Mad Max Fury Road (9/10): Geroge Miller's vision perfectly executed in this action pounding orchestra of a film

“As the world fell it was hard to know who was more crazy. Me... Or everyone else.”

To describe George Miller’s fourth post-apocalyptic Mad Max film as crazy would be an understatement because it is one of those rare over the top and unique action films that keeps you at the edge of your seat during its entire runtime with fantastic car chases and inventive fighting scenes that feel like a breath of fresh air in an era dominated by CGI effects. The visuals absolutely stun you and Miller’s amazing vision of this apocalyptic wasteland is beautifully captured through the camera. It may have taken 30 years for this sequel to be released, but it is a huge improvement over Beyond Thunderdome and it manages to build on what The Road Warrior had achieved by introducing a much more chaotic world and colorful characters. Fury Road works both ways as either a sequel or a reboot, and it erases most of the problems I had with Max’s character in the previous film. This is a return to what Miller had done in The Road Warrior, but with a much higher budget to work with and that allowed his vision to be fully fulfilled here. Three more Mad Max films are already in the talks and I can’t wait to embark with Max on his next adventures. This is going to be a very difficult film to top and so far it’s the best 2015 has to offer.

In Fury Road, Tom Hardy replaces Mel Gibson for the lead role of Max, a wondering warrior who’s still coping with the loss of his wife and son as he travels through the post-apocalyptic deserted wasteland. The film begins with a group of bandits chasing Max who eventually capture him and take him to The Citadel, where a ruthless leader named Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) controls the water supply for the masses that have gathered below the heights of the mountain where he is based. Joe doesn’t just control the water supply, he also has a large army of War Boys who he has trained to sacrifice themselves willingly for his service, farming women who breed their breast milk, and even several beautiful wives to give him children. Joe has created quite an empire, and Max has been enslaved to serve as a blood donor for the injured War Boys. We are introduced to this crazy place and its rules as Joe sends his trusted lieutenant, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) on a local errand with her fuel filled rig to Gasland. However, she  decides to take another route and her intentions are soon revealed. She is helping some of Joe’s wives escape from their enslavement promising to lead them to the green lands. When Joe discovers that she has betrayed him he sends all his boys out on a desperate chase and that includes Nux (Nicholas Hoult), one of the War Boys who is using Max as his personal blood bag. Nux chains Max to the front of his vehicle and brings him along the desperate and nonstop chase that ensues. For the next two hours Fury Road is basically one extensive chase that will get the entire audiences’ blood pumping.  

I’ve praised Miller’s vision and his direction, as well as the spectacular action set pieces he has crafted, but it wouldn’t do this film justice if the cast didn’t receive its share of praise as well. It isn’t easy to fill the shoes of such an iconic character like Mad Max, but Tom Hardy pulled it off in a very convincing matter. As much as I like Mel Gibson, I have to give Hardy a lot of praise for delivering such an entertaining performance. He is one of my favorite actors working today. It was also great to see Hugh Keays-Byrne back in a Mad Max film playing a different character this time, but he absolutely nailed the menacing role of Joe. Nicholas Hoult was also a pleasant surprise, but perhaps the greatest addition to this franchise was Charlize Theron’s Furiosa who injects the film with a very much needed feminist tone. Theron delivers perhaps the strongest and most memorable role in the movie and she is one kick-ass action star. It helped that she got a lot of action scenes where she actually got to do something instead of being the damsel in distress. The look of the film is also breathtaking, and the way that Miller envisions this world is simply fantastic. The cool vehicles are built from all sorts of scrappy metals and materials you’d collect in the wasteland. Everything about this film is simply fantastic and the action scenes don’t disappoint one bit. You will feel the rush from the very opening scene and it will continue long after the credits begin to roll. Fury Road is the best film of the franchise.   

My Review: Transformers: The Dark Side of the Moon (4/10)

¨You may lose faith in us, but never in yourselves¨

Somehow after the third Transformers film I have managed to lose my faith in the highly successful blockbuster director Michael Bay and screenwriter Ehren Kruger who have turned one of my favorite cartoons into a terrible franchise. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the first Transformers and thought it was awesome to see those characters brought to the big screen, but the sequels just haven’t managed to live up to expectations and my faith in the series is long lost. As Optimus Prime states, at least I haven’t managed to lose my faith in myself. The special effects are extraordinary and we get plenty of action, but there is no character development whatsoever. The movie is exceedingly long (over two and a half hours) and not even with all that extra time do we get to see some character development. The final showdown is also extremely long, but I guess action fans won`t be disappointed because they get a lot of excellent fights and cool visuals. As for me, I would have liked a better story with more character development. I could have also used a bit more comedy; the jokes just get old after three films and I would`ve really enjoyed something fresh and original in the series instead of relying on John Turturro all over again for the funniest moments. There are some new additions to the franchise, some interesting actors, but none of them are enough to save the franchise. Transformers is one of those movies that is extremely loud and makes a lot of noise, but really never ends up saying anything at all.

Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is back again to save the world for a third time from the Decepticons, although this time he has a new girlfriend, Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley). He meets her at the White House after receiving a medal of honor from president Obama. Sam is out of college, but is having trouble finding a job, although he is living with Carly who is doing well at her new job working as an assistant for a rich man named Dylan (Patrick Dempsey). On the meantime, the Autobots are helping humans maintain peace between them while the Decepticons remain silent. Lennox (Josh Duhamel), who works with the Autobots, receives a call from Ukraine saying that they have found some form of alien life at a former radiation plant. The Decepticons seem to be searching for something and the answers can be found in the past: they have to do with man`s first arrival at the moon. A few select men at NASA have been hiding some key information about what really was hidden at the dark side of the moon: a Cybertronian spacecraft containing some dark secrets. Both Decepticons and Autobots begin a race to uncover this secret that could threaten life on Earth. Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ratchet, and the rest of the Autobots are back along with some new ones, while Megatron leads the Decepticon`s new army.  There are some plot twists so I do not want to give too much of it away, but the main focus of the film is almost entirely on the action and the almost hour long destruction of Chicago.

In this third film we discover that Optimus Prime isn’t the last remaining Prime after all since Sentinel Prime has been unconscious in the dark side of the moon during all these years. When Optimus Prime finds him he revives him with the Matrix; but Sentinel isn’t the only new character in this film, we also have Frances McDormand as Chief Mearing in charge of the NEST operation, the funny Ken Jeong as Jerry Wang, Sam`s co-worker who might know what NASA was hiding doing the trip to the moon, there is also John Malkovich as Sam`s new boss, and then there is Alan Tudyk as the Dutch who is Simmons`s personal assistant. Even though we have all these new characters (remember I also mentioned Carly who replaced Megan Fox, and her boss Dylan) the film still seems more of the same and lacks freshness and originality. None of these characters were able to bring something new to the franchise because the script was mediocre and the film relied solely on the spectacular visuals and action scenes. Much of what Michael Bay puts on film is eye-candy, that is the reason he brought Rosie Huntington-Whiteley to replace Fox as she isn’t much of an actress, but she is just as hot as Fox. I just wished Bay spent the same amount of time he does on the action scenes with the screenplay. The 3D visuals work really well in this film, especially with the action scenes and the destruction of Chicago, but the movie just felt way too long in my opinion. I`m also tired of the open ended finales which suggest there might be another sequel on the way, and wish they just brought closure to the Transformers franchise

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