I was a kid when the Mad Max movies came out and I had fun with them (well, Thunderdome was a tad disappointing, but Tina Turner rocked, RIP).
I thought the much later sequel, “Fury Road” that came out about 10 years ago, was kind of fun. It was highly overrated, being on most film critics Top 10 of the year, and being voted the best reviewed movie on Rotten Tomatoes that year. All the critics that have reviewed this so far have liked it, and it will make my Top 10 list – of worst films of the year. It’s a loud, bloated, confusing, dopey story. Being forced to endure two hours and 30 minutes of loud motorcycles and drum pounding from the score, didn’t help matters (at this point, I should probably open my window and yell at those kids to stay off my lawn).
Director and co-writer George Miller is in his 70s, and he’s giving us a movie that seems like it would only appeal to a crowd that loves “Fast and Furious” films.
This is a prequel to “Fury Road” with Anya Taylor-Joy playing the Charlize Theron character. That means we know she’ll survive, and that she’s going to lose an arm somewhere along the way (it was much more fun waiting for Crispin Glover to lose his arm in “Hot Tub Time Machine”).
We watch as battling tribes fight over oil and gas, which led my wife to ask, “If those things are so scarce, why do they drive around and do all this stuff that would waste gas?”
There’s a “Gas town” and a “Bullet Town” and some other place I can’t recall. We watch as trucks go to pick up supplies, and are attacked by marauding bad guys. A few of the chase scenes and stunts are fun, but it got old quickly. Not to mention some of the CGI looked weird to me.
Chris Hemsworth, who looked to be channeling Jeff Bridges, was chewing every bit of scenery as Dementus. He takes a liking to the young Furiosa that was kidnapped, because she reminds him of the daughter he lost (hence he has a teddy bear strapped to his costume). Dementus is cartoonish and one-dimensional, and you wonder how somebody so inept would’ve risen in the ranks.
There was little comic relief, although I did get a big laugh at a character named Scrotus and one named Rectus.
There is an escape Furiosa makes from a den where she would be breeding babies, that had a few plot holes (in fact, a few of her escapes didn’t make much sense).
The final showdown with two characters was horrible.
Tom Hokenborg’s score is good, but I could’ve done with it being a little less loud, and fewer drums at points (damn it, those kids are still on my lawn!).
This gets 1 ½ stars out of 5, and I feel I’m being generous.