Action,
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
R | | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi | 15 May 2015 (USA)
A woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in post apocalyptic Australia in search for her homeland with the help of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshiper, and a drifter named Max, who is anything but happy.
Director:
George MillerWriters:
George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, 1 more credit »Stars:
Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult |See full cast and crew »Storyline
An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and almost everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life. Within this world exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order. There's Max, a man of action and a man of few words, who seeks peace of mind following the loss of his wife and child in the aftermath of the chaos. And Furiosa, a woman of action and a woman who believes her path to survival may be achieved if she can make it across the desert back to her childhood homeland. Written by Production
User Reviews
5 July 2015 | by Cinobite17 (United Kingdom) – See all my reviews
This isn't a Mad Max film, it's a road trip film that focuses heavily on Charlize Theron's character, Furiousa. "Mad Max" appears, essentially, as a tag along side character. He does nothing "mad", risqué or extreme and has little more than 5 lines throughout the first two third's of the film. You could literally replace the character of "Mad Max" with any other supporting actor and it would not change the film. In fact, this film feels as though it was intended to be a Mad Max styled film called "Furious Furiousa" and they wanted to cash in on the franchise and avoid being accused of ripping off actual Mad Max films,
What this is is a piece of pro feminism garbage and one, like most, that completely misses the point of what gender equality is really about. All male characters, arguably with the exception of the 2 defectors, are portrayed as violent, oppressive warmongers, all clan leaders and all "warriors" are male and violent.
The women are the oppressed baby makers and between them, Theron and a rag tag female only clan of pensioners, it's only them who can bring about justice and save the planet.
Strong female characters are fine, and this worked for the first hour or so until they really forced the feminist angle. A strong female (or male, black, Asian, gay... for that matter) character should not be noticeable.
A film with a solid minority lead stands out as great film making not because they use a minority, but because the minority character works without you consciously noticing it. Alien, Tomb Raider, Flight Plan, Silence of the Lambs, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Kill Bill, The Wizard of Oz.... all fantastic films without forcing gender bias on the audience. No one watches Rush Hour and thinks "hey, where's the white guy!?".
But this film doesn't just lose points for that. No, on the film itself, it is competently shot, crisp, sharp and well produced. However, the CGI can look clearly false (this could be intentional) and there is little to absolute zero character development - I could name maybe 4 characters and 2 of those were because I looked up the cast listing whilst watching.
As a whole, the film comes across as a two hour car chase finale. Very little happens outside of the vehicle and this leads to a monotonous viewing experience with a less than impressive final act.
I watch many films time and again; I would not watch Mad Max Fury Road again.
