m4st4 wrote:

slimshady247 wrote:The rating actually just went up to 99%, lol.

Despite all the action, excitement, and mayhem, the characters come across as well defined. Miller spends just enough time on their background and interaction to breathe life into what easily could have been (as in Bay's films) cardboard cut-outs. As is always the case in an action movie, things work because we care about what happens to the protagonist. Too often when special effects rule the screen, this doesn't happen. Fury Road is a welcome exception.

Tom Hardy avoids the George Lazenby effect. It's always difficult following a popular actor who has left an indelible stamp on a role. Lazenby was unable to do that with Bond; Sean Connery loomed large over On Her Majesty's Secret Service. In Fury Road, however, Hardy is Max from the first scene. It may help that it has been 30 years since Mel Gibson played the role but he isn't missed. Hardy embraces the over-the-top lunacy of the production and gives us a Max who grumbles and snarls his way through 120 minutes of bedlam.

Joining Hardy on Fury Road is a nearly-bald Charlize Theron, who showed her dedication to the role by shaving her head. Add Theron's Furiosa to the pantheon of kick-ass female action heroes alongside Alien's Sigourney Weaver and Terminator 2's Linda Hamilton. Furiosa is less a supporting character in Fury Road than a co-lead; this is as much her story as Max's.

Nicholas Hoult, painted white and playing someone more nuts than the main man, gives a surprisingly nuanced performance in a film that doesn't prize acting.

For those who easily become bored by exposition in action movies, Miller's approach provides an alternative. The characters' backstories are presented via lightning-fast flashbacks, a perfunctory voiceover, and occasional lines of dialogue. Low octane moments are used economically. Aside from a 15-minute break that allows characters and viewers alike to catch their breaths, Fury Road buzzes along at a breakneck clip. For those who found the destructive orgy of car chase chaos in the original trilogy to be a feast, Fury Road ups the ante. This drives the concept of the "summer spectacle" to its apex.

antovolk wrote:"It's a masterpiece. The rest of this shit is worthless junk". Aside from Ex Machina.

9/10 joint MOTY. Pure spectacle and bombast and some of the most holy f- action I've seen on screen but where Miller blows everyone out is building a strong and convincing enough emotional core and connection to the characters and the cause that it ends up being so satisfying emotionally too. The SCALE blew me away, this is a different beast to The Road Warrior. Hardy was very cool, but Theron and Hoult owned this - which especially atory wise was the main and only flaw. Heart pumping from first shot to last.

Master Virgo wrote:James Berardinelli (3.5/4)

Nicholas Hoult, painted white and playing someone more nuts than the main man, gives a surprisingly nuanced performance in a film that doesn't prize acting.

http://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/mad-max-fury-road

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