Mad Max Fury Road

"What a lovely day!"

Now, finally, we come to the latest and possibly the best installment in the Mad Max series. George Miller brings us another tale of "Mad" Max Rockatansky and returns us to the post-apocalyptic wasteland for the first time since Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome hit theatres thirty years ago. To say it was worth the wait is an understatement. This is sure to be the best action movie of the summer and yes, I realize it's only May. 

We catch up with Max (played by Tom Hardy this time) once again wandering the Wasteland when he's ambushed and taken prisoner by goons of Immortan Joe (played by Hugh Keays-Byrne), a cruel dictator who rules over an outpost called the Citadel. He lives high above the clamoring masses and has an army of boys that have been brainwashed to worship him. He keeps women prisoner, using them to farm out breast milk or kept as concubines, referred to as his Brides. Or at least he did, until the strong willed Imperator Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron), figured out how to get them free and staged and escape with them. When Joe discovers this, he's enraged and follows in pursuit with most his army, including an unwilling Max, who is literally hooked up to one of Joe's soldiers, the hyperactive and crazy Nux (played by Nicholas Hoult). 

After Nux speeds ahead of Joe's army to try and capture Furiosa and the brides himself, Max manages to get free and begins a tentative partnership with Furiosa. What follows is an intense chase through the desert wasteland as Furiosa, Max and the Brides try to reach the prophesized Green place, where Furiosa grew up. With rough and unforgiving terrain ahead and the cruel and nasty Immortan Joe behind them, it's going to take everything they have to try and reach something resembling a better life.

George Miller, who has directed all four Mad Max films crafts what may just be his ultimate one. Given a huge budget to work with, everything in this film is so much bigger than anything that came in the previous three films. Bigger is not always better, but in this case it really works, in part because Miller is such a visionary director and I get the feeling he was really able to fully realize the gonzo world his films take place in for the first time. The film sports the same super-charged sensibility as the other films, only turned up to eleven. In no other way is this clearer than with Immortan Joe's army bugler of sorts, a guy attached to a vehicle filled with amps playing a flame throwing electric guitar. 

I have to give special nods to Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. Both do great as Max and Furiosa. Hardy had the tough task of coming into a role that had been firmly established by Mel Gibson over the course of three films and make it his own. He does a good job while making this Max his own. Theron does a fantastic job with Furiosa, a tough, no nonsense heroine who is more than an equal to Max. 

The interesting thing about Mad Max Fury Road is that despite appearing as a reboot or remake, it is a fully fledged sequel and one that as far as I can tell takes place between The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome. There are little nods all over the place, from Max still driving the Interceptor at the beginning of the film to appearances of such significant props as the music box or the Feral Kid's razor sharp boomerang from The Road Warrior as clues to where in the timeline we are. Don't get me wrong, much like the other films this one stands on it's own, but there are little nods for fans of the movies to pick up on.

Overall, Mad Max Fury Road is the summer movie to beat in terms of overall quality. It's a high bar to set in May, but I just don't quite seeing it being matched. It's an impressive and thrilling entry into the action film genre.