Dustin: 4 of 5 stars Nick: 5 of 5 stars Average: 4.5 of 5 stars (Tweety canary)
Dustin: Fury Road is a gritty reboot of the Mad Max franchise, 30 years after Beyond Thunderdome. Max is back in the body of Tom Hardy to take on his old nemesis Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne), who has been rebranded Immortan Joe.
Nick: This was the best action film that has been released during my life that I’ve seen! All the scenes had some sort of thought process in the direction which is a hell of a thing to be able to say for an action film. The cameras swing, sometimes literally, from car to car while characters do the same. I would like to see this film without all of the CGI used on the characters and the cars and see what is left because I want to know what was actually done by stuntmen. It seemed like a lot. Their names should have been on the poster!
Dustin: I wouldn’t go as far as to say this was the best action film of my lifetime, but I’d say it was quite good. It is an example of what I hope other filmmakers will emulate in the use of CGI. Some of the effects were clearly CGI, yes, but I never thought an entire scene was constructed with CGI. The computers just complemented the effects. I think back to The Hobbit movies, where so much of it just looked like a cartoon.
Dustin: I wouldn’t go as far as to say this was the best action film of my lifetime, but I’d say it was quite good. It is an example of what I hope other filmmakers will emulate in the use of CGI. Some of the effects were clearly CGI, yes, but I never thought an entire scene was constructed with CGI. The computers just complemented the effects. I think back to The Hobbit movies, where so much of it just looked like a cartoon.
Nick: The film’s not perfect, but it comes as close as I’d ever imagine an action movie being. The whole premise of Immortan Joe wanting his male heir, but they call Rictus Erectus his son throughout the movie, so I must have missed something. There was also a scene where the movie could have possibly ended, but then the film went on another 25 minutes, but all the action scenes were so phenomenal I never really cared. If I had seen this before Furious 7 I would have left FF7 in a very disappointed manner.
Dustin: This movie did a lot right in terms of plot and character. I mentioned in our review of Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 I didn’t understand why he was so gung-ho on stopping the art heist when his goal was to rescue his daughter. All that stuff was a distraction. Here the characters’ motivations are simple and their actions make sense toward their goals. That is actually fairly high praise.
Nick: Fury Road does a lot with so little. All the characters have a base motivation and nothing more and it never stops working. I’m a little afraid that three more films have just been greenlit, but that’s just the cynic in me.
Dustin: I wouldn’t say the characters all have base motives. It appears so at first. We’re dropped into the middle of an ugly world. But the characters’ humanity comes through at different times, and it is uplifting in a way. Max risks his life to save Joe’s fleeing wives, despite their initial distrust of him, Furiosa (Charlize Theron) seems like a hardened warrior at first, but she has altruistic motives, and Nux transcends his initial War Dog mindset to become a full-fledged hero to help the women.
Nick: My base motivation comment is about the simple want of a free life which is what drives all the characters from start to end beyond Nux. But Nux realizes at some point in the film that freedom sounds pretty good. And at the very end it goes beyond that as they fight their way back to Immortan Joe’s Cavern (good bar name!) to free all the people. They want to help each other as well but living a free life is the main focus.
Dustin: I think what I liked best about the film is that all the action was no-holds-barred. The bad guys were trying to stop Joe’s wives from reaching their safe haven, and went all-out in that end, with vehicles that looked grisly, yet somehow practical. And if they accidentally killed a few of the wives, then so be it. You could understand the stakes in this movie. I never felt like they copped out by putting the characters into easily escapable situations.
Nick: Plus, the fact that this is a big budget action film and passes the Bechdel Test is highly impressive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test). It’s very rare to have more than one scene that might give an action film a pass, Guardians of the Galaxy, but this whole film passes and that’s amazing and is what probably led to this idiot not wanting to see the film: http://www.themarysue.com/mra-to-the-max/
Dustin: I’ve come across these Men’s Rights Activists before. They’re basically just trolls, so the best response is to ignore them.
What sticks with me most after the film is the overall flamboyancy you don’t see in a lot of films these days. You had the drummers riding behind the warriors while a masked guitar player shredded from the front of the vehicle. It was a meaningless, but awesome, element of the movie that added to its overall tone.
Nick: Another awesome element was the Milk Mothers… you’ll see what I’m talking about! The film reminds me of Kung Fu Hustle in how it easily shifts betweens tones of comic and drama without getting too muddled. There are scenes that will make you look at your friend going, “What the fuck was that?!” in excitement or one where you feel deeply engrossed in a character’s plight. It’s always impressive and enjoyable to see a film like that.
Nick: Another awesome element was the Milk Mothers… you’ll see what I’m talking about! The film reminds me of Kung Fu Hustle in how it easily shifts betweens tones of comic and drama without getting too muddled. There are scenes that will make you look at your friend going, “What the fuck was that?!” in excitement or one where you feel deeply engrossed in a character’s plight. It’s always impressive and enjoyable to see a film like that.
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