‘Mad Max’ is exhausting — in the best ways possible
Remakes of classic films are rarely a good idea.
Yet when the original filmmaker upgrades and expands on an idea and uses new technology while retaining the essence of the original story, it can be just the ticket for jaded moviegoers.
Such is the case with Mad
Max: Fury Road, an operatic extravaganza of action and mayhem. It’s exhilarating, deranged and exhausting in almost equal measures.
George Miller is the mastermind behind the Mad Max franchise, and his vision has spawned countless post-apocalyptic imitators. The 1979 original starred Mel Gibson; this latter-day Max, played by Tom Hardy, has an intensity amid an overall stoicism that Gibson did not project.
Hardy is terrific as the titular former lawman/lone wolf character. As the haunted Max Rockatansky, beset with vivid memories and hallucinations of his traumatic past, he is spot-on. Here he is captured by raiders known as War Boys, who use Max as a human blood bank. (This is a grisly world where the barely human and near-dead revive themselves with harvested blood and pumped mother’s milk.)
Max escapes and joins forces with a group of women in a huge tanker truck, led by the onearmed driver Furiosa (Charlize Theron). They are fleeing the tyr- annized Citadel, overseen by terrifying warlord Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), who enslaves the populace and controls the water supply.
The movie is essentially one long, relentless chase scene, with a succession of battles fought across scorched and barren wasteland. Cars and trucks of all sizes hold menacing drivers and passengers bent on annihilation. But they’re not big on conversation. Dialogue is minimal.
While the action sequences are dazzling, the film succeeds mostly because of the performances of Hardy and Theron. Theron is riveting as the clever, determined, shaved-headed Furiosa.
Amid all the adrenaline is a strong dose of estrogen. The story has a potent element of female empowerment as women of all ages face off against ridiculously dangerous men and transcend any imposed victimization.
Not exactly a reboot, and more like a rollicking reimagining, this new Mad Max is grim, as expected, but also high-octane mad fun.