MOVIE REVIEW
Mad Max: Fury Road
We Don't Need Another (super)Hero
If, like me, you too are over the super humans/aliens fighting epic CGI battles and need a break, "Mad Max: Fury Road" is THE movie you should watch. The last Mad Max film was released 30 years ago. For The Road Warrior's (likely) dwindling fanbase, it has been a long wait; long but rewarding.
SYNOPSIS: In a barren dystopia where humanity remains in the form of raggedy wretches fighting each other over precious water controlled by a rotting, moving carcass of a warlord called Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) and vegetation is non-existent, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) tries to make a break for her home – a "green place" from where she was abducted as a child. The "War Rig" she is driving also carries precious cargo that belongs to Joe; naturally, she is being chased by him and his army of "War Boys". Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy), who wants none of this, is thrown into this madness, chained to the front of a car, functioning as a "blood bag" sustaining war boy Nux (Nicholas Hoult).
BEAUTIFUL UGLY: The French have an expression for it – jolie laide, but it's used to describe physical imperfections of people. The landscape, the Citadel (Immortan Joe's fortress) and the vehicles are ravaged, cave-like and grungy. And arresting. And BEAUTIFUL.
| "We had to do it old school, this is not a CG movie, we don't defy the laws of physics, and so we had to stage it. For 120 days, and every day was a big stunt day." – George Miller |
POTENT DOSE OF FEMINISM: Spoiler alert – despite the title, this reboot doesn't belong to Max; he barely has 10 intelligible lines in the whole movie. "Fury Road" belongs to Furiosa, and rightfully so; Max is just trying to survive in her mad world. This is best summed up in a scene where Max aims at a searchlight, from a distance, and misses. Only one bullet remains. Furiosa takes the gun and hits the target, using Max's shoulder as a rest, telling him, "Don't breathe."
"The Wives" whom Furiosa is smuggling out of the Citadel are used by Immortan Joe solely as "breeders" to give birth to perfect, healthy heirs. Director George Miller doesn't make this about a man stealing another man's "property".
THE MUSIC: The drums played throughout the chasing scenes. That flame-throwing guitar. The whole damn score by Junkie XL. It picks up where Tina Turner's "We don't need another hero" (from the last instalment, "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome") left off.
VERDICT: "Mad Max: Fury Road" is not for the lazy movie-goer looking for a no-brainer timepass. This is the kind of film Michael Bay and Zack Snyder wish they could make.