Mad Max: Overheated

“Mad Max: Fury Road,” the direct sequel to the Road Warrior series immortalized by Mel Gibson and George Miller, is not a reboot, but a recasting.

It continues the world we last saw in “Beyond Thunderdome,” but with a new, younger actor, Tom Hardy, taking over the role (as happens in the James Bond films).

Fury Road is getting rave reviews for its intense and relentless action scenes &#8212 think Fast and really, really Furious, the imaginative visuals (which pay homage to the French classic, City of Lost Children), and the performance of Tom Hardy.

I wanted to see more of Mad Max bringing justice to a lawless frontier. I wanted the movie to succeed &#8212 and it does, on some levels. There’s relentless action, imaginative cars and villains, plenty of violence, but it’s lacking character.

Yes, we know Max is haunted by visions of those he couldn’t save, but he is only a reluctant hero here, willing but unable to leave people behind. Of course, that changes, but since this is a sequel, why would Max be willing to unnecessarily leave people, especially women, to a horrible fate? It didn’t make sense.

Hardy is a believable action star as Max, but unlike other reviews, I don’t recall him being mad. He looked scared, pained, determined, but mad? I didn’t see it. I think back to Mel Gibson and there’s no problem picturing him as mad &#8212 extremely mad.

Charlize Theron plays a one-armed, tough-as-nails truck driver named Furiousa. She’s clearly having fun in the role, but are we supposed to believe that the barbarians of the apocalyptic world of Mad Max, in which most women are dead, very old, or blistered by radiation, don’t notice that Theron is beautiful?

The plot is pretty basic. A barbarian tribe/death cult controls the water and land in a certain area. The cult leader, Immortan Joe (played by actor Hugh Keays-Byrne, a familiar figure for Mad Max fans) has harnessed mothers’ milk for trade with local tribes in exchange for fuel and bullets. And yes, the imagery of women being milked is disturbing. Furiosa is supposed to drive a truck full of milk to the bullet farm for the exchange, but she opts to steal the truck and its secret cargo. Immortan Joe gathers his army in hot pursuit.

Mad Max begins the adventure as a captive, but is soon aiding Furiosa and company in their desperate escape.

The movie’s death cult, in which suicide bombers ask fellow warriors to “witness” their sacrifice before they blow themselves up, is said by Director George Miller, to be inspired by the Kamikaze pilots of WWII Japan. But they act an awful lot like Jihadists. The fact that they seek entry into Valhalla, the Nordic hall of the gods, suggests that Miller is being PC here but wanted to avoid current comparisons and the accompanying controversies. Who would have thought the creator of “The Road Warrior” would be accused of political correctness?

Fury Road is certainly a course correction from “Beyond Thunderdome,” but at the end of it all, as the audience around me applauded like I was hoping I’d do, I turned to my friend and asked what he thought. He admitted to being a bit bored.

Maybe like Mel Gibson, I’m just too old for it.

Two and half stars for “Mad Max: Fury Road.”