Hanson’s Review – ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’

If you’re hungry for tight action and otherworldly characters mixing it up at breakneck speeds through nuclear scorched wasteland, Mad Max: Fury Road is your dish.

Director George Miller offers up a generous serving of post-apocalyptic pandemonium with a double side of war rigs, motorcycling grannies, and flame-throwing electric guitars. The action is greasy and gritty and won’t let up until the credits roll.

Fury Road opens with Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) being chased, beaten, and captured by the War Boys. They live to die in battle in blind obedience to their megalomaniacal overlord, Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne).

Max gets caught up in a domestic feud when cyber girl Imperater Furiosa (Charlize Theron) helps Joe’s five wives escape their captor spouse. Joe gathers a small army of War Boys and races after Furiosa to reclaim his wives. Max and Furiosa form an alliance to protect the women and to reach the Green Place, the oasis where Furiosa was born.

Explosive action is the main course, and Miller does right going “old school” on it. “We couldn’t make it artificial. We decided to go old-school,” Miller said. Contrary to most action movies today, Miller chucked green screen effects and instead used real explosives, and real muscle cars and big rigs. Computer graphics are used sparingly, mostly to enhance landscape and erase stunt wires. So, yes, vehicles were definitely harmed in the making of Fury Road.

The outrageous characters also make Fury Road quite tasty. One such character is Coma-Doof Warrior. Coma dons a human skin mask and bungee bounces upon the Doof Wagon while rocking a double-necked, flame-spitting electric guitar. To be honest, my first impression of Coma was embarrassment, but by the middle of the movie, I was playing air guitar.

Mad Max: Fury Road is a must see for any fan of Miller’s franchise and easily holds a place as one of the best Sci-fi action movies of the year. If you only see one action movie this year, make sure it’s Fury Road. I liked it so much I saw it twice.

If you want to see a little of the action first-hand before going to see the show, here's the trailer:

-- Review by Jason Hanson, for Townsquare Media Rochester