Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Written by Gimly on April 12, 2019

The following is a long form review that I originally wrote in 2015.

I’ll keep this’n somewhat brief, because I only saw the movie once and it was a few days ago now. Some time later on though, I will post a spoiler talk that goes into greater depth. For now though, enjoy this spoiler free review of Mad Max: Fury Road!

The number one complaint I’ve been seeing about Fury Road is that there’s not much of a story. I would respond by saying, there might not be as much story as you could want, but there is certainly as much as you could need. The plot isn’t deep, or complex, or intricate, or philosophical. but it’s there, and it makes sense. Just last year, John Wick showed us that you can get away with a pretty thin premise, if you work hard enough on building a thick, palpable world. And the world of Fury Road is something else entirely, I can see why people aren’t blown away by the story, but the world is incredible.

There has been much discussion as to whether Max himself, or his cohort Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron) is the star of the film. I would argue that neither of them are. Director George Miller is. This is his vision. Warner Brothers took a big risk when they handed a 70 year old man nearly two hundred million dollars to revitalise his franchise which has been dead for 30 years, then get out of the way and let him do his thing. But it paid off. Fury Road is more of an “experience” than most movies are, it just happens to be a great film, too.

The stunt work and visual effects deserve praise all to themselves. According to the filmmakers, roughly ten percent of all the effects were done with CGI. The other NINETY are practical, and it oozes with that spectacle. You really can feel the maximum force of the future sitting in that theatre, which is a rare and unexpected pleasure.

It’s my highest rated film of 2015 thus far, in fact, it’s one of only five films I’ve given more than 4 stars in the past five years. So please don’t take the recommendation lightly when I ask you all to go out and support this movie. Just make sure you do it in the biggest, best quality cinema you can, because this latest entry to the Mad Max franchise is worth it.

91%

-Gimly