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Mad Max: Fury Road has a very complex plot… well, actually, it has no discernable plot.
Then again, I can’t remember if the original three films did, either, where the part of ‘Mad’ Max Rockatansky was played by Mel Gibson. He portrayed the anti-hero over two great films and one sucky threequel, subtitled “Beyond Thunderdome“. The original director, George Miller, has brought the legend back to our screens, but obviously Mr Gibson is a little too old to play the man now (not that that stopped Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones) but he’s also made some ill-advised comments over the years and has fallen out of favour with Hollywood.
This time round it’s the current hardman of the day (name pun not intended), Tom Hardy (putting on a gruff voice that’s almost comical at times), who has previously played Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, murderer Charles Bronson in Bronson and will soon be playing BOTH of the Kray twins in Legend, due for release on September 11th. He is Maximus ‘Mad Max’ Rockatansky, father to a murdered daughter, husband to a murdered wife, and he will grunt his way through the scant dialogue.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Max has already annoyed one ne’er-do-well and ends up muzzled and strapped to the front of one of their vehicles, driven by Nux (Nicholas Hoult), Max’s muzzle very reminiscent of when he played Bane. Before long, he chances upon Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), who has a beef with another muzzled creature, decorated with teeth, Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne).
He has five wives, known as breeders who Furiosa has rescued from his home, the Citadel. Naturally, he gives chase and thus we have a near 2-hour chase movie with precious little dialogue – and that which there is often makes little sense anyway. The five wives – Toast the Knowing (Zoë Kravitz), The Splendid Angharad (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley), Capable (Riley Keough), The Dag (Abbey Lee) and Cheedo the Fragile (Courtney Eaton). Then again, their names aren’t important as they’re never referred to. Some of them are blabbering on about wanting to go to “The Green Place”, some sort of salvation or promised land, I presumed; exactly where or what it is isn’t clear for some time.
Personally, I prefer short women to tall women, so out of this quintet, it’s Ms Kravitz who is my favourite!
And is Toast The Knowing related to Toast of London? We must be told! Perhaps that’s the plan for Mad Max 5?
As for the rest of the cast, even though you’re told their names in the credits, it still doesn’t help. It would’ve been better if they’d given us pictures to go with the names, as they were onscreen for long enough. I do remember there were a bunch of old women in this film who looked as rough as Carol on the second series of Benefits Street, and when I saw her on that show, I thought it was actually Steven Tyler from Aerosmith!
Go to page 2 for my conclusions on the film, plus why you should NOT see this film in 3D and/or IMAX.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.