Why 'Mad Max: Fury Road' was the best Blockbuster this Summer

To Hollywood this past weekend (the Labor Day holiday in the US) officially marks the end of the Summer, and with it the annual 'blockbuster' season.  This summer has been quite a good one at the Box Office, with notable record-breaking successes, some surprising hits, and the usual handful of (mostly unsurprising) misfires.  Whilst most of the blockbusters to hit at the Box Office have been solid, if unspectacular (Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, MI: Rogue Nation), there is one film this summer that has stood out as truly special.  It is a film that, given its journey to the screen, is remarkable it exists at all - the fact it turned out as good as it is, is almost miraculous.  I mean, who would have believed that a new entry to a franchise, coming almost 30 years after the last, with a completely different actor in the lead role, would turn out to be so great?  But 'Mad Max: Fury Road' is a phenomenal achievement, and this year's best blockbuster - here's why.

It is a thrilling, gripping and exhilarating action movie

While a lot of action blockbusters get criticised for weak or underdeveloped plot, there's also been a recent trend of some being criticised for having too much plot - being convoluted, confusing, or being full of holes.  'Fury Road' eschews both issues by being stripped down to almost a primal level - it is a relentless and intense chase movie.  The visuals inform the story without requiring reams of tedious expositional dialogue: the savage, yet strangely beautiful, sun-blasted desert wasteland, and the filthy, sore covered remnants of humanity, both tell the devastation of the post-apocalyptic world in a powerful and haunting way.  The fanaticism of the War Boys, throwing themselves from speeding vehicles with glee to certain death, and the wild and terrifying modifications to the vehicles, all speak of the madness that has consumed the human race after the fall of civilisation.  Using these effective sweeping strokes enables the film to concentrate on fulfilling its chief aim - of being a thrilling, almost continuous chase.  Part of the film's success at this is also down to some 'old school' film making approaches...

Actual people actually leapt from actual moving vehicles that were actually driving at high speeds... how was no one killed making this film??!?!?!

It defies the CGI trend with practical effects and stunts

Let's just stop and think about this for a moment: director George Miller had all these crazy and dangerous looking vehicles built for actual real, took them and the actors to the Namib Desert, then preceded to crash them and fling people from them.  At high speed.  At lethal speeds..!  And Warner Bros happily gave Miller the money and permission to do all this!  And we get to reap the benefits of this approach and the decisions behind it, because - for all the digital wonderment in films like 'Age of Ultron' and 'Jurassic World', seeing real vehicles and real people performing insane, lethal looking stunts added an incalculable amount to the tension and thrill of the continual chase that makes up most of the movie.  I don't think any other film this year had stunts as jaw-dropping as this film - mainly because, as you watch, you can't help but think that someone must have died, or at the very least been seriously injured, making this film?  Surely?!!?  The fact the stunts look so incredibly dangerous adds to the effectiveness of the film's action scenes; you feel there is a real risk of harm to the characters, making the stakes even greater than in many other films today.

Every character is given a sense of humanity

In the midst of all the action and insanity, Miller still manages to give each character a depth that few other blockbusters can manage, even when they have more dialogue or 'plot twists'.  It comes down to simple touches, but even the villains - easy to make stock characters with the depth of cardboard - are depicted with an eye that is at times neutral, even compassionate.  For example, take the first scene we meet central villain Immortan Joe - worshipped as a god by the War Boys, we see a frail old man, covered in weeping sores, reliant on oxygen canisters, before he dons the war plate and body armour.  Other villains are presented similarly, depicting their grotesque deformities alongside clothing  accoutrements that suggest they have some concept of the civilization that has gone, but has been distorted by madness.  Then there's Nux (Nicholas Hoult), who has one of the most convincing character arcs of recent films.  He goes on a genuine journey, so to speak, from a fanatic willing to die for Immortan Joe, having a crisis over what he believes in, before making a decision of whom he should rightly fight for.  The film also subverts a typical romantic sub-plot, when we see one of Immortan Joe's fleeing wives, Capable (Riley Keogh), develop a bond with Nux through a sort of fascination with him.  Instead of having them 'couple up', this platonic relationship is part of what enables Nux to move through his development as a character.

The typical 'romantic' sub-plot was neatly subverted by Nux and Capable's relationship - another thing that sets this head and shoulders above most other blockbusters

This is a film that empowers women

Look, I've previously discussed where I fit in with feminism, let's say I am sympathetic to any point of view that says that ANYBODY who is victimised or oppressed for any reason should not be treated in that way, or should accept that as their 'place' in life.  After growing up watching 'Aliens' I have no problem accepting strong, tough, female characters who are central at driving a plot or a movie - and this film delivers a superb example in Charlize Theron's Furiosa.  She is driven, resourceful, tough, yet compassionate.  She gets some excellent moments, including some the demonstrate ways that she is more capable than Tom Hardy's Max (like when she uses him as the stand for her rifle!), or in different ways to him.  There have been criticisms that she is more prominent than Max, but her centrality does not steal the film from Max - after all, it is  through Max that we get our way in to this world gone mad, and it is Max who leads their return to safety, finally confronting Immortan Joe and the War Boys.  There are some imbeciles who claim the film has an anti-male message, or belittles men.  No, the film treats men and women equally, and if you think that a film filled with cars, action and violence is pandering to feminism, then you're a complete ass-hat.

Furiosa was a revelation in this film.  But does her being a strong female character diminish Max's role at all?  No, he's still an absolute bad-ass, and - as the title suggests - has a couple of screws loose...

'Mad Max: Fury Road' delivered intense thrills, astonishing visuals, and a surprising level of depth, setting it head and shoulders above the rest of the Blockbuster batch this year.  That Warner Bros allowed George Miller to have $130 million +++, to go drive crazy cars around a desert in Africa, 30 years after the last film in the series, is remarkable.  That the resultant film is as outstanding as it is feels almost miraculous, and makes me feel we have been fortunate to witness it..!