Mad Max: Fury Road

Let's take a minute to talk about the gloriousness that is Mad Max: Fury Road. I recently went to see this with a friend about a week ago and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. Once the movie ended and the credits started to roll the whole audience just sat there in silence for like three minutes. It was that good. I love when films can do that to me and just make me really like it. Most movies I can see where it's going and they're pretty predictable but this one wasn't that.
I will start by saying that I have not seen the original Mad Max films and knew nothing about this movie going in. I had seen like one trailer and I didn't really get anything from it besides Tom Hardy was in it. Sometimes it's fun to go into a movie with no expectations. I had heard from Facebook that it was a good movie so I was curious as to how. I was not disappointed. I'm a fan of action movies and I really enjoyed that this movie had action with a purpose. It wasn't just useless action with a weak storyline.
I will admit that for the first half hour of the movie I was thinking, "what the fuck am I watching?" Once I got past that, it turned in to a really good story. What I found most interesting is that the director, George Miller, chose to just give the audience all the pieces they needed to put the story together without actually telling them. There is very little dialogue throughout the film but I really didn't think about that until after the movie. It just didn't feel that way watching it. Probably because I was anxious the whole movie. That's the sign of a good movie. If the director can get the audience to completely lose themselves in a story that has little dialogue then he has won. It just made sense in the film. There was a lot of action and blowing up things but, there were a couple times that I actually gasped and put my hands over my mouth. I don't normally do that at movies but I got really into Mad Max.
Alright, on to technicals. My one complaint is obvious green screen at one part when Tom Hardy's character, Max (duh), is coming out of a cave on a cliffside. It pulled me out of the moment noticing that and especially because it should have been super easy to just put him in front of a rock face and edit it that way. Maybe the budget was spent and it was at the end of the shoot. The fire was okay but not great. I can look over that because it didn't bother me and was about as good as CGI fire can get. The best part of the film was the color grading. It just totally blew me away. I recently watched a youtube video on how the colorists did the color grading and it's just beautiful. The rich, saturated colors were impressive and really added to the film. The night scenes were cast very blue and, again, beautiful. I noticed a common color trick of contrasting blue cast with usually orange light. There was one scene at night that had a kerosene lamp that really used that contrast. Another scene had the characters drive in to a sort of sand storm and it seemed to flash black and white with the lightening strikes. It was so brief that I couldn't tell if it was black and white or just blue. Either way it was visually stunning and creative.
Now to plot/characters. My number one reason for going to see Fury Road was Tom Hardy and I have no shame in that. Total fangirl right here and I loved him in his role. He has this way of grunting that says more than any line of dialogue and the little actual dialogue he had in the film was, to me, funny or touching. He does a really good job of getting into the character he is supposed to be portraying. Charlize Theron was also very good and this was probably the best role i have ever seen Nicholas Hoult in. Second tier actors were also good. At first it seems like Max is going to be the big hero saving some females but really they end up saving themselves. There are definitely some female empowerment under tones in Mad Max and it's great. Like I mentioned before, the director actively engaged the audience. Little exposition was given and the audience is just forced to go with it and figure things out by themselves. Miller does this in a way that isn't confusing, except at the beginning, and it treats the audience like they aren't stupid. This is something more movies should do. He gives the audience everything they need in a way that doesn't compromise the action. The director could have done more voice over or shown more flashbacks but the movie does not need it. The clues are in there. They just aren't handed to you on a silver platter. I have to say, on a scale from 1-10, I would give this movie an 8.5. Just go see the movie already. I'm anxious for the next time I get to enjoy it again.