MAD MAX: Fury Road

The world has gone apocalyptic and humanity is crazy in the deserts trying to stay alive. One man who stands out is Max (Tom Hardy) who succumbs to the memories of a wife and child. Captured by the twisted leader Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), his body is used to infuse other.

All that comes to a stop when Furiosa (Charlize Theron) escapes with a band of women trying to get to “the green place”. In her care are Angharad (Rosie Whiteley), Capable (Riley Keough), Dag (Abbey Lee), Cheedo (Courtney Eaton) and Toast the Knowing (Zoe Kravitz).

Joe isn’t about to let his beauties go and sends out a party to retrieve them all. On the front of a car driven by Nux (Nicholas Hoult) is Max. After a failed attempt to seize Furiosa, Max finds himself on the other side of the fight with Nux in tow.

Banding together, the enemy will never see them coming!

Hardy as Max has little to say but apparently like grunting and pointing which reminded me a little of Tarzan. Call me crazy but I still remember the original Mad Max films so when you don’t expect much then there is no disappointment. So goes Hardy as Max, I didn’t expect a lot and that’s what I got.

Theron as Furiosa seemed to be the real main character of the film. Of course along with her band of not-so-merry beauties I suppose those yelling there aren’t enough women in film will get there fill here. Theron is strong, doesn’t take crap and even with a shaved head is still quite beautiful so well done for her.

Keays-Byrne as Immortan Joe instantly made me think one thing – oh my gawd it’s a relative of Bane’s! With a huge mask over his face I’m sure he had a lot to say but I couldn’t understand a bit of it but apparently it wasn’t really necessary. He looked like a bad guy so who needs words right?

Hoult as Nux was a poor sad blood-sack (literally) who believed everything he was told about going to Valhalla, which is confusing. Does that mean the desert was in Nordic country? Oh well. He was very sweet.

Joe’s band included Rictus Erectus (Nathan Jones) because every group of bad guys needs one person to be bigger than a Buick. The girls get to look pretty in their desert attire and have seconds of fight in them.

Other cast include: Josh Helman as Slit, John Howard as The People Eater, Richard Carter as The Bullet Farmer, Angus Sampson as The Organic Mechanic and Iota as The Doof Warrior.

TUBS OF POPCORN: I give MAD MAX: Fury Road three and a half tubs of popcorn out of five. I realize my review might seem as if I didn’t like the film but I have no problem giving it props. There is definitely not a moment of boredom with its face paced car/tank/truck chases and fire fights so that in it self will please fans.

The cast is put together nicely and there is a story line but (yes, there is a but…), I once again don’t see the necessity of remaking what was perfectly fine the first time. Other than giving Theron a bigger role which I am all for; to me it was fine.

I’m sure I will hear ‘oh, but it’s a different perspective than the original’ or ‘it’s meant to capture a new audience’ to which I reply, “Different perspective? Have you even seen the original?” As for capturing a new audience, that can be done by seeing the original – it’s called DVD, Bluray, Hulu, Amazon, Netflix – just saying.

It looked good although very familiar and I’m sure fans will enjoy it. The film has high energy and a death toll that will probably surpass the original RED DAWN but I didn’t have my body count clicker so I’ll leave it up to everyone else to do the body count.

In the end – the future belongs to the mad!