Mad Max : Fury Road

MAD MAX : FURY ROAD

Director : George Miller

Year : 2015

Genre : Action

Rating : ****

 

Director George Miller triumphantly returns to the franchise that made his name nearly 40 years ago with 'Mad Max : Fury Road'; the long awaited fourth film in the beloved action franchise and the first to star Tom Hardy in the iconic eponymous role that was first bought to the screen in 1979 by the once-great Mel Gibson. Once again continuing the saga of ex cop Max Rockatansky, 'Fury Road' wastes absolutely no time in presenting its central ideas to the forefront and, is the case with every movie in the series, the ideologies of survival and the yearning for a return to peace are right at the heart of the picture.

But while the original 'Mad Max' was made a relatively paltry $350,000, 'Fury Road' has cost in excess of £150m making it by far the most expensive movie in the franchise so far. Thankfully, that money hasn't gone to waste and Miller takes great pleasure in his giving his audience some of the most awe-inspiring, ground shaking, ear-splitting action scenes ever to be seen on the big screen. At times, 'Fury Road' dangerously teeters on the edge of the Michael Bay school of filmmaking with pointless explosions and almost pornographic shots of untold carnage and destruction. However, things are kept in check thanks to the terrific performances from its cast, its beautifully barren and oppresive settings and Millers often ingenious idiosyncratic directorial style.

 

Following on from the events of the cataclysmic 'Beyond Thunderdome', 'Fury Road' finds Max held captive by a vicious cult led by the intimidating and tyrannical Immortan Joe (played by one-time Toecutter Hugh Keays-Bryne). Managing to escape the clutches of the murderous group, he soons finds himself in the company of the headstrong warrior Furiosa (wonderfully played by the incomparable Charlize Theron sporting a rather fetching Ripley from 'Alien3' crop) who is leading the dictators five wives in a daring escape across the sun-scorched wasteland. What ensues are a number of increasingly intense and chaotic scenes through the wilderness as the group attempt to outrun the wrath of Joe and his army of armoured trucks, cars and bikes.

To say that 'Fury Road' is a loud film would be something of an understatement. In fact, it rivals 'Transformers : Age Of Extinction' as the noisiest movie I have ever seen in the cinema. Not only is there million horsepower engines blaring through the blood-red desert for 95% of the picture but there is also the thunderous score by Junkie XL and the unmistakable sounds of Verdi's cacophonous Die Irae which appears in the movie like a deranged choir emerging from the depths of hell. Added to this a healthy amount of shouting, screaming and even a giant rig equipped with humungous tympanis and a leather-clad demon blasting power chords on a guitar with a flame thrower attached to it and you have an orgasm of sound rivalling that of the eruption of Mt. Tambora.

 

But while all of this may come across as a tiny bit excessive, 'Mad Max : Fury Road' is a deceptively impressive piece of filmmaking with ideas and themes that outshine many of its genre contemporaries. Set in a dystopian future where oil and even water are seen as currency, 'Fury Road' stands as a fervent commentary on humanitys incessant greed for resources and the lengths some will go to preserve them. Watching the film, it is extremely hard not to recall the endless news footage of the victims of atrocities furiously scrabbling through rubble to find the tiniest traces of sustenance and this gives the picture a potent satirical edge.

Making terrific use of the specialised ''Edge Arm'' camera system which allows filmmakers free-rein in terms of cinematographical flair, Miller continually dives through the on-screen action like an inquisitive bird caught in the relentless onslaught of mayhem and chaos. Swooping from the towering heights of a canyon ridge down to under the rumbling wheels of a gigantic skull-strewn rig in a matter of seconds, Millers frenetic camera becomes just as much a character as our protagonists and antagonists - an omnipresent eye capturing every moment of excruciating death. I hate to think what watching this movie in D-Box would have been like!

Anchoring this maelstrom of madness is Max himself brilliantly played by the imitable Tom Hardy who brings a stoic quietude and underlying rage to his adrenaline fuelled antihero. While Mel Gibsons performances as Max carried more than just a tinge of psychopathy, Hardy delivers a much more laboured and controlled performance by allowing his immense bulk and intense charisma to do the talking for him - his dialogue mostly consisting of indefinable grunts and lung-shattering screaming. By sharp contrast, Charlize Theron is at her breast-beating best as the formidable Furiosa, a ruthless oil-smeared warrior who allows her guns and war machine to answer any questions thrown at her while 'About A Boy's Nicholas Hoult is nigh-on unrecognisable as the tumour riddled warboy Nux who dreams of spray-painting his teeth silver and suicide bombing his way into Valhalla. 

In every sense of the word, 'Mad Max : Fury Road' is insane. It's action scenes are insane, the performances are insane, the soundtrack is insane and the direction is most definitely insane. But while I wax lyrical about glorious pandemonium of the picture, I must admit that I will never watch it again. At nearly two hours, the incredible amount of cochlea-destroying noise and retina-searing explosions to begin to wear quite thin and, at points, even threatens to bore. In fact, I almost had to walk out of my screening for a short time due to the growing headache that the film was causing! Too much of a good thing can ulitmately prove to be bad and a few more quieter moments would have made the experience of watching the film a lot easier. But then again, as he proved time and time again, George Miller is a director who refuses to play by the rules of cinema - and fair play to him. 'Mad Max : Fury Road' may not have the depth of character of its predecessors but it certainly has the riotous intentions that made the franchise so popular in the first place and fans of the series are bound to be impressed with the end result. Just make sure you have a couple of painkillers with you......