MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

SYNOPSIS Haunted by his past Max (Tom Hardy) tries to survive in a brutal world of warlords and scavengers. I’ve long thought of the apocalyptic genre as one of the most boring, “oh look, another dry wasteland, haven’t seen that one before”. So going into Mad Max: Fury Road, having not seen the original Mad Max, I admit my expectations were not particularly high. One thing Fury Road, however, cannot be accused of is being visually dull. Whether it’s the villain going into battle with full drum and electric guitar compliment or his henchmen swinging acrobatically from poles like some evil cirque du solei. At no point is nothing interesting happening in this film. As with Kingsmen something that works in Fury Road’s favour is the cast taking things entirely seriously; Tom Hardy (Mad Max ) and Charlize Theron (Imperator Furiosa …try saying that three times fast) both treat every over the top scenario as deadly serious , as such, their performances stand out much more than they would otherwise. The villain they’re up against Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne who starred in the original Mad Max) manages to convey real menace despite looking like a rock star whose years of drink and drugs has caught up to him (think Keith Richards with white hair). Everything about this film can best described as high octane, the action scenes take things up to eleven and the use of practical stunt work, rather than CGI, makes the film stand out from the usual CGI ridden fair and gives the action scenes a more raw exciting feeling. Given that many of these stunts involve people hanging precariously from cars and trucks (one reason you know Max is Mad is that at no point in this film does he wear a seat belt) this is actually quite a bold decision by the film makers and one that has paid off. FINAL VERDICT 8/10 given the spate of bland remakes in recent years it’s nice to see a film which pays homage to the original while standing out in its own right.