'Mad Max: Fury Road' a breathtaking event film to remember

I quite enjoyed the latest Avengers film but now, just a couple weeks after seeing it, very little of it sticks with me. I will never be able to say the same about Mad Max: Fury Road, which I saw on its opening day last night. It's a visually stunning and inventive action masterpiece that stands out as a real original.

In this cynical age where every great movie eventually suffers a backlash, I am sure this film too will have its detractors.

The critics adore it -- but I have no clue if audiences will, it demands that its audience not only pay attention but immerse itself in a world that is not spoonfed to you.

It's a product meant to make money, of course, but it's also clearly the work of an artistic genius -- director George Miller -- who is bursting with insane ideas, and who has imbued a non stop chase movie with some rich themes and acting gravitas.

I can't recommend this movie more -- and can already say with great confidence that it will likely go down as one of the best films of the year. Save for The Force Awakens, there might not be a film I was anticipating more and this delivered beyond my wildest dreams.

If you've never seen the original trilogy, take a weekend afternoon and treat yourself, but that said, not having seen those films will not detract from your enjoyment of this new one. Tom Hardy plays the title character with the same minimalist bravado Mel Gibson did and the visual aesthetic is much the same, if albeit enhanced by modern technology.

Tom Hardy

It you think you're not an action person -- trust me -- there is much to appreciate about this film. Miller shoots action unlike any other filmmaker -- it's gorgeous to look at but also brutally frank and even witty. There are sequences where I genuinely couldn't believe my eyes because I knew what I was watching was done for real, without the aid of CGI and as far as I know, no one died.

The plot is gratefully simple -- too many modern summer blockbusters, and yes Marvel movies, make the mistake of making their movies needlessly complicated and bloated with too many characters.

Fury Road has Max, a drifter/fugitive who reluctantly teams up with Furiosa (a striking and memorable heroine played wonderfully by Charlize Theron) in an escape plan from a very creepy gang of bad guys. The film has a very nice, subtle feminist streak and and a general concept about rising up against corrupt leaders.

That's it. Now, again, some audiences just aren't going to get it. The film is moody and has very little exposition or character development. The dialogue -- a throwback to the originals -- seems almost foreign at times, with it's odd turns of phrase and interior logic.

Still, I hope this film is the hit it's supposed to be. Although it's essentially a reboot of the post apocalyptic series that ended thirty years ago, Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the freshest, most original movies of its kind I've seen in years and I'd love to see more.