This year saw the release of what is quite possibly the best, freshest, action movie of the past few years. This semi-reboot of the venerable “Mad Max” franchise was many years in the making, the brainchild of Mad Max universe creator George Miller, who directed all three previous high-octane adventures. The result is arguably the best entry in the franchise yet.  

Tom Hardy picks up the iconic role where Mel Gibson left off, and owns the role just as much as his predecessor once did. Within the first few minutes of the film, you find yourself fully immersed into Max’s fascinating post-apocalyptic world and you completely accept Hardy in the role of Max (Mel who?). Hardy stars opposite Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa, a powerful character in every sense of the word. She is quite simply enthralling to watch in the role, which is probably destined to become immortalized alongside other strong female  film icons such as Ripley from the ALIEN franchise and Sarah Connor from the TERMINATOR franchise. In a way, this story is more about Furiosa’s plight than it is about Max’s. Max ends up being almost a secondary character in his own movie, which is perfectly fine. He still gets plenty to do. The action scenes are aplenty---in fact, the film delivers one great high-speed action sequence after another. But there are also a few nice quiet moments, which help to fully flesh out the main characters, and help make the audience care for them.

The plot is a fairly simple one: Imperator Furiosa, one of the highest-ranking “generals” of the tyrannical Immortan Joe, decides to free a group of Immortan’s sex slaves and flee the monstrous man in a big rig hauling a tanker full of water, a precious commodity in this arid world. She is soon joined by Mad Max, the wandering hero, who assists Furiosa in her mission to take the freed women to safety in the land of her birth, the so-called “Green Place”.

The memorable villain Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) wears an intimidating mask (which represents a screaming skull) at all times, presumably to hide a facial deformity. He has a horrible skin condition on his back and chest, and needs a breathing apparatus to survive. The irony of this man, who wields such power over the population, is that he is full of physical frailties.

The film is a visual feast, with vehicles created out of various old vehicles, including a monster truck with two Cadillac bodies piled on top of each other---this is Immortan Joe’s “throne on wheels”. Another vehicle is part tank, part 70s car. The landscapes are both familiar and alien, as any post-apocalyptic wasteland should be. And various colorful, eccentric characters populate the movie.

 The film carries a not-so-subtle message about human rights abuses. But the serious subtext is secondary to the main objective of this story, which is to offer a constantly entertaining thrill ride. And it succeeds brilliantly in accomplishing this.

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD is a highly imaginative science-fiction fast-paced adventure, which often moves along at breakneck speed. There are lots of minor details that you might not notice the first time you see the film, but will upon subsequent viewings. Such is the depth of George Miller’s nightmarish, but somehow relentlessly fun, dystopian futuristic vision.  MAD MAX: FURY ROAD is now available on Blu-ray and DVD, and is an experience not to be missed for any sci-fi and action fan.