Moviegoers have been unsure about what to expect from George Miller's "Mad Max: Fury Road," the long-gestating pseudo-reboot of the director's "Mad Max" franchise. The film took a full decade to get a green light, and then was subjected to shooting and scheduling delays. Naysayers have been ready to hit the "knee-jerk" button from the start, but now that the masses have seen actual footage, all bets are off.
"Mad Max: Fury Road" stars Tom Hardy, taking over Mel Gibson's role as Max, the dangerous loner roaming a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland following the murders of his wife and child. The movie also stars Charlize Theron as a female road warrior named Furiosa, who Max ends up fighting alongside despite his desire to be left alone. Miller, at the Comic-Con panel, described "Fury Road" as basically a two-hour car chase with very little dialogue, but the footage showed there's more to it than that.
The three-minute preview it got at San Diego Comic-Con drew overwhelmingly positive reactions from attendees who raved over its "insane" action that looked like nothing fans have ever seen before. The day after the Comic-Con panel, Warner Bros. posted the trailer online (below), though this is reportedly a shortened version of the one seen in San Diego, missing about a minute of footage.
The trailer begins with a long-haired Max being captured by a band of pale-skinned marauders, who tie him up, tattoo a lengthy passage of text on his back and shave his hair. Their reasons for doing this are unknown, but afterwards they make a kind of twisted hood ornament out of him for one of their vehicles, complete with a wicked-looking metal mask over his face. It's hard to say if Max escapes or if he's freed by someone else (Furiosa?), but he quickly sets out for some cathartic revenge.
The vehicle chases are big and loud, and among other things, they show the marauders using a unique method of attack against those they pursue. Their vehicles are outfitted with long, bendable rods which they attach a single person to, and then swing them over their prey to launch an unexpected — and hard to defend against — barrage. There are plenty of Miller's idiosyncrasies, like the lizard in the opening shot, as well as explosions and crashes galore. Also note the heavy use of practical, in-camera stunts rather than digital effects.
"Mad Max: Fury Road" hits theaters May 15, 2015.
