Mad Max: Fury Road – carnage and chaos from the man that brought us Babe

No back-story, no setup, just straight to the chase. Mad Max: Fury Road does not care how much you know of the wasteland Mel Gibson occupied in the 80s, nor does it care that given how Marvel has conditioned us we were expecting a ‘reboot’ with some origin story. Instead this refreshing film gets on with an already established universe and gives us some crackin’ action without wasting time on introductions.

In a future wasteland of desert where oil and water are scarce, Max (Tom Hardy) finds himself the prisoner of the War Boys, an army of tumor infested psychopaths led by King Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). When driver Furiosa (Charlize Theron) goes rogue and makes a break for freedom with the King’s wives, Max finds himself involved in a chase across endless desert pursued by any kind of off-road vehicle you can imagine and all kinds of weaponry.

I haven’t seen the originals, so a lot of this surprised me. George Miller creates a fairly ‘out there’ universe with Mad Max, full of painted mutants, crazy weapons and guitar playing soldiers. It’s as much sci-fi as it is action, and while the universe might be jarring at first, we quickly forget as we’re thrown straight into some brilliant action.

This film is all about the chase, from beginning to end the tension is constant. Miller excellently develops character during the action, keeping dialogue to a minimum. The landscape is a character, and how they react to it says something about them. Using the desert of Namibia as a canvas Miller paints the stage with his imagination, with never a dull moment.

There isn’t much of Hardy here, which is fine because Theron is on fine form, as is Nicholas Hoult as Nux, a War Boy turned good. It’s a team effort and Miller deserves as much praise for this as anyone and will hopefully see his franchise kicked off again.

The sci-fi might seem a bit dated, but this is a refreshing two hours at the cinema that gets on with the goods. There is some clunky dialogue and an over-reliance on scenes fading out instead of ending, but for the most part this is as good an action film as you’ll see this year.

4 out of 5