'Mad Max: Fury Road' review by Jake Boyle
The Mad Max franchise has got increasingly bizarre with each new iteration, but even the high-octane anarchy of Fury Road pales in comparison to the insanity of Aaron Clarey's already notorious review. Taking issue with the fact that in this film "women are equal to men in all things" and that Charlize Theron's character "talked a lot", the gratifying backfire of his outrage is that it's brought the film's positive portrayal of women into sharp focus and attracted a more enlightened crowd to see the film just to piss off one guy.
When it's not espousing the radical bigotry that women can also drive, and that sex slavery is immoral, Mad Max: Fury Road is just generally having a bloody good time. It's the biggest and barmiest of all George Miller's films to date, and his penchant for vehicular violence undeniably benefits from the budget increase and improved computer graphics. The action is pleasingly over-the-top and frenetic, but it's also coherently pieced together, if lacking a certain finesse. The visuals are fantastic, from costume to props, and this helps to create one of the most credible and immersive post-apocalypses in an increasingly saturated market for them. Fury Road brings strong levels of creative detail to its own inventions, such as the culture and beliefs of the 'Warboys', who should seem completely alien but you quickly reach a solid understanding of. There is an issue with the pacing of the weirdness - the audience is just thrown into this madcap, chaotic world, which certainly makes for an exhilarating start, but it also means that the level of danger or insanity never really feels like it's building from where we began, and the final fight sequences just don't feel climactic enough. Because there's no great sense of progression or escalation, the few moments where the momentum does drop (to let the characters show a little depth and give the audience time to catch their breath) do feel a little longer and duller than they otherwise might.
The slower moments are still well-sustained, however, with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron demonstrating an ability to convey a lot of emotional information whilst only slightly straying from the stony-faced stoic aura they project. Nicholas Hoult does a good job of doing exactly the opposite, hooting and screaming in such a convincingly manic manner that he's barely recognisable. Humour isn't as common as one might expect from a film that's so unabashedly gleeful in everything from crunching metallic behemoths together to displaying horrific mutations, but when comedy does occur it's effective and well-delivered. The earnest commitment to pure mayhem is both impressive and endlessly fun, but it helps my giving the plot and characters a grounding that is simple without being vague or stupid. There are sentimental moments sparsely scattered through proceedings, some of which work more than others, but garnering any real emotion from this experience is just icing on the cake rather than an expectation, A little exploration into Max's psyche might not be the most affecting of incidents, but it does finally suggest, four films into the franchise, that Max might be at least a little bit mad, and Hardy's panic-laden eyes prove a great counterpoint to his grizzled, unmoving bottom lip.
Aside from some neat feminist undertones and a slightly unexpected sense of occasional tenderness, what you see is what you get with Fury Road. If two hours of lunatic trying to run each other down in absurdly high-octane death machines sounds good to you (and I can't fathom why it wouldn't), then this film will not disappoint. The effort and sheer enthusiasm embedded into this fourth instalment by Miller is infectious, and there's few people who could make a desert full of death and decay feel so vivid and exciting. Mad Max: Fury Road is a worthy addition to one of action's most revered franchises and deserves a heap of bonus points for its distinct vision and brass balls - and now brass ovaries too.
When it's not espousing the radical bigotry that women can also drive, and that sex slavery is immoral, Mad Max: Fury Road is just generally having a bloody good time. It's the biggest and barmiest of all George Miller's films to date, and his penchant for vehicular violence undeniably benefits from the budget increase and improved computer graphics. The action is pleasingly over-the-top and frenetic, but it's also coherently pieced together, if lacking a certain finesse. The visuals are fantastic, from costume to props, and this helps to create one of the most credible and immersive post-apocalypses in an increasingly saturated market for them. Fury Road brings strong levels of creative detail to its own inventions, such as the culture and beliefs of the 'Warboys', who should seem completely alien but you quickly reach a solid understanding of. There is an issue with the pacing of the weirdness - the audience is just thrown into this madcap, chaotic world, which certainly makes for an exhilarating start, but it also means that the level of danger or insanity never really feels like it's building from where we began, and the final fight sequences just don't feel climactic enough. Because there's no great sense of progression or escalation, the few moments where the momentum does drop (to let the characters show a little depth and give the audience time to catch their breath) do feel a little longer and duller than they otherwise might.
The slower moments are still well-sustained, however, with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron demonstrating an ability to convey a lot of emotional information whilst only slightly straying from the stony-faced stoic aura they project. Nicholas Hoult does a good job of doing exactly the opposite, hooting and screaming in such a convincingly manic manner that he's barely recognisable. Humour isn't as common as one might expect from a film that's so unabashedly gleeful in everything from crunching metallic behemoths together to displaying horrific mutations, but when comedy does occur it's effective and well-delivered. The earnest commitment to pure mayhem is both impressive and endlessly fun, but it helps my giving the plot and characters a grounding that is simple without being vague or stupid. There are sentimental moments sparsely scattered through proceedings, some of which work more than others, but garnering any real emotion from this experience is just icing on the cake rather than an expectation, A little exploration into Max's psyche might not be the most affecting of incidents, but it does finally suggest, four films into the franchise, that Max might be at least a little bit mad, and Hardy's panic-laden eyes prove a great counterpoint to his grizzled, unmoving bottom lip.
Aside from some neat feminist undertones and a slightly unexpected sense of occasional tenderness, what you see is what you get with Fury Road. If two hours of lunatic trying to run each other down in absurdly high-octane death machines sounds good to you (and I can't fathom why it wouldn't), then this film will not disappoint. The effort and sheer enthusiasm embedded into this fourth instalment by Miller is infectious, and there's few people who could make a desert full of death and decay feel so vivid and exciting. Mad Max: Fury Road is a worthy addition to one of action's most revered franchises and deserves a heap of bonus points for its distinct vision and brass balls - and now brass ovaries too.
No comments:
Post a Comment