What a Lovely Day for Mad Max
Posted on April 30, 2015 by Abril Chuvac in Entertainment
Peter Galindo
Chronicle Reporter
Mad Max wants to be an amazing, but at the same time over-the-top action, movie and it accomplishes just that. Mad Max: Fury Road is the fourth installment in the Mad Max series which is over thirty years old. Despite being slow at some parts Mad Max has exceeded my expectations as a movie. Going into the movie, I did not know what to expect, but when I came out I was impressed.
The movie is set in a post apocalyptic earth in a place known simply as “The Wasteland.” You can tell by the name that it is just a desolate place with no water and is just a barren desert. The movie starts of with Max (Tom Hardy) getting captured by the main antagonist’s goons that do his bidding, Max eventually teams up with a woman named Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) and they begin a journey running away from the main antagonist Immortan Joe. I will not give too much of the plot away so I will stop right there. The plot is simple and you will not be getting anything complicated or overly convoluted. This is as simple as they get. The aspect the movie really shines in is the cars and action sequences.
Most of this movie takes place either in a car or a truck. There are very few scenes where people are not in or around their vehicles. The main premise of this is that the Wasteland is so expansive, there is no other way to get around. It is very dry and the need for water is shown very early on. The vehicle designs are simply amazing. People truly get a feel for how ruthless people have become to survive. There are certain “features” that each of these cars have that are used to either deflect attackers, or attack other people as well. This made for some amazing action scenes that were quite exciting as cars were blowing up and popping each others tires with spiked rims. The use of practical effects was amazing, there was very little CGI used relative to what movies use these days, and it gave the movie a tone of a movie filmed in the 80s. One more thing I have to mention about the vehicles is that there was even a truck with a man that had only one purpose and that was to play electric guitar. This gave the movie more of an over-the-top tone that I mentioned earlier as well as made the soundtrack interesting.
The soundtrack for the movie was all around satisfying as it usually fit the situation at hand, except in some cases it was absolutely off. There were moments where there was inspirational music playing something that sounded like it should be played in a drama movie about a sports team, not this movie. Besides the occasional couple of tracks that did not work, I was very satisfied with the soundtrack.
Overall this movie was impressive, and it really gave me a “good ride” for my money. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who likes action, or post apocalyptic movies, or anyone who is a fan of the Borderlands video games will definitely enjoy this movie. Despite a love story that was not necessary between a couple of the characters, as well as problems with the soundtrack, I was impressed. This movie deserves eight cars modified for death, out of ten.
