Fury Road

Inception: A thief who steals corporate secrets through use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a CEO.

Edge of Tomorrow: A military officer is brought into an alien war against an extraterrestrial enemy who can reset the day and know the future.

Mad Max: Fury Road: Some bad guys chase the good guys through the desert.

Fury Road is a spectacle. It is not cerebral or intellectual by any means, and unlike Inception or Edge of Tomorrow, it does not have a fantastical concept that will challenge your view of the world and amaze you with amazing possibilities. Instead, it will show you explosions and cars tossed into a blender full of dust. It is the purest essence of the Action Flick genre.

But here's the thing: It perfected it. The premise is so simple and sounds so bland, but it was executed to a level where it becomes so much more than a mere spectacle. Yes, the action was impressive and easy to follow. The art direction was fantastic and the visuals stunning. But it was also delightfully weird.

There are many incredible little details scattered throughout, that are so off-kilter and utterly strange. Yes, we all know what a post-apocalyptic setting is like, but I don't think I've seen it be so alien before. Kamikaze warriors that spray their mouths with chrome before their sacrifice. A shoe/foot sizer for gas pedals. An accountant with a suit, metal nose covering, and exposed nipples. A collection of women being farmed for milk. And, of course, a guitar flamethrower hooked up to a massive set of speakers.

What's best is that the creators knew how to withold information, teasing you with just enough strangeness to make you wonder what led this world to be the way it is. They didn't tell us what exactly was going on with those hunched-over people on stilts in the marsh. They were just there. For a mere moment. Totally unexpected and not telling their story, but openly inviting you to imagine it for yourself.

Wonderful. I honestly think that too many movies these days try too hard to wrap everything up in a neat bow for the viewer, which kills some of the magic. Boba Fett does not need a back story. He's a badass that just shows up and silently does his thing. Not knowing his name or where he's from or why he's there adds to the allure. The less you know about a character (or setting) can make their presence that much more powerful. We don't know how Empirator Furiosa lost her arm, we don't need to know, and that lack of knowledge makes her character that much more intruiging.

A couple other thoughts:

• I love that at one point the title character goes off to commit badassery and we aren't invited to come along. He just goes and comes back. That, to me, somehow shows the confidence of the film makers and cements just how awesome this guy is. Showing the action would've just dulled things and made it less interesting.
• Traumatic flashes spliced in over chaotic action. Intense, vivid colour palettes. Slightly sped-up film. The whole thing together turns into this wonderfully surreal nightmare.
• The 'cars' (if you can call them that) were amazing.
• I don't think I've been so riveted in my seat and exhausted by the end since I saw Inception in theatres. The whole movie just kept on going, building towards and explosive finish.
• I think Tom Hardy 'evolved' Max in a pretty solid direction. In the previous films, he seemed like a bit of a loner desperado with a steel gaze. With the latest iteration, I get the feeling that Max is lonely and troubled, and his human thoughts and feelings are all he has to keep himself company. True, there wasn't really any character development over the course of Fury Road, but I get the feeling that a vivid portrait of Max was painted over the duration.
• Face masks, a prosthetic arm, a leg brace... It was fantastic how humans and machines were intertwined, especially among the three main characters. Some great mirroring going on there.
• Dat colour palette. Yellow, orange, red. Then absolutely blue. Then yellow, orange, red. Green made an appearance three times - at the beginning, middle, and end.
• Great framing and great cinematography. Sometimes it was striking, and sometimes it just added to that sense of a unrelenting nightmare.

There's more. I'm sure there's more - I get the feeling that so much love was put into the small details in this film that I might need another screening or two in order to fully appreciate it. It's dense. Dense with action, characters, intrigue, chaos, art direction, and strange little cues. For a 'bad guys chase the good guys' movie, you can't ask for much more.

-Cril

When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide

And I stop and I turn and I go for a ride

And I get to the bottom and I see you again

Well do you, don't you want me to make you?

I'm coming down fast but don't let me break you

Tell me, tell me, tell me your answer

You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer

Look out!

Helter skelter

Helter skelter

Helter skelter

Beatles - Helter Skelter