Perhaps this joke was a bit too early considering we gave you all only a weekend to catch the film. And maybe even after watching it you still don't get it. Well, we're still a bit fresh, so cut us some slack.
Mad Max: Fury Road really snuck up on us. At first, it looked like a petty attempt to revitalize a franchise that had disappeared for decades. It looked like a lazy way to grasp on to a story that worked back when Mel Gibson still had a career. And then the cast came out...Tom Hardy. Charlize Theron. They have my attention. Then the teaser came out. Looks interesting. Then this fantastic piece of trailer carnage came out and it had us setting aside the 15th.
Fury Road did not disappoint. It was a fantastic film that blended beauty and butchery into a rock opera of carnage. It was pure, unadulterated action orchestrated with a fantastic score and choreographed like a bloodbath ballet. The vehicles, the characters, the cinematography...It all performed seamlessly like the bastard child of a Broadway musical and a post-apocalyptic horror epic, raised by a half-mad 80's action junkie.
The real gem of the film was no surprise walking in. The always-in-motion set pieces put the highway scene from Matrix: Reloaded to shame. It looked like every member of the cast and crew fine-tuned their responsibilities for a single performance. The pieces were so well designed, you couldn't help but feel the environment with you as you sat in the theater. Even the sand storm scene that brought the CGI to full throttle didn't ruin the experience, though it was nice to get that out of the way early on so we could truly enjoy the carnage this film had to offer in broad daylight.
But still I find myself baffled by this film's rating on rottentomatoes.com. It seems strange that a film of this type would be held to such a pedestal. There are various reasons that could be given for its higher esteem, but none that I would conclude haven't been met by other films of a similar caliber. Regardless, it is a very entertaining film that deserves your attention at the box office.