I knew I was going to enjoy Mad Max: Fury Road right around the time the flamethrower guitar came out. I knew I was in love by the time the credits rolled, and I genuinely cared for the characters. The best stunts in years and the best action heroine in decades help to make Fury Road the most exhilarating ride I’ve had in a very long time.

 

George Miller has had an exceptionally interesting career. An Academy Award winning director for his adorable dancing penguin film Happy Feet, he’s most well-known nowadays for his family friendly entertainment. But for fans of dystopia and cult, he will always be remembered for his trilogy of Mad Max films in the late 70s and early 80s, particularly his absolute classic The Road Warrior. When I heard Miller was back to write and direct a fourth installment, I was cautiously excited, but still a little skeptical.  Miller is in his seventh decade of life, and hadn’t directed anything but talking pigs and tap-dancing birds for years. Well, Miller might be old, but this Fury Road proves he’s not even close to rusty.

 

Rather than spending his considerable budget on green screen and computers, Miller made his madness the old fashioned way; buy as many monster trucks as a $150,000,000 will let you, hire some exceedingly foolish stunt drivers, make sure you’re a safe distance away, and blow everything to kingdom come.

 

The results of the concoction are nothing short of spectacular. You’d think the comparatively smaller scale of the action (mere cars being blown up compared to the cities and skyscrapers laid to waste in films like Transformers), but in this case size doesn’t matter, quality does. The over-indulgence of cgi in recent years has led people to forget just how good practical effects can look.

 

 The original Mad Max trilogy was made over 30 years ago, back when computers were the size of your living room and had less processing power than today’s average toaster. As a result, the original films relied entirely on practical methods of achieving their special effects, and while their low budget and age show today, they are still an impressive display, and a revolutionary stepping stone.

 

With a budget 429 times that of the original and over 30 years of advancing technology, the newest Mad Max pulls off stunts that should be impossible. The vast majority of the film takes place on the titular Fury Road, as Max and company are chased by an entire fleet of war vehicles with minimalist dialogue making the solidity of the action that much more important.

 

 And holy mother of a mutant is this some insane action. Our chief villain, the unhinged tyrant Imortan’ Joe, is a powerful man with some nasty tools at his disposal. While much of his fleet consists of motorcycles and dune buggies, there are some oddballs that stand out for their eccentrics. The most flavorful include pole-cats (convertibles with mutants on long poles dangling from the top) the Bullet-Farmers car (essentially a hot rod with tank treads) and a massive truck made of amps, complete with drummers and a blind rocker wielding a flame spitting guitar.

 

Miller sends these vehicles and many more out to be destroyed with the gleeful joy of a child tying firecrackers to his Hot-Wheels. It’s an intense, glamorous, and oddly beautiful display of carmageddon and carnage. After seeing the excellence practical effects can bring to the screen, there’s just no turning back to the bland cgi-fests that have been polluting cinema.

 

Perhaps most the most surprising aspect of Fury Road is its characters. Max is a blank slate, but that’s all he’s supposed to be. He’s always been a silent legend of the wasteland, a road warrior more than a quip-spouting hero. But in Max’s own movie, it’s the side characters who steal the show.

 

 There are two folks that grab my attention in particular, rouge general Furiosa, and mutant Warboy Nux. Furiosa is a fantastic hero, played by a fierce and shaven-headed Charlize Theron, the perfect combination of tough and relatable. Not too many one-armed women would be able to deliver a serious physical beat down, but Furiosa delivers.

 

Nux is a cool character, for novelty if nothing else. It’s not too often we get to see inside the minds of the mutants that populate films like these, giving Fury Road an interesting new perspective. Nux’s blind devotion and eagerness to become a martyr for his cause are tiresome at first, but for all his tumors and pale, white skin, he’s a loveable little freak, and as the film goes on, even a relatable one.

 

And of course, you couldn’t have a Mad Max film without at least one mutant chief, a monster stronger and nastier looking than all his underlings.  Imortan’ Joe can stand right up there with the big boys, making Lord Humongous and Master-Blaster from previous films look positively normal. Played by the same actor as the original Max’s Toe-Cutter (nobody can pen villain names quite like George Miller), Joe is quite possibly the most insane citizen of an already crazed wasteland. Morbidly obese, covered with welts, tumors and scars, and with a voice that sounds like Darth Vader talking through a blender, he’s an insane and impressive spectacle of evil.

 

If one flaw can be nit-picked, it’d have to be the sound design. The booming of the drums, shredding of the guitar, and deafening explosions are all impressive displays, but a little finesse could go a long way in making the dialogue more discernable.  During the more frenetic scenes (of which there are many) it gets hard to hear what people are saying. It’s not a big problem though, certainly not enough to derail the film.

 

If it weren’t for the fact I went to a 10:30 showing for Fury Road, I would have turned right back around and watched it again. As it happens, I did go for a second time during the first showing the next morning. It’s a perfect showcase of dystopian fiction, the best genre film in years, and just one of the flat-out best action movies ever made; this is a story made to be seen in theaters, not your laptop or your 6 inch iPod. Get to your local Cinemark, treat yourself to large popcorn and one of those foot-long hotdogs, and enjoy the craziest ride a movie can give you.

 

5 out of 5