sell toys. Rather, this world is one where you have to be a fool, to be mad, just to survive.

Embarassment of riches? What’s that?

The way in which this film approaches gender is also worth discussing. The story deals with Furiosa (Charlize Theron), defecting from what I can only describe as ‘North Korea in the Australian Outback’ and leading a band of other female survivors to safety with Max (Tom Hardy) reluctantly aiding their flight. Apparently, some men find it threatening. The notion that this is an action film without a power fantasy character for it to revolve around seems to offend. And frankly, I am calling Fake Nerd Boy on these haters. Had they actually watched the original Mad Max films they might know that Max has always been a reactive character that witnesses events and becomes a footnote. It is through his eyes that we see all these crazy, post-apocalyptic things. For that matter, go watch any classic 80s action film. Rambo breaks down into a sobbing mess at the end of First Blood. John McClane spends most of Die Hard complaining. Riggs of Lethal Weapon is suicidal. Arnold’s Terminator spends most of T2 having a robot existential crisis. The sterling, unbreakable man’s man that these fanboys so seem to love never really existed in the first place.

Cool guys don’t look at explosions.

Max himself is also far from emasculated in the film. He clings to the outside of a car during a sandstorm that logically should tear him to pieces. He suffers God-Knows how much blood loss and walks away from it. He gets kicked around and thrown from moving vehicles without so much as getting a bruise. He gets an arrow bolt straight through his palm which pins it to his own forehead. He fights a guy who has a flamethrower guitar. Just what the hell is the problem here, guys?

Overall I cannot think of the last time a movie left me this raw on an emotional level. I spent the entire two hours frozen from tension and had trouble getting up from my seat after. I may have experienced sensory overload. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD physically hurt me in the best possible way. Go see it so that you can discover the beauty of the action genre. Go see it so you can well and truly escape your life. Go see it so that we can alienate beliefs about gender that society desperately needs to leave behind. MAD MAX is glorious but uncomfortable, bright but bleak, stunning but savage, thoughtful but brutal.