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HATED IT - The longest car chase
I may be the only reviewer on earth who didn’t like Mad Max: Fury Road, but I think I can live with that. Between the endless trek through an incredibly orange landscape (I have sensitive eyes) and pointless 3-D effects, this apocalyptic sci-fi just didn’t do it for me.
Charlize Theron slays as Imperator Furiosa, a deep, tortured, wandering soul and one-armed badass, and it was an absolute pleasure to watch her in a role that required so much action.
Internet commentators say Furiosa represents some sort of feminist ideal, but I find this a little flimsy considering that the film still only shows an either/or dichotomy for women: either you’re beautiful and pure but completely incapable, like the Five Wives that Furiosa must save, or you’re strong and able but unattractive, like Furiosa.
Mad Max, played by English actor Tom Hardy, was flat as can be and, frankly, not much improved after his muzzle was removed.
The only thing I liked was the incredibly-well-built-but-gross-to-look-at pseudohuman characters.
I’m generally an avid fan of apocalyptic sci-fi, but somehow Mad Max just failed to captivate me.
No thanks. – Binwe Adebayo
LOVED IT - A steampunk extravaganza
I’m not sure at what point Mad Max: Fury Road got me in the gut. It may have been the sight of a sweaty, leather-clad steampunk bassist slapping out 80s synth across the Namib desert while hanging from the crank of a two-storey crane attached to a growling monster truck lead by a one-armed desert pirate that led an army of roaring gasoline soldiers.
Or it could have just come down to an unhealthy taste for apocalyptic futurism and the breathtaking vistas of the desert landscape that forms the backdrop of this two-hour cinematic masterpiece.
I’m also a terrible softie when it comes to Charlize, who makes me proud to be South African. Any doubts I may have harboured about the possibility of them ruining a classic like Mad Max dissolved when I saw her apply her armour – a black slick of oil across her eyes like the mask of a modern-day Count of Monte Cristo.
You just can’t help but be seduced by this former plaasmeisie who plays the swashbuckling hero like she was born in the dunes. Dust, leather, blood and gore make this film, for me at least, one that must be watched on the big screen. – Garreth van Niekerk
