Going Boonta

Mad Max: Fury Road

2015

D: George Miller

**********

Pros: Visuals, Worldbuilding, Simple & Effective Narrative, Action

Cons: No Mel Gibson, One Boring Stretch, A Couple Tacky Visuals

[I'm sorry for the small font size on a section of this review.  For some reason Blogger randomly changed the size of this section and refuses let me fix it]

         Usually when an aging creator revisits the genre/franchise that made him popular, the results are less than stellar, whether it be George Lucas with Star Wars, Ridley Scott with Prometheus, Brad Bird with Incredibles 2, or even Ben Stiller with Zoolander 2.  George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, stands as a triumphant exception to this rule, along with (surprisingly) M. Night Shyamalan’s Split.  One explanation is that no one was particularly clamoring for the latter two.  Outside pressure can compel a filmmaker to follow-up on success even if he doesn’t have it left in him.  Assurances that it’s only taking so long because they’re making sure they get it right should be a warning that they’ve got nothing.  In retrospect it’s not surprising that these projects are so forced.  But today we’re talking about the opposite.

       Mad Max lacks the restraints of other franchises because it can be read not as a single continuity but as in-universe lore.  In the post-apocalyptic future, every developing civilization has its own version of the Mad Max legend.  The first movie is his potential origin story, while the others are different versions of the same myth.  This is why it makes sense for Fury Road to recast Tom Hardy in lieu of Mel Gibson and replace a dead son with a dead daughter.  Still, Gibson’s absence seems to be a bow to cancel culture that goes against the movie’s theme of redemption.  The world building simply demonstrates the earnestness and passion that went into this movie.  In contrast to “Transformers,” you could tell this world is Miller’s baby, something he cared about and took seriously.

         The cast is solid.  Max stays true to his archetype, an apathetic loner who comes through for the movie’s true protagonist, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron).  Furiosa is a complex antiheroine.  Once she was a victim of the antagonist in her youth, she rose through his ranks to become a brutal enforcer until inspired by conscience to rebel against him.   The theme of competition between members of the War Boys cult is underscored by Nux’s (Nicholas Hoult) tension with Slit (Josh Helman).  The villain, Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne from the first movie) believes he’s helping society rebuild, but allows his ego to corrupt him.  He presents himself as a god, and attempts to run a eugenics program with his own seed.  His arrogance blinds him to his own inadequacy as a sire.  The conflict begins when Furiosa attempts to free his concubines, whom he cares for in a twisted way in spite his abuse of them.  Like Vader in Empire Strikes Back, he mobilizes his own army, as well as those of his allies, in the name of “a family matter.”  The concubines themselves (Rosie Huntington-Wilteley, Riley Keough, Zoe Kravitz, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton) show surprising diversity of personality, and I find it refreshing that the most heavily pregnant one is the strongest terms of development, in defiance of the "pregnant idiot" stereotype.  

        This has earned the movie praise as a feminist work without going overboard.  In fact that’s probably why the movie got its well-deserved Best Picture nomination.  Still, there are some unfortunate undertones as a result.  The heroic group of women called the Vuvalini (Megan Gale, Melissa Jaffer, Melita Jurisic, Gillian Jones, Joy Smithers, Antoinette Kellermann, Christina Koch) are vaguely misandrist. They distrust Max and Nux until Furiosa assures them they are “reliable” (not a term with good ideological history).  These aren’t blatant enough to ruin the movie, however.  Regardless of intent, a scene in which Joe orders an unborn baby ripped from his dying concubine’s belly by the Organic Mechanic (Angus Sampson) has little political significance since the child was unviable and lack of medical technology in this world would make the issue moot.  Besides, practically all pro-lifers prioritize the life of the mother.  2015 is a watershed year in our culture since it marks the beginning of the end of the Left’s earnest interest in artistic quality; it was the year it praised Fury Road, but it also the year The Force Awakens came out.  And we all know where that led to…

        In an age of convoluted plot lines, Fury Road’s narrative is refreshingly simple.  It’s a great example of minimalistic storytelling done right.  Characters have complex motivations that are hinted at onscreen without distracting the viewer, and the movie does a great job of following the show-don’t-tell rule.  A wealth of worldbuilding is shown through visuals without exposition.  The different cultures represented by the Citadel, Buzzards, etc. are displayed by their behavior, dress, and vehicle design.  Rituals are obviously important in the cult-like society of the Citadel, and this theme was previously most obvious in Beyond Thunderdome.  Slang is well-developed in this world, though I’m surprised I didn’t hear this word.  I like the touch of OO-blood’s being refered to as “High Octane,” considering it’s the universal donor.  Even the title of “Bullet Farmer” makes sense as gunpowder is made using fertilizer.  I wish The Interceptor played a bigger role, but its this not the first time its getting downplayed happened in this series.  I highly recommend The Art of Mad Max: Fury Road as a supplement to this movie; it really helps one appreciate the thought that went into this movie while not being a crutch for its plot.  There is a slight cheat in the worldbuilding in that people play much faster and looser with resources like gas and bullets.  Contrast this with Lord Humungus' waging war over oil and only loadng single magnum bullets for special occasions.        The visuals are excellent, with great costume, production design by name and cinematography by Jenny Beavan, Colin Gibson/Lisa Thompson, and John Seale.  The effects are primarily real stunts (using Olympic athletes and Cirque du Soleil performers), with CGI only used sparingly and to good effect.  One exception is a tacky 3D gimmick at the end of the final crash.  The emphasis on practical effects is refreshing here, since many aging directors are enamored with the novelty and convenience of CGI, seeing only the difficulty in the practical effects many found so compelling in their old works.  Camera tricks add a healthy amount of camp that’s appropriate to the movie’s setting.  The sequence that violates the visual brilliance is the nighttime scene, which is an absurdly blatant example of using a blue color filter to shoot day-for-night (and yet everyone acts like it’s good!).  It's also the one boring part of the movie, it drags on a while, and the apparently awesome offscreen defeat of the Bullet Farmer (Richard Carter) by Max doesn’t help.  The Bullet Farmer also has a remarkably silly scene with a jarringly off-model choice of music that takes you out of the movie.  Junkie XL provides an energetic score, and the movie stars iOTA as a crazed bard for the Citadel. 

      Mad Max: Fury Road is a must-see, and it took me awhile to allow The VVitch to dethrone it as my favorite film of 2015.  Not only does it do justice to its franchise, I’d say it’s its best entry, which would usually be heresy in reference to a sequel that came out 30 years after a trilogy.