I loved it. The violence, car chases, explosions, overlaid with those classical songs lend the trailer a beautiful, twisted irony so necessary in an end of the world movie. Tom Hardy is always incredible, and the sight of Charlize Theron in all her shaved-head, one-armed glory inspired so much hope that this would, indeed, be a great movie.
I couldn't wait for May 15th.
I really needed a great movie. It's been a long time -- Age of Ultron was good, don't get me wrong, but I didn't leave that theatre with the same sense of soul-lifting joy that I associate with a great film experience. I didn't get that bubble in my chest at any point -- hell, I didn't even feel like I would miss anything when I went to pee.
It's been a long time since any of that happened. Kingsman: The Secret Service was probably the last film that came close (Let me pause for a moment to say this: Kingsman was awesome. Absolutely worth your time if you haven't seen it.)
That didn't happen with Ultron, it didn't happen with Days of Future Past or Interstellar, and it definitely didn't happen with The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies or Jupiter Ascending.
But it happened with Max.
I could not look away from the screen. This movie was incredible -- its absolutely frenetic pace combined with great acting and terrifying stunts made it one of the best movies I have ever seen.
The movie opens with the scene above -- just Max, staring out at the wastelands of this gasoline-obsessed, water-deficient future. Within minutes, he is grabbed by the war boys, those screaming, ghost-white warriors in the trailer, and a roaring pace is set, one that doesn't let up until the final credits roll.
At its heart, Mad Max is a chase movie -- Charlize Theron as the bad-ass Furiosa steals the leader, Immortan Joe's, harem of young, beautiful wives and sets off for the 'green place,' a potential paradise of life and water.
They pick up Max along the way, but he's almost a side character -- the whole plot revolves around Furiosa's desperate trek across the desert and the war parties of re-made cars, trucks, and explosives that follow them on their quest.
Reading over my quick summary here, I'm seeing that this doesn't sound all that special. But my words don't do, can't do this movie justice.
I could not look away from the screen -- Bishop got up to pee like 3 times, and each time, he came back asking "What did I miss?" Each time, I'd have to pause and think about it. He never missed much dialogue -- Hardy says maybe a few dozen lines in the whole movie, and Theron not much more -- but the action! the acting! There is so much packed into every second.
At one point, I glanced down to adjust my seat, and I looked back up to realize I'd missed yet another incredible stunt that proved essential to the chase:
I had read going in that George Miller estimates they actually did about 80-90% of the stunts in the film -- as in, only about 10-20% of the movie used CGI to make it happen. I had also heard that the Max franchise was famous for this, which is pretty cool, but I wasn't really convinced.
That lasted until about 15 minutes in, when the scene above happened and I realized that Miller wasn't exaggerating -- they did all this stuff for real.
I don't want to give too many of the major moments away, but there's so much that's real, so much that you can see glimpses of in the trailers only to realize later that it's a real person up there on those poles flying between cars, a real tanker truck driving into a mountainside. I'm not sure I've ever seen a movie with as much dedication to insanity.
One of my favorite stunts is this guy here: the Doof. He's a war boy like many others, but his talent lies in guitar shredding, not driving. Every single thing on his rig is real, and it all works. Miller found a stunt guitarist, dragged him out into the African desert for a month, strung him up on a truck covered in working amplifiers and bungee cords, and then drove him around at 60 mph while he shredded.
Who DOES stuff like that anymore? In any other movie, with any other director, they would have just CGI'd the shit out of that concept. Instead, they've worked their asses off to create it for real, and given movie-goers an experience unlike any other.
That flamethrower attachment? Also real.
Some things, like the giant dust storm they drive through early on, are clearly CGI because they have to be -- I imagine it's impossible to fake something that looks like this:
 |
| See the trucks down there? |
But other things, like Theron's prosthetic arm, I honestly wonder about. The moments when the prosthetic is ripped off are clearly fake -- Theron might have shaved her head for the movie, but I suspect she'd draw the line at losing a limb -- but the arm itself, the rig it's attached to, could be real. It certainly looks and sounds real at times, like when she grabs Max by the leg to keep him from falling out of a speeding truck cab.
That moment, by the way? The one you can see near the end of this trailer, where Max tumbles out only to dangle just about the sand? Also real. And also Tom Hardy, which is unbelievable and AWESOME.
There is so much bad CGI out there -- and it's not exactly invisible. The pixelated nature of the Transformers at the end of Age of Extinction, the soft edges and contorted poses of the heroes in the first ten minutes of Age of Ultron: none of these examples are exactly hiding, and neither are they surprising.
It's the reality of stunts, the ingenuity of pulling them off and the truth of seeing them on the screen, that sets movies like Mad Max apart.
This is not a movie for everyone -- I have no qualms about that.
But it is a movie for me, one of the best I've seen in a long while. And I'm looking forward to seeing it again.
What a lovely day indeed.
Also:
Links if you're like me and interested in learning just about everything about this movie:
Tom Hardy's Craziest Stunt
Four Ridiculous Mad Max Stunts
Told You the Flamethrower Guitar Guy was Real!
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