“If I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die historic on a fury road!”
Kudos to George Miller for some of the most creative action sequences in recent years (how many times have you seen the term “car chase” and “original” in the same sentence). Although Miller makes a real attempt to balance the gritty violence and harsh landscape with emotional ‘softness’ from the characters, the audience is given so little context that it takes half the film just to figure out what is going on let alone form connections with the characters, while the strange ending seemed to leave more questions than answers.
Walking into the cinema knowing that both Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron had starring roles gave the impression that the film was in good acting hands. Walking out of the theatre however, I learnt that one Tom Hardy and one Charlize Theron does not a good cast make.
Don’t get me wrong – flawless performances from both Hardy, proving once again that he is well and truly the king of pulling off elaborate steel contraptions in the general mouth/jaw area (Anthony Hopkins who?) and Theron, brilliant acting except for the fact that Imperator Furiosa somehow managed to adopt an American accent despite being born and raised in Australia. No, the deadweights in the acting crew I’m referring to are the ones who make up in leg and strategically ripped clothing what they lack in acting. For me, all I saw was a bunch of models trying to make the transition from modelling to acting because we all know it’s either that or be forced to create your line of beauty products/perfume/swimwear and/or host a reality TV show somewhat related to modelling/fashion. To be fair, Zoe Kravitz and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley weren’t bad per se but rather didn’t have enough screen time for me to judge otherwise.
For me the most fascinating character was Nux (Nicholas Hoult, aka The Beast from X-Men: Days of Future Past), one of the many identical looking white warriors who call the Citadel home. Although not blatantly declared, the film gives us the impression that these are artificial half-creatures created for the sole purpose of serving Immortan Joe with a ‘half-life’ of sorts. Despite Nux’s villainous role during the first half of the film, Miller really turns this around as we start to see him as a child who is desperately seeking for his ‘father/creator’s’ approval.
While ironically Nux added a human dimension to the film, he still couldn’t save it from the rushed job that was the last fifteen minutes of the movie. Basically in order to end all the fighting and effectively rule the entire Citadel, all that needed to be done was to kill Immortan Joe. Simple. Everyone knows that killing Immortan Joe automatically wipes away all of his warriors who were just seconds ago willing to sacrifice their lives for him. Obviously it also means that upon returning to the Citadel, the people will happily rejoice over the corpse of Immortan Joe (give or take half a face) and surrender themselves to those who partook in said face ripping.
All in all, a highly entertaining and original film – definitely worth watching for the action and cinematography but try not to pay too close attention to the storyline. In the words of our hero Max Rockatansky, “If you can’t fix what’s broken, you’ll go insane.”
IMDb: 8.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
My rating:
Coolest job of the entire film goes to the guitarist suspended from the front of a monster truck literally with flames shooting from the neck of his guitar. Best name of the film goes to Immortan Joe’s son, Rictus Erectus, played by Nathan “Megaman” Jones.
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