Tuesday 23 June 2015

Review: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

My main friends group who I still see after we all finished college is full of guys. To begin with, there was only 1 other girl in our group but we do have a couple more now the lads have found them! What it means is I get a lot of invites to ‘lads’ film nights that I tend to turn down. There were some last minute plans to see Mad Max on the opening night, and so I said yes and just went with it!


Now, I haven’t seen any of the other Mad Max films, but from what I gather, Max used to be in the police force until his family were murdered. I should probably go back now and watch the others for some backstory, but I was told I wouldn’t need to see the others before watching Fury Road to appreciate it.

Mad Max: Fury Road is set in a post-apocalyptic world in the desert where humanity barely exists. Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) rules a small town known as The Citadel with his  ‘War Boys’, farming women for their breast milk, and keep several wives to provide him with heirs. Joe’s most trusted Lieutenant, Furiosa (Charlize Theron) betrays him and makes a run for freedom with his wives, and whilst on the road, Max (Tom Hardy) joins them.


I’d heard beforehand that this would be one of the year’s biggest action films, but I wasn’t expecting what I saw. The film opens on what must have been a 10 minute-long action scene, and it never slowed down for a minute. You know when you’re watching an action film and you get an actual action scene every now and again? In Fury Road, you get a scene every now and again without it. Even when there isn’t any action, it doesn’t last for long!

Multiple viewings are definitely needed just to fully appreciate the visuals in this, from the colourful desert setting to the fine details in each of the vehicles. It’s just crazy, that’s my main way of summing this film up. I mean, there’s a huge vehicle in Joe’s army with 3 great big drums, a drummer at each, and at the front, a guy on an electric guitar hanging in suspense with elastic. How is that not crazy?!


I don’t mean this to sound like a criticism, but although this is Max’s film, I thought Furiosa was the leading character. She was everything a female character needed to be, and she rocked it! Even the wives weren’t silly, pathetic girls who needed looking after every two minutes. One thing that only really sprung to mind when I was trying to sleep that night was that this film didn't include any bad language or sex scenes. It's just pure action, and how could that not be awesome?

This has ruined any other action film for me right now, because I don’t think anything could live up to it. If you get the chance to see it in the cinema I urge you to do it, because the experience alone makes this a 10 for me. At home, it might be a 9, but ask me again when the DVD is out.


15 comments:

  1. WHY AM I THE ONLY PERSON ON THE PLANET TO HAVE NOT SEEN THIS YET!?!?!?!

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    1. No. There are at least two of us.

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    2. Oh, you guys!!! I'm not sure if Jenna has seen this yet either...
      - Allie

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  2. The Mad Max films are generally self-contained in most respects. In fact, the presence of Max is for the most part the only direct connection between films (amusingly, Bruce Spence actually shows up in both The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome as unrelated characters), so it's no big deal that you hadn't seen the previous installments. I actually saw this with a group of friends as well, some of whom had never heard of the previous films and still enjoyed it.

    As for the previous three films, I personally wasn't the biggest fan of the original Mad Max, but I've been told it may have had to do with the version I was watching. My advice in this case would be that if you do see it make sure you see it with the original soundtrack (apparently someone thought that non-Australian audiences wouldn't be able to understand the Australian accents, so they re-dubbed everyone with American accents resulting in the film not making much sense). Still, what you described is pretty accurate, and more or less all you need to know to understand the later films, including this one. The Road Warrior okay as well, but I personally preferred Beyond Thunderdome. Either that or Fury Road are probably the best installments of the series.

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    1. Ah, thank you for the insight! I would definitely like to watch at least the original Mad Max at some point, but I'll be sure I've tracked down the right version when I do :)
      - Allie

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  3. I had so much fun with this one! I never saw any originals either but this was just one big car chase and I was on board for the ride!

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    1. This! This just sums up exactly how I felt about it, ha! I'm glad I wasn't the only Mad Max virgin when this came out :)
      - Allie

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  4. I just watched this one a second time this weekend. Needed to see it on the big screen again. What a fun ride.

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    1. Some of my friends went to see it a second time, and man, I wish I had joined them!
      - Allie

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  5. This movie really did ruin the summer movie season for me...b/c it's so fantastic. None of the movies I've been seeing this summer have measured up. This film was incredible.

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    1. Oh, I know right! Me too I think. Maybe that's why I haven't been to the cinema in a few weeks, secretly I know Mad Max has ruined everything for me.
      - Allie

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  6. Awesome review! Not sure anything else is going to compare to Mad Max this summer, or maybe the year. It's such a unique, wild ride; something that hasn't hit cinemas in a while.

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    1. Oh definitely! I can't believe I nearly didn't go and see it, I'm so glad I did :)
      - Allie

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  7. So glad to see this much praise for this movie. I also gave it 10/10 and I'll be stunned if anything beats this one this year. It was simply flawlessly made

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    1. It's quite crazy to see a film get so much praise these days!
      - Allie

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