Warning: Spoilers ahead. Specially in the third paragraph. Actually, make this a seven and 1/2 stars because the action and special effects are that well executed. The acting was not that bad ether. In fact, the acting was rather good. Other than that, the title of this review basically says it all. What little story there was, was mostly contained in the garbled section of the first few minutes of the film and starts to develop only a little more and slowly after, I guess, the first fifteen minutes of the car chase and then only to set up the next section of the chase. And the chase begins right away. The film is wall to wall action from beginning to end.
What is nice about this film is that it ties the previous Mad Max films together by having Gas Town reappearing in this film ("Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior"), the masked warlord Immortan Joe closely resembling the insane masked Humungas from "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior", and Mad Max being haunted by the memory of his dead daughter or child of another Mad Max film (there is at least one kid in every film) ("Mad Max" and "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome"). I even think, but not sure, Bartertown from Thunderdome shows up on a map Max is making in the film. The first few garbled minutes of the film is basically that Max (Tom Hardy) is captured by a band that fallows the insane and sick (physically and mentally) orders of a masked warlord named "Immortan Joe", (Hugh Keays-Byrne), and is taken to a fortress called "The Citadel". Max is branded as property and is used to provide blood (called a 'blood bag' in the film) to a young warrior named "Nux", (Nicholas Hoult), who believes Joe's twisted theology based on Norse mythology and cars. Nux was led to believe he is dying and wants to go out in a blaze of glory in service to Joe. Immortan Joe controls the people of the Citadel by controlling and rationing out the abundant the water supply at the Citadel. He tells the people not to get addicted to water and to do without. Isn't he a nice guy??? ... NOT!!!! Joe keeps a harem of wives because he wants a son that he can rise as a warlord and heir to his kingdom. The wives do not want to live with him and had arranged to escape in a secret compartment inside a tanker/war machine driven by Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) while on a supply run to Gastown. Joe finds out about the escape and decides to give chase. Nux convinced a friend to let him join In and let him take his blood bag with him. Well there you have it. The first five to ten minutes of the film as best I could figure it out. From there on, you are on your own. I will say that there is one inescapable silly element in the film. It is that one of the chase vehicles that Joe has with him is a rig with a group of drummers pounding war drums in the back with a heavy metal rock guitarist in front playing a guitar with a flamethrower attached to it. It looks great at first but it becomes a sick glitch as the film wears on and how the director spends way to much screen time on it. And all it was for was to give Max a chance to get his hands on the flamethrower. I have seen this movie in 2d but I can tell you, if you are planning to see it in 3d, a lot (and I do mean a lot) of things are thrown at the audience. If you like that in 3D, enjoy.
What is nice about this film is that it ties the previous Mad Max films together by having Gas Town reappearing in this film ("Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior"), the masked warlord Immortan Joe closely resembling the insane masked Humungas from "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior", and Mad Max being haunted by the memory of his dead daughter or child of another Mad Max film (there is at least one kid in every film) ("Mad Max" and "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome"). I even think, but not sure, Bartertown from Thunderdome shows up on a map Max is making in the film. The first few garbled minutes of the film is basically that Max (Tom Hardy) is captured by a band that fallows the insane and sick (physically and mentally) orders of a masked warlord named "Immortan Joe", (Hugh Keays-Byrne), and is taken to a fortress called "The Citadel". Max is branded as property and is used to provide blood (called a 'blood bag' in the film) to a young warrior named "Nux", (Nicholas Hoult), who believes Joe's twisted theology based on Norse mythology and cars. Nux was led to believe he is dying and wants to go out in a blaze of glory in service to Joe. Immortan Joe controls the people of the Citadel by controlling and rationing out the abundant the water supply at the Citadel. He tells the people not to get addicted to water and to do without. Isn't he a nice guy??? ... NOT!!!! Joe keeps a harem of wives because he wants a son that he can rise as a warlord and heir to his kingdom. The wives do not want to live with him and had arranged to escape in a secret compartment inside a tanker/war machine driven by Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) while on a supply run to Gastown. Joe finds out about the escape and decides to give chase. Nux convinced a friend to let him join In and let him take his blood bag with him. Well there you have it. The first five to ten minutes of the film as best I could figure it out. From there on, you are on your own. I will say that there is one inescapable silly element in the film. It is that one of the chase vehicles that Joe has with him is a rig with a group of drummers pounding war drums in the back with a heavy metal rock guitarist in front playing a guitar with a flamethrower attached to it. It looks great at first but it becomes a sick glitch as the film wears on and how the director spends way to much screen time on it. And all it was for was to give Max a chance to get his hands on the flamethrower. I have seen this movie in 2d but I can tell you, if you are planning to see it in 3d, a lot (and I do mean a lot) of things are thrown at the audience. If you like that in 3D, enjoy.