Critics rating: 3.5 Stars

Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Zoë Kravitz, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton.

Direction: George Miller.

Produced: Doug Mitchell, George Miller, P. J. Voeten

Written: George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nico Lathouris

Genre: Action.

Duration: 120 Mins

For a navigator through the post-apocalyptic, dystopian wasteland, Former MFP cop Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) manages to find an unsavoury bunch of people and get entangled in their business. From the loving family man in the 1979 classic, he is a “man reduced to a single instinct: to survive”.

He wanders alone in the desert after losing those he loved, his introduction done in a gravelly Sin City-esque voiceover. Unlike the second film, this one does not explain to the uninitiated viewers why the world came to be so. It’s Mad Max. There is little water and gasoline. That is all the exposition you need.

We do not get much of a backstory on the eponymous hero except for some wailing, epiphanic flashbacks of the dead when he gets captured at the Citadel. It is a fortified town, abundant in water and other resources but made scarce by their leader Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne, who played Toe cutter in the film instalment), resembling a primeval Bane.

Max is used as a living blood bag for the sickly War Boy Nux (Nicholas Hoult). He is dragged into an inadvertent chase behind Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), a Citadel resident who is attempting to escape the vicious regime. There is more to her motivation than just freedom.

These little character intricacies are mere add-ons during the course of the running time. It does not matter. There are enough of exploding vehicles, teeth-gnashing vengeful mercenaries and stunts (thank you, Guy Norris) which scarcely allow breathing room, much less any deeper explanation.

 

Fury Road is a glorious return to the Australian outback of leather-clad warriors (here, invoking Valhalla from Norse mythology). The frenzy of the prequels is replicated better with the rapid motion edits, crackerjack action and the villains’ very own travelling band, complete with drums and a fire-spewing guitar.

The pacing is a tonal shift from the long takes of the predecessors and the blinding glare of desert sand. Here, it is loose cannon intensity and the landscape is a muted orange hue.

Fury Road is what you get when director George Miller has a large budget to play with. The previous instalments are classics on a limited allotment. You do not need to see the earlier films to understand this one. There is little to comprehend and everything to behold. The fiery, ferocious vistas do not kickstart the series, they rev it up and hit it out of the park.

 

For those not taken in by the prior films, this one might convert you. It is suited for a more contemporary audience, serves as a befitting homage to Mel Gibson’s trilogy and is a spectacular return for the director. Fury Road is Fast and Furious in leather. Except that it is better.