I’ll be honest. The main reason I watched this movie was because it got reviews that were much better than I could have imagined. I watched the trailers, and it just seemed like a lot of mindless desert explosions and fast cars, maybe something akin to a post-apocalyptic Michael Bay-directed Fast and Furious. I wasn’t very interested, especially since action has never really been a genre I’m familiar with.
But it came out, and experts were raving, my most trusted movie friends were raving (my classmate has watched it THREE times in theatres now, including yesterday, when she watched it with me), and it seemed like this was a movie that defied the sad state of action movies today, which have been cheapened by excessive (and poorly used) CGI, awful plots, and poorly developed characters.
So I went with my Mad-Max/Tom-Hardy fan classmate, plus her sister and boyfriend, and one of my friends from the med class. I haven’t seen any of the previous three instalments, and I basically went into the movie knowing nothing about Max and why he was mad. About twenty seconds in, I realized that Mad Max was going to be the best action movie I’ve seen since The Dark Knight (is that even considered action?). About ten minutes in, I realized that I was possibly watching the best action movie this decade has ever seen. I’m nothing more than an amateur critic who likes movies, so I don’t feel I have the authority to say it’s the best action movie ever, but I do believe that once the desert dust has cleared, Mad Max: Fury Road will ascend to the position of being one of the best movie of its kind – if you want to watch a movie with well-founded violence, visually stunning explosions, truly deep and explored characters, lots of thrilling chases with sustained energy and good pacing, then this is an action movie for you.
The thing that surprised me most about this movie was the fact that the movie explored so many socially relevant issues, and how beautifully these many layers of depth and social commentary were woven into the plot. Mad Max wasn’t two hours of mindless engine revving and spinning wheels across an Australian desert landscape. It makes many statements about political tyranny, the consequences of environmental collapse, moral degradation in the face of global crisis, and bold feminism, all under the guise of an extremely well-made action movie. The level of depth and thoughtfulness achieved is especially commendable considering how little dialogue there was in this movie. The actors relied extensively on facial expression, body language, and non-verbal interactions with each other to work towards the development of their characters, and most of this was done in the cramped quarters behind the wheel…while being pursued by crazies, lol. Needless to say, the acting was another one of the highlights of this movie for me.
I would highly, highly recommend this movie to anyone – if you’re a die-hard action movie junkie, if you want your heart racing without exercise, if you want to have a good cry (I legit wept like three times), or if you’re just looking to be thoroughly entertained for two hours. GO WATCH MAD MAX: FURY ROAD. Honestly, even if you think you hate action movies, I would encourage you to give this one a try; it might surprise you 🙂
Anyways, that’s pretty much most of what I wanted to say that don’t involve spoilers. I will now go back to trying to convince all my friends and family to watch this movie so I have more people with whom I can rave about this movie with.
Hope everyone has a good weekend! God bless!
Thought Bubbles 