Mad Max: Fury Road

There are a small handful of movies that were in fairly heavy rotation during my childhood. They were my Dad's favorite movies, "The Blues Brothers," "Animal House," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," and the "Mad Max" trilogy were key among them. So while I haven't watched the Mad Max movies in quite awhile, they are still important movies to me and I was so incredibly excited to hear the original director was in the process of making another movie and Mel Gibson wasn't going to be in it! After the initial SDCC announcement, I derailed a phone call with my Mom to make sure my Dad knew that this film was coming out and demanding he go watch the trailer.

If you look at this movie from a distance, it is about a bunch of rebels who drive away from a place out into the middle of the desert, stop, look around for a moment, and then drive back. Max's entire script could fit on one side of a cocktail napkin. Furiosa's lines could maybe fill up both sides of the same napkin. It isn't a terrible complex movie in its basic structure, and yet it is entirely thrilling and held me enraptured from beginning to end.

I love that practical effects were predominantly used rather than digital effects. I love that while the cast has entirely changed, the heart of this movie franchise is still intact. I love how empowering the female characters are and I tolerate that one of the War Boys looks almost exactly like my cousin which was super distracting.

The story of people enslaved on the hunt for a mythical better place is not a new story. What is new is how the story ends. Instead of arriving in this Other land and finding the fountains flow with milk and honey and all problems are solved, the Other is just as barren and desolate as the land the party originated from. Not all myths of prosperity actually result in the promised land. Sometimes you have to stand and fight to make your home into the promised land.

I've seen this movie twice now and I would gladly watch it again basically any time. It is visually stunning and entirely thrilling.