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Initial Thought: I have been waiting for this since the name was mentioned. I have seen every film so far. I actually started with Beyond Thunderdome and then went and watched the first two. They all were pretty good, but Beyond Thunderdome was my favorite. It might have been because I grew up a fan of Tina Turner because of my dad. Also you just gotta adore MasterBlaster. So it's only right that I'm seeing this with him since he started me on this series.
Characters/Acting: Tom Hardy takes Mel Gibson's place as the iconic Mad Max. It's not hard to believe seeing as he is becoming one of the most prominent stars in action and thrillers. What is interesting here is Charlize Theron becoming a badass heroine. She has taken on a few action roles before, but this really looks like her best yet. I love that Hugh Keays-Byrne is back in the series obviously playing a new yet really awesome looking villain. It looks like we have a new MasterBlaster type of character here. I hope he is as adorable as the previous was. Nicholas Hoult is such a fun guy to watch and he looks quite lovely here! Interesting decision that most of the girls in the convoy are models or daughters/granddaughters of famous musicians. Well I was wrong about the Master Blaster kind of character. We can't have everything we want. The mutants were all unique and awesome looking. Immortan Joe's wives were all great and definitely nice to look at rather than seeing all the mutated people throughout. Immortan Joe was a pretty crazy looking villain and he was also quite a disturbed fellow. The acting was great. Tom Hardy really pulled off the Mad Max personality. Nux was definitely my favorite character though with Max and Furiosa not far behind. That being said I absolutely loved all the characters here.
Story: From what I hear this is mostly just a really badass two hour car chase through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. As it was said this was definitely a two hour car chase. It was pretty awesome that way too. This was the most action packed Mad Max yet. The cars were just plain awesome especially the one with The Doof Warrior. The visuals here were quite remarkable and beautiful to look at. I love that most of the effects are practical and the explosions are real! These days most actions movies rely too heavily on CGI. I watched a preview the other day for the Point Break remake where a rock-slide is very clearly CGI. Some of the scenes here were definitely gross, but kind of fun and amusing. One scene in particular involves milk. This movie isn't actually about Max as he really is here to move along Furiosa's story. That didn't bother me much. Max barely talked much in the original series. He was always the badass of very few words. So it was an interesting way to do things, but it was quite effective. There are a lot of great shocker moments throughout that will just put you at the edge of your seat. The ending was just as good as the rest of the movie. Trust me that you will not want to leave during any scene.
Directing/Writing: George Miller returns to direct and co-write a long overdue sequel to the Mad Max saga. It's hard to believe this guy did the Happy Feet movies (which were at least average) and the horrible Babe sequel. Brendan McCarthy is mostly known for graphic novels and writing episodes of ReBoot. Nick Lathouris who also co-writes was originally in the first Mad Max film as Grease Rat. This is how a movie that takes seventeen years to finally get made should be made. George Miller is a true master of the arts.
Final Thought: "Oh what a day. What a lovely day!" That pretty much sums up the fun of this movie. It's jam packed full of action from start to finish. Don't go into this with a full bladder as you will barely ever catch a moment to go to the restroom without missing something awesome. The nostalgia this made me feel was great. I really felt like I was watching Mad Max like it never left. I laughed. I cheered. I was disgusted. I was caught off guard. I had a blast. It is by far the best of the series. If you haven't seen this then what the hell are you waiting for. Get on with it and remember to have a lovely day!
