Miller, now 70 years old, shows how to do a real exciting reboot of a franchise movie in “Max Max: Fury Road”, starring Brit actor Tom Hardy, who shares topbilling now with Charlize Theron playing Imperator Furiosa, one real kick-ass lady even if she has only one arm.
Just like the previous “Mad Max” flicks, “Fury Road” is set in an apocalyptic future where everything has turned to arid desert. Max lost his family in the apocalypse and he’s haunted by images of them.
Life gets worse for him when he is captured by Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays Byrne), a grotesque-looking deformed tyrant who rules his barren wasteland of a kingdom called Citadel where he promises his War Boys that he will take them to Valhalla. He slowly drains Max of his blood to fuel his army of mutant War Boys.
Max is inadvertently saved from destruction when one of Joe’s trusted lieutenant, Furiosa, rebels against him and runs away with a War Rig and his bevy of five brides that Joe uses for breeding. The movie then becomes a long high-voltage non-stop chase sequence without much of a story, with Max (who has very few speaking lines) serving as a bizarre living ornament chained on the hood of one of the unusually crafted vehicles being used in running after Furiosa.
“Fury Road” is a bombastic action flick with inventive stunts where Miller shows he’s a visionary with a weird imagination. He has created a nightmarish world that presents some very unusual visuals on the big screen, especially when you watch it on IMAX 3-D where it all comes out an awesomely spectacular cinematic experience. One outrageous jaw-dropping stunt shows some War Boys attached to arching elongated poles that sway back and forth like windshield wipers while they’re chasing Furiosa.
Take note that the stunts are real, beautifully staged and executed with precision, unlike the action scenes in “Fast & Furious 7” and “Age of Ultron” that are mostly CGI. The War Boys run after Furiosa with their own music band, including drummers and a guitarist whose guitar burst into flames every now and then.Max manages to free himself and teams up with Furiosa, after being initially hostile to each other. Tom Hardy as the new Max brings much silent but compelling power to his role. Charlize Theron levels up as the smart and gutsy lady warrior Furiosa. She is actually the more engaging one of the two leads and she’s definitely the best female action hero we’ve seen on screen since Linda Hamilton played Sarah Connor in “Terminator 2”.
