While CGI is used when needed (to great effect during a vicious sandstorm), it is Miller’s insistence upon practical special effects that leads to the action exploding off the screen. Much of this came to be thanks to impressive wire work and stunt choreography courtesy of Guy Norris. Characters walk atop and out of moving vehicles as though they’re taking a walk in the park, such is the life they lead. Vehicles are put together with a mutated sense of craftsmanship: porcupine-like exteriors, tractor claws, buzz saws, and in one especially memorable sequence, high poles to swing back and forth on. The War Boys treat steering wheels like sacred religious objects. It is in the chase that we are reminded of Miller’s imagination. A chase ensues, which includes an imprisoned Max, and the madness of the chase is underway. I live again!” Nicholas Hoult plays way against type as one of these Boys, energetic and crazed as he screams his already oft-quoted line, “What a lovely day!”įuriosa (Charlize Theron), one of Joe’s head lieutenants, has escaped with the Five Mothers and is headed towards a salvation far, far away. He is surrounded by the aforementioned War Boys, a band of sick, bald, and pale men raised to believe the following: “I live. He is a man who uses obese women to pump out breast milk as a farmer would use cows, holds imprisoned men as “blood bags” for the sick, and keeps his Five Wives (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoë Kravitz, Riley Keough, Courtney Eaton, Abbey Lee) as prisoners to breed new offspring. Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne, who played the villain Toecutter in Mad Max) is the ruler of a civilization that depends on him for water and survival. We meet this Max (now played by Tom Hardy, in a loose reimagining of the character) as he is being chased down by Immortan Joe’s army of War Boys. You don’t need to see earlier Mad Max films to enjoy Fury Road, but you need to see Fury Road. After a lengthy production process (including a year delay thanks to grass where the story demanded none and reshoots), the film is finally making its way to cinemas. But Miller would not be denied his return. The Australian economy took a turn, 9/11 happened, crazy Mel emerged from the shadows of angry phone calls and traffic violations, and Miller went off to win an Oscar for Happy Feet. The story of how Fury Road came to be has become well known over the past few months, but for a brief recap: Miller began thinking about his iconic character in the late ‘90s, with plans to make Fury Road with the original Max, Mel Gibson. If anyone predicted that a Mad Max film with very little dialogue written by three men could make a feminist statement, you win the prize. The action is relentless and eye-popping to say the very least, but what is most surprising of all is the use of the women vs. It’s a story of redemption for not only its titular character, but a number of people he encounters throughout. Here is a movie that is basically one long chase, interspersed with just enough dialogue and backstory to build sympathetic characters as they crash their way through an endless desert. Not only has George Miller made an effective return to the wasteland of the Mad Max universe with Mad Max: Fury Road, he has surpassed most action films released … well … ever. Certain styles of filmmaking are no longer approachable for some directors, and why should it be any different for the director of Happy Feet 1 and 2? Why would George Miller be any different? The Australian director hadn’t made a live-action movie since the dark and unjustly underrated Babe: Pig in the City and had not made an action film since Tina Turner ruled Bartertown in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome 30 years ago. None of the aforementioned filmmakers were able to successfully come back to the franchises they helped launch.
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