'Mad Max: Fury Road' goes back to basics of classic action films

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), directed by George Miller and written by Miller, Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris

While most action blockbuster movies overuse CGI (Avengers, Age of Ultron), Mad Max: Fury Road takes the opposite approach by limiting CGI and getting back to the basics of those classic action films. Mad Max is a series of action films where the heroic Max (Mel Gibson) tries to survive a desolate, apocalyptic world with action sequences and lavish dystopian sets as the series progressed. George Miller is back to direct the Mad Max reboot Fury Road. British actor Tom Hardy steps in the role as Mad Max, but is overshadowed by a new character Furiosa played by Charlize Theron.

The film starts out with Max being chased by a gang called The War Boys lead by the tyrannical Immortan Joe, played by Hugh Keays-Byrne. Furiosa, who is sent out to collect gasoline, drives off the given plan and Joe realizes that his wives, who are slaves for Joe, are missing. They have been smuggled out of the city by Furiosa. Nux, played by Nicholas Holt, is determined to get Furiosa and takes Max into the heat of the chase, by strapping him to the front of the car. A sandstorm abruptly ends the chase leading Max to escape from Nux, where he meets Furiosa and the wives. After much hostility on both parts, where Max tries to steal Furiosa's truck, they decide to work together. The women are escaping back to the "Green Place", their homeland. After a bullet storm through Gas Town, leads Nux in to the truck to capture Furiosa, but he ends up working with Max and Furiosa. Once they arrive to "The Greenland" there is a heavy sense that things are desolation, to which Furiosa has a heart breaking moment of breaking down and screaming into space. In this desolation they meet a group of elder women who will aid Furiosa and her group with motor bikes, and take the tyrannical Immortan Joe out for good.

Even though we are accustomed to seeing the advances of CGI that woes us in the world of action films like Kingsman: The Secret Service and Avengers: Age of Ultron, George Miller remembers that the heart of the Mad Max franchise is that the films did not depend on CGI, their essence is a great story and action scenes, which Miller delivers in abundance. Fury Road does not need CGI to have the jaw dropping lavish action sequences or the lush cinematography of a desolated wasteland.

Miller takes a big risk with making his iconic hero Max a sideline character, to his female heroine Furiosa. If you remember the first Mad Max (1979) movie, the female charter was in need of that heroic Max. Mad Max 2 (1981) toyed with the idea of having a strong female character, however, in Mad Max: Fury Road, Miller gives Furiosa the distinction as a strong female lead character that is not only looking out for herself, as a lone wolf, but is invested in the women of the apocalyptic desolate world. Most of them are in slavery to the men, and once their shackles are removed, there is a sense of power that Furiosa instils in them. Despite the fact they are working with a band of female warriors, there is a sense of distrust towards Max and Nux, who seem to be the lone wolves in this film. Maybe this could be the end of Max as we know him, as Furiosa steps in as the new heroine of this strong series revamp.

Rating: 5/5

Mad Max: Fury Road is currently available as a digital release and on DVD.

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