I don't really know how I managed to live on this Earth for so long without really hearing much about the Mad Max movies, but for whatever reason that ended up being the case. Thus when the trailer for Mad Max: Fury Road came out, while everyone else was ecstatic that we were getting another one after a 30 year absence, I was kinda confused because I hadn't heard much about these movies. So I set a goal for myself that before Fury Road came out, I would fix this by watching the whole trilogy. I am happy to report that I have now accomplished that goal and now I realize what I had been missing out on for such a long time. The Mad Max movies are a whole lot of fun. For the most part anyways. The third one didn't do it for me, but I had a lot of fun with the first two and thus after watching them, I became officially excited to see the fourth, especially with how high the reviews were. There's been a whole heck of a lot of strong praise for this and now after seeing it, I will add my voice to the crowd because this movie is one crazy fun ride!
Now if you are like me from a few weeks ago and you haven't seen the Mad Max movies, there might be one question on your mind right now. Do you need to see the first three before going to see this one being that it is a sequel and not a reboot? The answer to that is no. You can go in and catch on pretty easily to what is happening without getting lost. However, it definitely would enhance your experience if you at least watch the first one because that is where you learn the back story of Mad Max. You should also see the second one because it is a whole lot of fun and you see the aftermath of what Max is now like after the events of the first. Skip the third. It's boring and useless. The other question that I have gotten a lot in the last few days is what is the plot of this movie? Well that's simple. We are in a crazy post-apocalyptic wasteland with a lot of crazy people, if you want to call them people. A group of somewhat normal people manage to escape and are out to find a better place to live. When all the crazy people figure their plan out, they don't quite approve and thus we find ourselves with a movie that is essentially a two-hour chase scene loaded with crazy action.
A lot of reviews have called this the best action movie of the decade so far. Some have called it one of the best action movies of all time. At least one critic deemed it the best action movie ever because that line was used in a lot of the commercials in the day or two before. Personally I don't know if I'm ready to go to that level with this movie, but I'm also not going to sit here and disagree with that because right now I can't think of a time where I've had this much fun in a theater. It's definitely the most fun I've had at the theater this year, which is saying a lot because I had a blast with Avengers: Age of Ultron, Furious 7, and Kingsman. Simply put, this is the perfect action movie. Sure, you can find movies that are deeper, more profound, more emotional, more moving, etc. So don't misinterpret my statement because I'm not calling this a perfect movie or the best movie of all time, just the perfect action movie. Think for a second about all the qualities you want when you go see an action movie and this has them. It has a simple story that's not super complicated or confusing, but yet good enough to keep you interested. It has well written characters played by great actors. Most importantly, though, it has almost non-stop action throughout that is smart and well-done, thus fun to watch. And it gets better and better as the movie goes along.
One thing that I really appreciated about all the action in the movie was that it was focused and restrained as compared to other actions movies. What I mean by that is this isn't a bloody gore-fest. There's almost no language -- I can count the number of times it curses on one hand. The sexuality/nudity is almost non-existent - only one brief shot of an individual's bare backside from a distance. The action isn't done Michael Bay style where everything you see on screen explodes for no reason. This I liked because many action movies of this genre will go completely unleashed, which can often lose you. In this movie, the action was frequent, but because it was restrained in these aspects, each sequence of action, each crash, and each explosion felt very deliberate and purposeful, even when the scene was very fast-paced. But then there were times in the movie where they weren't afraid to slow it down and give us time to develop our characters. Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, and Nicholas Hoult played our three main characters and you really feel for all three of them and thus you want them all to succeed in their goal, which makes things even more intense when suddenly the crazy enemy group catches up to them.
I don't feel like I've done this movie justice with this review. I've done my best, but I'm not sure what the correct words are in this instance that accurately describe my emotions and feelings as I was watching this movie, so if I haven't convinced you of the brilliance of this movie then you are just going to have to trust me on this and go see it. Its 98% on Rotten Tomatoes score out of 233 reviews is well deserved as is its 8.8 rating on IMDb out of 60,000+ votes thus far, placing it at #23 on IMDb's top 250. It really is a brilliant movie and easily the most fun I've had in the theaters this year. George Miller did an amazing job with the Mad Max movies back in the 80's, but I feel that those movies were made so that one day we could have Mad Max: Fury Road. It's been a few days now since I saw this movie and I've been going back and forth as to what grade I want to give this. I'm very particular with what I give my top score to. Out of all the movies I see each year, I usually only end up giving out two or three per year. I wasn't going to do this, but for giving me what I really feel is the perfect action movie, I will give Mad Max: Fury Road a 10/10. Like seriously, if someone were to write a textbook on how to make the perfect action movie, that person could use this movie as a road map for that book. It's that good. Go see it!
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