One of the things I hate about new superhero movies is that they spend the first twenty minutes of the film on an Origin Story. Dammit, doesn’t everyone already know that Batman’s parents were gunned down in an alley and Superman was raised by a couple of hicks in Kansas?
Well, [easyazon_link identifier=”B00XOXDXV8″ locale=”US” tag=”londonthoug-20″]Fury Road[/easyazon_link] wastes no time telling us how Max ends up in a desert snacking on a two headed mutant lizard. We have a handful of flashbacks of a little girl begging Max for help and then off we go on our two hour chase scene. Fury Road is completely over the top. It has no contact at all with any kind of reality, and that pretty much works for the story.
Like Waterworld and A Boy and His Dog, you just have to go with it. I hesitate to call it a story, so I’ll call it the reason for the chase, is that a woman driving a fuel truck helps a madman’s harem escape. Oddly, he has only five wives, and he is willing to let everyone who follows him die to get them back.
Mad Max Fury Road really feels like an old movie from 80s. It’s filled to the gills with ridiculous costumes and cars that look like a bored teenage mixed up all his Revel models and just slapped something cool together. At the same time it feels like a trip to Burning Man and Circ du Soleil. Easily the most bizzaro touch is a car made of amplifiers with a guitarist chained to the front of it and six kettle drums on the back.
I liked it. Lots of things blow up. Lots of cars crash. And we have clear cut good guys and bad guys.
