It's mostly a high-powered action flick, set in a grim, desolate future wherein gasoline is as precious as gold. Max (Mel Gibson) along with his scraggy dog is en route to somewhere in Australia and needs fuel for his vehicle. A quirky local guy leads Max to a desert locale with fuel, but the place is lorded over by a gang of cutthroat bikers and other marauding simpletons. The heavy-duty action begins here.
I like the story's underlying idea and its apocalyptic vision. The sound of the wind over a barren, lonesome landscape is compelling. And I like the way the story is told from the POV of a surprising character.
On the other hand, the villains are stick-figure characters with no depth. They ride around in/on their roaring go-mobiles with the most pubescent of purposes. And the simple plot is highly repetitive; some character attacks another; a second character attacks someone else, and the cycle repeats, endlessly.
Also, I could have wished for less gaudy costumes. Those helmets, that leather garb, and that awful mohawk haircut make me yearn for "The Sound Of Music" ... well, almost. Speaking of music, the background score here is overbearing relative to what little dialogue there is.
The concept of "The Road Warrior" offers an interestingly grim vision of the future. And some of the film's visuals are compelling. But the accent on non-stop, violent action dilutes this underlying futuristic concept, rendering a film that is mostly about angry simpletons riding around the middle of a dusty nowhere in or on their high-octane crash wagons, sans mufflers.
I like the story's underlying idea and its apocalyptic vision. The sound of the wind over a barren, lonesome landscape is compelling. And I like the way the story is told from the POV of a surprising character.
On the other hand, the villains are stick-figure characters with no depth. They ride around in/on their roaring go-mobiles with the most pubescent of purposes. And the simple plot is highly repetitive; some character attacks another; a second character attacks someone else, and the cycle repeats, endlessly.
Also, I could have wished for less gaudy costumes. Those helmets, that leather garb, and that awful mohawk haircut make me yearn for "The Sound Of Music" ... well, almost. Speaking of music, the background score here is overbearing relative to what little dialogue there is.
The concept of "The Road Warrior" offers an interestingly grim vision of the future. And some of the film's visuals are compelling. But the accent on non-stop, violent action dilutes this underlying futuristic concept, rendering a film that is mostly about angry simpletons riding around the middle of a dusty nowhere in or on their high-octane crash wagons, sans mufflers.