Mad Max: Fury Road a ‘modern masterpiece’ that leaves other action films in the dust
REVIEW: From its mesmerising opening scenes to its high-octane conclusion, Mad Max: Fury Road is nothing short of a modern masterpiece, writes Leigh Paatsch.
Leigh Paatsch
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MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
Reviewed by Leigh Paatsch.
RATING : ***** (5 stars)
“In this wasteland, I am the one who runs from both the living and the dead, A man reduced to a single instinct: survive.” - Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) in Mad Max: Fury Road.
No point in sugar-coating this. So let’s just come right out and say it now: Mad Max: Fury Road is a modern masterpiece of action filmmaking as we know it.
Perhaps that should be as we thought we know it.
Challenging and aggressively captivating throughout, Mad Max: Fury Road will come to stand as an absolute game-changer for action cinema.
As a complete and compelling movie experience, Fury Road makes any and all Marvel superhero blockbusters look like live-action cartoons.
And when it comes to velocitised vehicular mayhem, the Fast & Furious franchise and its ilk are left hopelessly stalled in the dust.
While Fury Road is simply one protracted, adrenaline-guzzling chase sequence that cannot and will not ever let up, it never gets ahead of itself.
The viewer is strapped into this throttling thrill-ride from the get-go. Once everything begins barrelling forward at ever-increasing speed, there can be no turning back.
While in essence, Fury Road holds true to the momentous, scorched-earth myth-making that underpinned the previous three Mad Max features — in particular, the 1981 classic The Road Warrior — the story breaks loose on an electrifying new tangent sure to power further sequels in the years ahead.
The nameless, post-apocalyptic wasteland forever wandered by Max (Tom Hardy, more than ably replacing Mel Gibson) is now commanded by the lunatic warlord Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne).
From his imposing fortress known as The Citadel (a bustling metropolis-cum-palace made of stone and scrap metal, the first of many production-design triumphs here), this reckless ruler controls what little fuel is left on the planet.
Immortan Joe is also holding the population to ransom by allowing limited access to food, water and medicine. To preserve his stranglehold on power and extend his bloodline, Joe is also holding a selection of young women as concubines.
It is the surprise escape of five of these ‘Breeders’ from the Citadel that triggers the epic chase which will ultimately fill the rest of Fury Road.
The fugitives (some of them already pregnant) have taken flight inside a War Rig — a reinforced road train best described as a mobile military bunker on wheels — piloted by female warrior Furiosa (a standout display from Charlize Theron).
So where does Max himself fit into all of this?
He starts the film as a captive of Immortan Joe, his face locked inside a metal muzzle, and his body intravenously chained to a Joe-aligned warrior named Nux (Nicholas Hoult).
Strapped to the front of one of many vehicles continually chasing (and occasionally catching and attacking) the War Rig, Max sees out the first hour of Fury Road as neither hero nor antihero.
However, it will be Max’s ultimate transition from unwilling passenger to motivated protagonist that sets Fury Road ablaze as it is propelled towards a highly combustive finale.
Considering the slow-burning nature of Hardy’s riveting lead performance — all the more remarkable when you realise he barely directly converses with anyone for the length of the picture — much of the dramatic weight of Fury Road has been placed on Theron’s shoulders.
The Oscar-winning actress is more than up to the challenge. Her portrayal of the fearless Furiosa — missing half an arm from previous wars waged — is as instantly iconic a depiction of female ferocity as Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in Aliens.
Where Fury Road is destined to truly leave a massive mark is with its astonishing visual composition, which is nothing short of impeccable.
The contents of every frame — from the mind-boggling camera placements to the breathtaking (and reputedly CGI-free) stunt choreography — contributes to what becomes a sustained assault upon the senses.
In summoning a sprawling, unforgiving hell on earth, the devil is in the many details covered by Fury Road.
The vast array of individually striking vehicle designs (including, already famously, the semi-trailer refashioned as an moving amplifier stack blasting out heavy-metal power chords!) are utterly out of this world.
In fact, Furiosa’s War Rig is quite literally a world unto itself.
Inside this multi-wheeled ship of the desert is a labyrinth of tunnels, portals, capsules and random spaces that both offer instant refuge, and an improvised battleground for the never-ending fight at hand.
While spectacularly flawless contributions from the likes of Fury Road’s cinematographer John Seale and music composer Junkie XL must be mentioned, it is the landmark work of director George Miller that towers above all else.
At 70 years of age — and after spending much of the past three decades keeping the cinematic company of pigs (Babe) and penguins (Happy Feet) — the veteran Australian filmmaker has returned to the action genre with a mind-warping vengeance.
His uncompromising, yet resolutely accessible vision melts down and re-forges the template all of his contemporaries in the action field will have to work with from now on.
Originally published as Mad Max: Fury Road a ‘modern masterpiece’ that leaves other action films in the dust
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