Mad Max: Fury Road May 2o15

Hell-hath-no-FURY-like-a-woman-scorned-ROAD!

Look, if you are expecting Mad Max: Fury Road to be just a carbon copy of the original, The Road Warrior, you are going to be both surprised . . . and not surprised. Yes, Mad Max: Fury Road is exactly like every Mad movie you have seen  . . . and also totally different. Confused? Join the club. I’ll admit that it took me a few minutes to realize that the title character, Mad Max, wasn’t the lead or the focus of this movie. He is supporting character, a utilitarian character, a character not unlike The Feral Kid in Mad Max 2.

The real Mad Max character in this movie is a female character named Imperator Furiosa who rose from her slavery to become a general in Immortan Joe’s kick-booty army of paint huffing War Boys. And what does she do? Well, as soon as she gets her War Rig,  and the opportunity, she snags Joe’s wives and hightails it to some feminist fantasy land called the Green Place.

 

And yes, this movie is full of “feminist propaganda!” How do I know? Well, the director says so, the author of the script says so, and if that’s not enough proof for you, they cast a woman in the lead role. So, ergo: it’s feminist propaganda. I mean, that’s the way we all American, eat all you want, heterosexual white dudes think, right?

 

Woman in lead role = feminist propaganda

 

Never mind the that if the lead role had been cast as a white male we’d all be thinking that it was a brilliant movie about “. . . the MANly spirit standing proudly up for “HIS” rights against the evil powers of a totalitarian regime—

 

Irate Fan Boy: Hey Woodie! I thought this was going to be a movie review?

 

Oh, yeah, the movie. The movie’s great, man. Just the cinematography alone is worth the price of admission (Which if you go to a matinée showing like I do, it ain’t that much). The shots of the Namib Desert are just devastatingly beautiful. The pic above this review is a still from the movie. Granted, not too impressive in miniature, but on the BIG screen, totally awe-inspiring.  And forget about any action sequences you’ve seen in the past. The chase scenes across the desert are brilliant! New camera techniques, incredible car crashes, great, extremely great stunt work make this “sequel” the best movie of the Mad Max franchise. Okay, I do admit I STILL don’t like the way they shoot hand-to-hand combat scenes these days. They speed up the camera to make the fight seem more “powerful(?)” and to also cover-up the fact that the lead actors can’t do stunt work. It makes it all look a bit herky-jerky  . . .  like this:

 

Anyway, no matter what, if you love great action, exceptional acting and storytelling, Mad Max: Fury Road is a must see!

 

“Oh what a day, what a lovely day!”