I'm starting to realize that maybe Mad Max just isn't my bag. Similar to how I felt about the second one, The Road Warrior, I just finished watching Fury Road and thought it was overrated. It was good, yes, so it wasn't a waste of time or anything like that, but it was no where near what I've heard for years now about it being so amazing or, in several cases (including an ex-girlfriend of mine), one of the “greatest movies ever.”
Yeah no, not by a long shot.
First, the good. Obviously, the production value is top notch, the acting is the best in the series so far, the originality of certain story concepts (don't want to give much away) is commendable, the action is as good as any on film (the movie is mostly action… and it's a long movie), and the humor doesn't take anything away from the drama (balance is important).
The not-so-good, now. Too much CGI early on, and at the end, took me out of it. Some of that stuff was almost cartoonish. The action in many spots was too fast and jumpy, so it's either not believable or not followable. One of the main characters says it's about “redemption,” but I have no idea what they are redeeming themselves for, and we never find out. There's a forced mini-love story, a sudden change of heart with another main character… just cuz, and once again the bad guy is just a bad guy.
I always enjoy Tom Hardy and feel he is perfectly cast as Max, and Charlize Theron carries the seriousness of the whole undertaking on her capable shoulders. I like Nicholas Hoult, too, but I just didn't understand the character he was playing.
All in all, it was still one of the better Mad Max movies out there, maybe even the best one? I just wish I hadn't heard so much near-universal praise about it for so long because it certainly didn't meet the lofty expectations I had.