Mad Max: Fury Road - 8.3/10
I live, I die, I live again, arriving at the gates of Valhalla shiny and chrome! Yes, Mad Max Fury Road is a strange movie, it's full of strange characters, strange progression and strange niches that I would consider ballsy in the movie business. Mad Max does a few things that I haven't seen in movies for a very long time and I feel, for example 80% of the special effects are practical, and not computer generated, which was a mind blowing fact considering that amount of stunts they do in that movie. Mad Max is a movie about ACTION, the movie starts off with Mad Max, doing an internal monologue, and then suddenly EXPLOSION, CHAOS, GUNFIRE and the pace just sort of continues that way throughout the entire movie. Now, we've seen this sort of action before, Transformers for example, seems to be just explosions and chaos and what-not, so who cares? What makes this action different from the crappy action of Transformers?
1. Plot Exposition: In transformers there is a plot, the plot is LITERALLY told to you by the characters, they just go up to the screen and say "So currently X is happening and then Y will happen". In Mad Max, there IS no plot exposition, you sort of verify the plot from yourself through snide remarks of characters or simply the aesthetics of the background. A plot exists, and it's actually quite a sophisticated plot as well, but the plot is in the details, it's something you have to look for. For those wanting a cool story, they get their cool story, for those wanting mindless action, they get their mindless action.
2. Aesthetics: Mad Max is all about style, whether it's people driving in a sandy desert in the middle of a tornado inside a sandstorm, with lighting flickering about everywhere. Or they're fighting in a misty swamp with crows flying around and lights flashing all about. Mad Max is there to impress aesthetically, explosions don't impress, art does.
3. It's aware of itself: Mad Max is Mad. Literally, the whole film is over-the-top insane, and it's very aware it is insane. The characters are ridiculous, like a blind character who stands ontop of a truck that has 40 ft high speakers so people can hear the character play an electric guitar that shoots fire. The stunts are ridiculous, the story is ridiculous, the local is ridiculous, it's all just amazing.
4. Consequences: In mad max, consequences happen. While all this insane stuff is going on, if someone gets shot, THEY'RE DEAD, that's it. It's not like some fast and furious stuff where people have plot armour as thick as the wall of china. Mad Max Characters are mortal, and most of these insane stunts kill characters, and it's quite awesome to see that happen
So altogether, mad max is incredible, it's truly an awesome movie. It hides an intellectual story of a post-apocalyptic setting behind non-stop, never boring, chaotic madness. Mad Max may only speak 6 or 7 words in the entire movie, but the movie still comes off as great. What a beautiful day.
Also a local sydney fur I know actually did some of the visual effects for it, he's in the credits!