Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by geoffkait (M) on May 20, 2015 at 12:01:09

In Reply to: RE: The new Mad Max flick looks like it might be good. Agree/disagree? ;-). Nt posted by geoffkait on May 15, 2015 at 11:17:28

But none of that should remotely imply that the action here is lost in the message. The pacing, the sound design, the editing, the music (courtesy of Junkie XL and some of Joe's freaks who play drums and electric guitars during the action), and even the emotional stakes are all so far above average that they make just about any other car-chase movie look like a quaint Sunday drive by comparison. The first chase in "Fury Road," as Joe's men catch up to Furiosa and her precious cargo, is one of the most remarkable action sequences in film history. And that's really just a warm-up. It's no exaggeration to say that, if you think something in "Fury Road" is the most breathtaking action stunt you've seen in years, you really need only wait a few minutes to see something better. This is a movie where you keep thinking that its reached its apex and then, inexplicably, that moment is left behind in the dust.

From the very beginning, Miller and his team do something that so many other filmmakers fail to do—they define the geography of their action. Rather than merely tossing the camera around in the vain hopes of creating tension, they constantly give the viewer overhead shots and clear physical dimensions of what's happening and where we're going. And then they blow it all up. There are dozens of crashes, explosions, and flying bodies in "Fury Road," and yet the piece never gets repetitive, especially as the emotional stakes increase with each sequence. Miller knows when to let the pace coast when it needs to, which is rarely, and then he pushes the pedal down and plasters you to your seat.

"Mad Max: Fury Road" is an action film about redemption and revolution. Never content to merely repeat what he's done before (even the first three "Mad Max" have very distinct personalities), Miller has redefined his vision of the future yet again, vibrantly imagining a world in which men have become the pawns of insane leaders and women hold fiercely onto the last vestiges of hope. "Fury Road" would be remarkable enough as a pure technical accomplishment—a film that laughs in the face of blockbuster CGI orgies with some of the best editing and sound design the genre has ever seen—and yet Miller reaches for something greater than technical prowess. He holds aloft the action template that he created with "The Road Warrior" and argues that Hollywood shouldn't have been copying it for the past three decades, they should have been building on it. "Fury Road" is a challenge to a whole generation of action filmmakers, urging them to follow its audacious path into the genre's future and, like Miller, try their hardest to create something new.