Watched it tonight. Loved every second. Mad Max movies are kind of a sub-genre of their own, and this is pretty much the apotheosis of it.
A
The villains -- a facade of power and mashed-up superstitious hokum over a reality of literal rot, propped up by the desperate fanaticism of their followers -- are pitch-perfect. Immortan Joe in particular delivered; I didn't think a Mad Max villain could ever again touch the Lord Humongous, but there's a special kind of loathsome malice and hubris about Joe that takes him to the next level. His various underlings repped the madness (and hollowness) of Joe's petty-kingdom quite effectively, too. I liked the little hints you get at every turn of the bottomless well of Crazy that everyone's living in, especially with the stillbirth of Rictus Erectus' never-was little brother: "He was perfect! Perfect in every way!"
The action and the visuals were -- to use an over-used but here quite appropriate term -- epic. I loved that the action was massive but still clearly-rendered and easy to follow, and there were lots of clever little touches in the carefully thought-out battle tactics of Joe's bands of warboys. The story was minimal but functional, pretty much just as a Mad Max story needs to be; Max and Furiosa were a great double-act, each with their own redemption to seek (I loved the way the phantoms of Max's past kept turning up), and Furiosa's fighting grannies, Joe's wives who were wonderful eye candy but also much more, the various other bands of bandits who get into the mix... there's nothing not to like.
(Well, okay, there are a few quibbles -- like Max's accent, or lingering questions about how Furiosa's cybernetic arm is working, or like, if that's really Joe's method of water rationing how did his kingdom last more than a day -- but they're not a huge deal.)
The action and the visuals were -- to use an over-used but here quite appropriate term -- epic. I loved that the action was massive but still clearly-rendered and easy to follow, and there were lots of clever little touches in the carefully thought-out battle tactics of Joe's bands of warboys. The story was minimal but functional, pretty much just as a Mad Max story needs to be; Max and Furiosa were a great double-act, each with their own redemption to seek (I loved the way the phantoms of Max's past kept turning up), and Furiosa's fighting grannies, Joe's wives who were wonderful eye candy but also much more, the various other bands of bandits who get into the mix... there's nothing not to like.
(Well, okay, there are a few quibbles -- like Max's accent, or lingering questions about how Furiosa's cybernetic arm is working, or like, if that's really Joe's method of water rationing how did his kingdom last more than a day -- but they're not a huge deal.)
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That may be the best review yet! 
