Mad Max: Fury Road—Don't Believe the Hype

Don't-don't-don't don't believe the hype. Mad Max has it all except for two things: a story worth following and characters that anyone cares about with the noted exception of Imperator Furiosa played by Charlize Theron. The main character Max Rockatansky played by Tom Hardy doesn’t really speak until nearly the middle of the movie after the initial spectacular and epic chase scene.

The movie takes place in the remains of a world after civilization collapses with insufficient resources, such as water food and oil to subsist. The people remaining live a life of slavery for bits of food and water, provided to them by Immortan Joe, played by Hugh Keays-Byrne ruler of The Citadel where he acts as a virtual God to its inhabitants, except for his warriors.

The new rendering of Mad Max delivers on its cast of freaks, geeks, kooks and weirdos. It also produces on its collection of strange cars and trucks that only Dr. Frankenstein could love. It even has a musician with a flame throwing double neck guitar standing in front of a wall of speakers who provides thunderous music for the chase scenes. The chases are wild, action packed and filled with dangerous stunts just as the trailers promise.

Hardy does an incredible job with the anorexic script he has to work with, which may not even reach that level. Theron’s character, Imperator Furiosa, has a more fleshed-out role that lends some credibility to her character. The rest of the characters are bad Hollywood rip-offs of this particular genre of movie.

Although he has the sufficiently noxious outfit, the required irritating voice and high quality ugliness, Immortan Joe just doesn’t cut it as a villain, especially for this comic book escapade. Villains must inspire disgust, revulsion and even hatred. They must have no socially redeeming value as a human being even as an organ donor. Even though Hugh Keays-Byrne tries valiantly, Immortan Joe couldn't raise enough hatred to qualify as a true villain like the T-1000 in The Terminator.

If you’re looking for a story, you’d have better luck playing “hide and seek” with The Invisible Man. However, for those with a craving for explosions, fire and crazy stunts, this movie might be for you. Tom Hardy is certainly no Mel Gibson in his role as Max, but I think it is more a problem of an unserviceable script and a movie hoping to cash in on action.

I am certain that Max will be the box-office winner, but for me I wish I had waited for pay-for-view version. Most critics liked it, but I was not riveted, disgusted or cheering the good guys. For me it was blah! On a five star rating system, I give Max two and a half stars part of that score is the one and half stars I gave it for big screen spectacle. The rest? Drivel.