Mad Max: Fury Road is a piston-pumping action extravaganza from George Miller, who has reinvigorated the Mad Max franchise. To find some humourous context, the director’s previous films include Babe: Pig in the City, Happy Feet and Happy Feet Two. Mad Max: Fury Road is the antithesis… burning with rage and fuming with eye-popping visuals from smoldering car wrecks to lonely desert vistas.

This is an epic film that packs a punch… grabbing you from the get-go and sinking its metal teeth into you like a rabid scrapyard dog. We’re whipped from a hellish, post-apocalyptic community to a high speed cross-country chase where a band of innocents are being pursued by an evil tyrant.

The opening sequence is nightmarish, moving from a tribe of blood thirsty and hydrated desert pirates turned borderline zombies. Much like Frank Miller’s 300, George Miller overpowers our senses with loud, primal action and surreal visuals that thrust us into a relentless action adventure.

As if the visuals weren’t impressive enough, he’s harnessed Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy as our reluctant heroes. Theron plays Furiosa, a battle-hardened one-armed driver whose quest to reach her green homeland propels her and a rig of precious cargo. She’s desert cool, fearless in the face of imminent danger and willing to risk everything for her that mirage of freedom.

“Prepare to have your mind blown.”

Hardy is the man with no name, a drifter whose motivations are unknown and whose freedom is paramount. He’s pensive, constantly processing and always surprising us with his resilience and know-how. The two spur each other on in an uneasy co-dependent relationship of mutual assistance against a common enemy.

They’re supported by Nicholas Hoult in a fascinating performance as Nux, a curious creature whose slithery trajectory is quite fascinating as he weaves in and out of the story. Hugh Keys-Byrne is Immortan Joe, a villain whose complex mix of power, evil and endurance will draw contrasts with Darth Vader and land him among the greatest villains of all-time. While we don’t see his real mouth behind the mask, the larger-than-life character is ferocious and intimidating… the stuff of nightmares.

Mad Max: Fury Road detonates itself and lands in a shroud of diesel and dust. We’re catapulted into a road movie where there aren’t any roads and overwhelmed by a special effects freak show that blends Carmageddon carnage with an anti-Waterworld environment. The result is emotive, violent yet breathtaking, keeping the dopamine levels charged, while relaying a simple yet effective story within a surreal yet real world of its own.

The performances are subtle and grow with the film, the visual effects are spellbinding, the stunts are out-of-this-world cool and the direction is spot on… carrying the same relentless, primal tone. Mad Max: Fury Road happens adrift from the original series, which leaned more heavily on the world we know. While this new format dulls the razors of reality, Miller slides us into his dangerous world.

Mad Max: Fury Road is high octane adrenalin from start-to-finish… giving The Fast and the Furious a run for its money, blowing Waterworld out of the water, delivering cyberpunk wasteland tales in crates of bullets and composing a visually-rich cinematic epic by bludgeoning its audience in the face with a wild, violent, furious, majestic and insanely cool escape.

The bottom line: Primal

Release date: 15 May, 2015
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