Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Mad Max: Fury Road sees veteran director George Miller return to the Mad Max franchise after a 30 year hiatus.

Fury Road is a hallmark in action films. Miller's post-apocalyptic future provides an impeccable backdrop for the crescendo of mayhem present in this movie. From the first scene to the last, there is plenty of spectacular action, vehicular and human. The cinematography is lush throughout. From the opening shot of the lizard being stomped by Max (Tom Hardy) to all the action scenes raging in the desert, the camera-work remains consistently on point. Many iconic shots are to be found in this movie.

75% of the movie consists of action; so much that there isn't an 'action SCENE' present. Any action aficionados will have their expectations transcended while common moviegoers will have their satisfaction met too. What is surprising, however, is the emotional heft of the 25% that remains. Much of it is dedicated to the back story of Furiousa (Charlize Theron) who effortlessly delivers an Oscar worthy performance by mixing brawn with emotion for her internally wounded character.

Nicholas Hoult's Nux, who provides one of the best lines of the film: "It's a lovely day!" at the midst of a crazy thunderstorm consisting tornadoes consisting cars consisting mad humans. Nux is an interesting character in this interesting world and provides plenty of the action by his well... actions.

Finally, Tom Hardy's delivers a subtle performance as Mad Max. For a character whose name is slapped largely in the film poster, he receives barely a page of dialogue minus a monologue at the start. Considering the fact that he wears a Bane-like (see the parallel) mask throughout much of the film, it is surprising how powerful his performance actually is.

In my summary, I mentioned this to be the "Musical of the decade". What I mean isn't the absolutely amazing soundtrack but instead "the guy in the mask furiously shredding a flame-throwing electric guitar while dangling above a mobile wall of speakers that roars through the desert". Imagine that. When all hell breaks loose only accompanied by that as the background music, epic is truly an understatement as a description.

Overall, Mad Max is a gleefully insane symphony of destruction that makes the Avengers seem like misfits and the Fast and Furious crew seem like the Slow and Sweet crew. This action packed masterpiece exhibits no shortage of high voltage, 2,000 horsepower action that also contains of lush cinematography, character development and a satisfactory plot (that works, cause it's 75% action anyways). Mad Max: Fury Road is definitely THE summer movie of 2015!