5 out of 5

Directed by: George Miller

Can an action movie nowadays actually blow your mind?  How about an action movie that’s a sequel to movie – by the same director – from over thirty years ago?

I recently read a brief editorial bemoaning action sequences in American films, and that they’re truly just filler at this point.  That, however magnificently they’re executed on screen, there’s rarely anything of consequence or needed for actual story / character development that occurs.  In ‘Fury Road,’ after a short and grizzled opening statement and still looking-at-the-landscape shot that sets the blinding yellow color palette and survival tone for the film, Max (we presume) gets in his car and takes off into the distance, soon followed by a huge band of pursuers.  Ah, our opening chase.  And director George Miller absolutely cranks it into the most insane possible gear, with a frame rate like that of Neveldine / Taylor’s ‘Crank’ but, as Max is beaten and pushed and pulled and drives and runs and past nightmares are chopped up and edited into the batch and thrown at the screen with the same intensity, the film (and music, an excellent score by Junkie XL) establish an intensity – visceral, nail-baiting, breathless – that’s far and beyond the simple visual bravado of ‘Crank.’  It’s a while before this opening sequence settles down, but by the time it does, Miller has already established an insane amount of stage setting and world-building without having to say a word.  ‘Mad Max’ helped define the post-apocalyptic genre, and its somehow doing the same thing again after the tons and tons of movies that followed in the original’s wake.

Even though ‘Fury Road’ isn’t a film that hangs on twists, to say more about the Whats and Whys at this point would give away some of the earned revelations in the story, which are important.  Yes, the world of Max still churns on water and supply shortage, and so the society of which Max becomes a prisoner is slaved by a crazed warlord who controls such things, and who whips his people into a frenzy to sup of those supplies, or to go hunt for more… but there’s more to the story, just thumping ‘neath the surface – some interesting gender commentary, as suggested by the Ebert review – and all of it as impressively wended into the fairly non-stop action as in that opening scene.  The movie does boil down to a chase, stopping and starting and stopping and starting in the dessert, and circumstance puts Max (Tom Hardy) and Furiosa (Charlize Theron) on the same path.  The production design – by comic genius Brendan McCarthy – is insane, and horrific, and inventive – and the flick manages to never be boring or suffer from a need to one-up itself constantly as each scene is fully realized: action logistics considered, pacing and framing considered, and etcetera.

There’s just so much to admire here.  As with Mad Max, on the one hand, so much of this seems like a conventional genre flick, but on the other hand, so, so much of it goes against form, and it’s a beautiful thing.  So to answer my original question: yes, an action movie nowadays can still blow your mind, and it doesn’t have to be a billion dollar blockbuster, or have some kind of dumb “hook” plot that reads wacky on paper.  Just tell a story, and find the right way to tell it.  ‘Fury Road’s way is a furious, on-the-move frenzy.

Update 02.05.2017: Blu-ray notes – while it’s a bummer that there’s no commentary on the disc, there are plenty of extras, beyond the usual making-of, that detail the actors, and cars, and environments, with minimal crossover of footage.  It definitely covers most of what you would get from a commentary, so it balances out.  And each extra is an appropriate length – about 20 minutes – making it definitely bonus content and not just scraps.