Wow!  That is my summation of Mad Max: Fury Road.  I am almost speechless… almost.

MMFR is a two-hour action-packed car chase with explosions, death and dismemberment, gasoline fueled superbeasts, thumping bass and LOTS of sand!  It is something revolutionary in action movies – five parts music video, four parts action and one part story.

I keep going back to, “Wow!”  I am not even sure yet whether I love this film or detest it.  It is that different.

Things I didn’t like:

  • The guys strung up at the front of the pursuing army vehicle on bungees playing rock music to spur on the troops.  It just seemed so… ?
  • Some of the vehicles seemed like the Odd Rods trading cards of my youth.  There was no real reason why they were built so weird.
  • Charlize Theron didn’t get to utilize her beauty. (see below)
  • It expands on the silliness that was Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome – the only one of the originals I didn’t care for.
  • The attack on heterosexual men continues as the only people with any redeeming qualities in the film were women… Charlize trying to save the world, innocent breeders trying to escape evil ugly men and gun-toting grannies set out to do the right thing.

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Things I liked:

  • Charlize Theron didn’t have to rely on her beauty. Although she didn’t say much, she got to do a lot of fun action stuff.
  • Tom Hardy‘s Mad Max character was actually the sidekick and not even the star of his own film.  Kept waiting for it to be about him, but he always seemed like a dude in the background.
  • The pace was so frenetic that it never had a lull.  I was never tempted to rest my eyes (as I do in any movie with a slow spot.)

If you are looking for a continuation of the Mel Gibson movies, this is not it.  It is a totally new movie that appears to only have the name Max in common.  I don’t see it going down as one of my all-time favorites but it is definitely re-watchable.

RATING 7 out of 10