‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Review Roundup: Critics Give Reboot Two Thumbs Up

Mad Max: Fury Road, starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, is the fourth action-packed film in director George Miller‘s post-apocalyptic series.

In Mad Max: Fury Road, Hardy stars in the titular role as Max Rockatansky. He’s captured by the War Boys, who keep him with them at all times because he’s a universal blood donor. He’s strapped to the roof of their vehicle when they run into Imperator Furiosa (Theron), who has War Boy leader Joe’s five breeding wives. Furiosa means to take them to the “Green Place” to start a new life, but she’ll have to fend off Joe first. Thankfully, she finds an ally in Max, who escapes from his captivity.

Mad Max: Fury Road Reviews

“Mad Max: Fury Road” will leave you speechless, which couldn’t be more appropriate. Words are not really the point when it comes to dealing with this barn-burner of a post-apocalyptic extravaganza in which sizzling, unsettling images are the order of the day.Few films immerse us as completely in their universe as “Fury Road” does, to often disconcerting effect.” Kenneth Turran, Los Angeles Times

“The long-incubating Mad Max: Fury Road is an R-rated, rocket-
fueled romper-stomper, a nonstop chase epic powered by a reported $150 million budget and Miller’s indisputable visionary genius. Hardy and Theron make a dynamite team, but this is Theron’s show. She’s a knockout in a sensational performance that blends grit and gravity and becomes the film’s bruised heart and soul. The feminist core may surprise fanboys, but it lifts the film far above the testosterone herd.” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

“Mad Max: Fury Road, a kinetic, hallucinatory, boldly feminist chase flick that, with its vibrant color palette, harrowing stunt work and show-don’t-tell style of yarn-spinning, leaves every Marvel movie and every Fast & Furious in its irradiated dust. It’s the most visceral blockbuster since Gravity, and it reinvigorates the doomsday genre like no film since The Matrix.” – Chris Klimek, NPR

Mad Max: Fury Road provokes the same question from its audience again and again: What can you show me next? The answer is always the same: Something even more outlandish and imaginative than what you just saw. George Miller […] has upped the ante on his post-apocalyptic steampunk vision. Fury Road is louder, bloodier, grimier and more relentless than its predecessors. But it’s never needlessly flashy.” – Chris Vogner, Dallas Morning News

Mad Max: Fury Road is currently in wide release. Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Josh Helman, Zoë Kravitz, Rose Huntington-Whiteley, and Riley Keough also star.