Mad Max: Fury Road

UK Release Date. 14 May 2015
Certification. 15
Running Time. 2 hours 
Director. George Miller
Cast. Tom Hardy, Nicholas Hoult, Zoë Kravitz, Charlize Theron.
Rating. 70%

Review.

When I watched Mad Max: Fury Road at the cinema back in 2015 this is what I posted on social media, 

"Bloody Hell! Mad Max: Fury Road is insane. Incessant. Unrelenting. Unforgiving. Gripping. Epic. Visually spectacular." 

The effect is somewhat lessened when watching on the small screen but Mad Max: Fury Road still remains an unrelenting assault on the senses.

Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) and Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) lead the charge across scorched red earth in a post-apocalyptic world. Where many filmmakers might have been tempted to provide intricate back-stories to establish character motivations, George Miller simply stages one long, almost unbroken chase sequence. And even with limited dialogue, the director still manages to construct characters whose fate the audience cares about.

It was 30 years since Max's last anarchic outing, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Since then George Miller has directed the likes of The Witches of Eastwick, Babe: Pig In The City and Happy Feet. Clearly, the director has failed to mellow with age, as Mad Max: Fury Road is high-octane from start to finish. The set pieces explode in a riot of colour, fire and dirt, unlike anything I've ever seen before. The distinctive colour palette employed by cinematographer, John Seale takes precedence over any CGI effects. Instead, the production budget was spent on designing, producing and crashing a plethora of ever more bizarre-looking vehicles. CGI was used sparingly. The result is authenticity - you smell the pungent stench of the engine oil and taste the sand in your mouth. 

Mad Max: Fury Road rips up the rule book in front of formulaic CGI-driven action films. Innovative. Exhilarating. Kinetic. Mad Max: Fury Road is a brutal, breathtaking piece of creative and concise filmmaking.

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