MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

Visited this dystopian adventure for a single reason….Tom Hardy. He is perched solidly at the pinnacle of my contemporary screen personalities; embarrassingly, it took me ten minutes to realize he was the hood ornament on an apocalyptic war machine, iron-faced, speechless, saved by the “Imperator Furiosa” (solidly, ferociously tempered and toned Charlize Theron); uneducated in the pathos, ethics, gravitas of the “Mad Max” trilogy, I was stunningly mesmerized by the compelling action, undulating Namibian desert, sensational, “Sports Illustrated”, swim-suit candidates, whose gauzy attire lent sensuality to their wizardly warfare skills.

Resonating at the core of this “after the world as we know it” scenario is the mythological Norse kingdom of  “Valhalla”   ruled by “Odin” a god who welcomes slain heroes into its hallowed halls; bequeathed everlasting lionization;  prowess exhibited on the battlefield; in other words “life” is better after a bloody exit. Even more prescient was the empowerment of women in “Mad Max”; recalling  ancient Amazonian warriors, women who sided with the Trojans against the Greeks in the Trojan War;  Furiosa, wearing a prosthesis, is the archetypal goddess of war and protection;  a compilation of “Athena” and “Tara” leading her myriad of female combatants in a battle where the odds are overwhelming in favor of  leather-bound, merciless (even guitar -playing) mad men.

Director George Miller gifts audiences a thrilling and thought-provoking glimpse into a totalitarian society where individuality is stifled, annihilated; anarchy blossoms; and the intrepid few nullify the moral-less majority.

THREE & 1/2 STARS!!!

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