Mad Max: Fury Road

        To wrap up my look into the Mad Max franchise, well there’s really no better supposed finale like Fury Road. There’s a 30 year period where George Miller broadened and made his films more commercially acceptable. I think with Beyond Thunderdome sort of gave us a glimpse of what his films would look like. Additionally, he had a hand with Babe and took control of its sequel. It’s even up for debate if Happy Feet is considered his best film. With Fury Road, nothing is held back with the level of carnage on display. 

1. Chase

        With marathoning each film for the month, it’s like all of them cover a type of film sub-genre. The first is a revenge film, second is an action film. The third one is more in the lines of a fantasy film with a children’s angle to it. With the recent one, it’s a return to form with hints of The Road Warrior. Knowing that, it’s amplified with today’s technology to be even more insane and easy to follow. 

        Just saying that, you would think that the action makes the overall story inessential. No, if it was just action exclusively then the whole film would just be boring for the casual viewer. So we follow Max as always, he’s haunted by the victims of the past that he didn’t save. A new group of vandals led by Immortan Joe capture Max and use him as a blood bag for his minions called War Boys. Joe calls on new character Imperator Furiosa to make a trade for the village, who in turn escapes leading through a series of chases. 

        As simple as the overall story, there’s nothing carried over from the prior films. Which makes all of the entries independent of each other. For one thing it’s great since there was a 30-year grace period with Fury Road where it can go in either direction. What’s even more interesting is that Max isn’t the one who has the main spotlight. Even though his name is on the title, he has very little screen time. I’ll talk about that in a moment. 

        It's kind of surprising just how the chases start and ends. There’s three of which I counted and they’re different in terms of the context of the story. I feel that since they’re all different, nothing is repeated with how they executed the chase. The first chase leads through massive dust storm that only Australia can create. And it just shows how much the action can go from a 10 to an 11. One thing as well is that it’s readable. There is no quick cuts like something where Michael Bay has a hand since with his action directions, it’s like way too much happening and you have no idea what’s even happening. 

        I’ll talk about Furiosa in the next tab, but I want to highlight the side characters that are given more screentime. With one of them called Nux. He was part of the War Boys, and you can say the odd one out since he’s a believer in what Joe preaches among his clan. Drawing heavily with Norse mythology where Nux wants to have a glorious death. How that ties in with the big picture of a story is that he doesn’t get that. He sees through that and joins Max and Furiosa in their escape from Joe. 

2. Furiosa

        Aside from Max sort of getting a back seat in his own movie, Furiosa steals the show. Just after the movie premiered when it was released on video, she’s featured in the front instead of Max. It just shows who’s movie the film belongs to. I think this is one of those instances where it’s sort of like a passing of the torch films. It became prevalent with other films in the 2010s like Creed and The Force Awakens where you have the new characters sort of inherit a franchise. 

        In this case, Max is trapped to be used as fuel for the War Boys whereas Furiosa leads Immortan Joe’s forces to chase her. She handles herself when she tries to fend off attackers. It makes the action even more exciting knowing that Max can’t do anything. More so that Furiosa also has live cargo as she is transporting Joe’s many wives to safety. Just that first chase shows just how much of a character she is, especially when we see her lead the chase through the storm. 

        Beyond the chase sequences, she’s an interesting character because it’s revealed that she was Joe’s best as far as tactics are concerned. Moreover, during the various conversations that she has with Max, she wants to go to a place called the Green Place. A sort of heaven where the Wives also talk about as well to get away from Joe. It’s reveal is not to surprising considering the world that the whole series takes place in. 

        With the revelation of Furiosa witnesses as well as Nux, it all ties into what I think is the overall theme of the movie. It’s the trauma and hope that makes the movie great when you peel out the layers out of this one. The first three are mostly about humanity, while you can say that the apocalypse angle can tie into trauma. With Max especially, since he lost his family, and he has guilt over the people he couldn’t save. 

        Lastly, it’s rare to have a breakout character in a sequel in a franchise. So much so that with how the movie’s structured, we would think that she would be a one-off character. Just her popularity made Warner Bros. and George Miller create a spin-off when she was younger. On one hand, I feel that it’s unnecessary and just her mystique in the film was fine enough. But I’m more than willing to give Miller the benefit of the doubt to make another worthy entry. 

3. Overall

        Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the best Mad Max films and best action films of the 2010s. Nothing could come close to the level of carnage and character depth than this one.