The Plot

George Miller brings his cult classic post-apocalyptic Road Warrior back after 30 years, with Tom Hardy taking over for a reboot of the much loved trilogy. In a world where humanity is broken, two rebels become unlikely aliases in a race through the barren landscapes to escape the treacherous man who has kept them locked up as a human blood bag and a slave wife.

The Good

When it comes to action movies, you’ll be hard pushed to find anything that comes even remotely close to topping the action found in Mad Max: Fury Road. It barely gives you time to blink through the sheer volume of fire and destruction, which begins before the title has even appeared and still hangs in your head in some sort of drunken state after the credits have finished rolling. It is the purest action in its most undiluted form. You’ll need some sort of caffeine to stay with it.

Tom Hardy proves yet again that he can pull off the strong silent hero with tremendous ease and meticulous professionalism. He’s certainly a worthy successor from Mel Gibson’s original Road Warrior. Charlize Theron, meanwhile, is just as powerful, if not more so, as the one armed Imperator Furiosa, and is more than a worthy accomplice to Hardy’s Max.

Also surprisingly, Fury Road looks utterly beautiful for an action film. While the numerous ads and promos have shown that it’s huge in scale, it’s when the action turns into the night that the real beauty comes alive, in some gorgeous blue tint that deserves to be marvelled at on the biggest screen you can find.

The Bad

While there’s no denying the size and beauty of the film, much like the original trilogy, there’s a lot left out in the story side. Hardy himself gets barely twenty lines in the entire film and has little to no character development. He just suddenly appears and that’s that. There are some hints to a back story of how he became who he is, but it’s left very open and somewhat leaves you wanting more than just action.

On the action, there’s really not much to criticise at all, although, while clearly a lot of the special effects are practical (80% according to IMDb) there are still moments in which the CGI is rather blatant. Mainly when it comes to the explosions and fire used.

The Ugly Truth

Essentially, Mad Max: Fury Road is a two hour long chase sequence with admittedly incredible action that will be extremely hard to top. Unfortunately the story that comes with it is nowhere near the same standards…

Review by Johnny Ellis

Bonus gallery of Mad Max Fury Road World Premiere Pictures below:

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