Mad Max: Fury Road
Dir: George Miller
2015
*****
George Miller has gone to (development) hell and back to get Mad Max back to the big screen, I for one am eternally grateful. First touted in 1998, Miller's forth Mad Max production has been plagued by problems starting in 2001 when the events of 9/11 saw the American dollar collapse against the Australian dollar and the budget balloon to unrealistic proportions. Leading man and original Max, Mel Gibson, had some quite high-profile negative problems that lead him away from the franchise and just when filming was about to start, War broke out and made it impossible to continue. Miller's other directing project, Happy Feet, came as a surprise to his fans but it seems it was a case of funding his true passion and with the money made, Fury Road, at last, became a reality. After 30 years and a cult following, Mad Max 4 had to be something special, something new but with that element that made the films popular in the first place in-tact. George Miller delivers. Everything that makes the first three films brilliant is present in this continuation of the story, it's not a reboot as such as the only thing that has changed is Max, who is now played by Tom Hardy. Fury Road is Mad Max, Road Warrior and Thunderdrome mixed together and on powerful steroids. The compassion of the first, the chase of the second and the sociological and tribal ideas of the third are the main elements of the 4th film but there is so much more it brings to the franchise. Miller brings back franchise favorite and villain from the original film, Hugh Keays-Byrne, which feels like a thank you for your patience for the fans. There are many things here and there for the hard-core fans, my favorite being a scene whereby Max gets shot through the hand with an arrow which was a nod to a now famous row over cuts the Motion Picture Association of America made to Mad Max: Road Warrior, where a scene involving a character pulling an arrow out of their arm nearly got the film banned. The development of tribalism, almost as a religion is also well handled and a vast improvement on Thunderdrome. I wondered whether a big budget would take the magic away from what was always a creative force done on a shoestring but that isn't at all the case, the effects are amazing, the costumes, make up and Cars are brilliant and CGI is used minimally and only when necessary, the stunts taking centre stage. It is a visual masterpiece, wonderfully inventive and takes the Max Max dystopian future to new realms but then it is no surprise really when you learn that Miller hired the brilliant Brendan McCarthy as co-writer. McCarthy's work is stunning and quite similar to Miller's style, I wonder if both have influenced each other in the past and I for one can think of no better partnership to get the franchise back on track. Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Hugh Keays-Byrne and Nicholas Hoult are great in the lead roles and a collection of Rock star offspring, negligee models, stunt men and Ozploitation veterans make up a fantastic supporting cast. It's old school, it's high-octane, it's the return of Ozploitation and a magnificent rebirth of a much loved franchise. It's brilliant.