Mad Max: Fury Road was considered one of the greatest action movies ever to be made, as well as one of the best movies of the decade. While that consensus is still believed by many today, the amount of praise that was given to Fury Road was staggering from both critics and audiences, especially considering that the first three were more cult classics than highly rated films. With the franchise existing since 1979, Mad Max Fury Road was considered the fourth instalment as well as a ‘’revisiting’’ to the franchise after it had not been touched for 14 years. With pre-production starting in 1997, the film would be put through 18 years of development hell with several delays mainly due to the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq War. When the film was finally released in 2015, the team behind the film, especially director George Miller, wasn’t disappointed with the results, seemingly creating an action flick that won’t be forgotten for generations. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, road warrior Max, (played by Tom Hardy) is captured by a road-based cult run by their leader, Immortan Joe (played by Hugh Keays- Byrne). Used as a ‘’blood bag’’ for a sickly war boy named Nux (played by Nicholas Holt), the two find themselves caught up in a chase after Imperator Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron), one of Joe’s lieutenants that has gone rogue and is transporting all of his wives to a safe place away from Joe. Caught in a position where he needs to help them, Max, Furiosa and the wives all set out to reach ‘’the green place’’ and escape the tyrannical grasp of Immortan Joe, who along with his minions and fellow war lords, are hot on their tail. Though it can look simplistic and lacking in story on the surface, Mad Max mixes a thrilling viewing experience with brilliant world-building, instantly grabbable characters with great acting, and fantastic usage of effective and physical action.

The story could be told in only one sentence, which in no doubt would confuse people on a first viewing. The film is surprisingly bare on backstory, exposition, or even that much dialogue, leaving most of it up in the air and the rest of it left to be told visually. That alone is handled perfectly. This film is a brilliant example of a film method that is sadly not used very often, letting the environment and visuals tell its audience everything. It doesn’t need reams of dialogue or long-winded speeches, it makes itself super clear in the first 20mins of the film everything that matters, everything worthy of focus, and what the main goal is. It’s also fantastic at world-building; while the other tribes of road warriors are pretty underdeveloped, the world they create with the villain is immediately understood through the actions of the people, the structure of the area, and the craziness of the minions, its set-up perfectly so everything makes sense and it doesn’t need to waste time on talking, allowing the film to completely utilise the race aspect without having to stop for too long. The movie calls back to the beloved simplicity of favoured cartoons like the Road Runner or Tom and Jerry, which use their simple but very relatable motivations of their characters to keep the audience’s hooked and never leave their minds. The simple nature of the plot makes people identify with the characters more, and the complex nature of the world-building gets people engaged as to why and how its happening.

For a film titled Mad Max, one of the strangest aspects of the film is that the film has very little to do with MAD MAX. If the character were completely removed from the film, nothing about the story, the character’s motivation, even the eventual outcome, would change in the slightest. It doesn’t upset the overall movie as the other characters are interesting enough to hold the movie without him, but it’s a bizarre choice for the titular character to have such a minor role in his own film. This is a common thread with Miller’s film, where the main character is always the least interesting and are used instead to show off the incredibly crazy world and side characters. That works wonderfully in this film as the other characters are shown off perfectly, but more of a purpose would have given just enough to have him feel a bit more relevant in his own film, as it feels like he is unneeded. Tom Hardy is fine enough in the role but Max as a character is straight enough that anyone could play him. Charlize Theron is fantastic in this film; every little thing down to her reactions, her facial expressions and her aggressive passionate and violent actions mixed with her hopeful saviour endpoint, is portrayed wonderfully by Theron, and easily leaves her as the best part of the film. Immortan Joe is a fun enough villain with a memorable design, all the wives have simple yet memorable characters with good actresses, Nicholas Holt has a lot of good moments, and a lot of the side actors are very passionate and fun.

This movie was one that people loved to watch on the big screen due to the incredible action that was made extra amazing due to the 3D and the Imax. The action is unbelievable with how much effort was clearly put into staging these incredibly fast, action-packed awesome car chases while also featuring a decent amount of hand-to-hand. While some of the effects are pretty obvious on a second viewing, one of the reasons for the strength of the action is the fact that most of it was done on location out in the desert with real props. It gives it that level of realism that can be broken down just enough with the amount of insanity that comes with the visuals, like a blind-folded man riding the hood of a car while playing a guitar that shoots flames out the top. The film does seem to have an obsession with the color orange, mainly because it’s the color of the sand, but being matched beautifully with the open blue skies, as well as other moments where the colors are so over-emphasised that it’s like an animated movie, it keeps a relatively simple location from getting dull. The cinematography throughout the film does a great job at giving this open area a great sense of vastness that not only allows for some great sequence shots for the action scenes as well as establishing shots, but the framing of a lot of them feels straight out of a painting with the level of detail and preciseness that put into it.

Though only getting a moderate cinema box office, Mad Max Fury Road is an experience to witness. Starting from an underground cult classic format into a film that people couldn’t wait to see in the cinema again, the franchise has truly been revitalised with a similar atmosphere but with far stronger elements put in. While everyone has their favorite and each Mad Max has something nice to offer, Fury Road manages to fit everything that works in the other films, and incorporate them much stronger in this film; its visually told story, the incredibly interesting yet simple characters, the entertaining actors, the fantastic action, the great looking locations, it all works wonderfully here. Easily one of the best action movies of its type and one that will never get old with each consecutive watch. The furthest distance away from being mediocre, Fury Road is truly a lovely film.