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First Reactions To Mad Max: Fury Road Are Highly Positive

Though Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller's long-anticipated return to the dystopian wasteland of The Road Warrior/Mad Max franchise, isn't due to hit theaters until May of 2015, Warner Bros. screened a cut of the film last night in Burbank.

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Though Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller’s long-anticipated return to the dystopian wasteland of The Road Warrior/Mad Max franchise, isn’t due to hit theaters until May of 2015, Warner Bros. screened a cut of the film last night in Burbank.

The version of the film screened, which clocked in at approximately two hours, still has some special effects work and sound design to be completed, in addition to a 3D conversion. Despite its unfinished nature, those in attendance had very positive things to say about Fury Road, which finds Tom Hardy taking on the role made famous by Mel Gibson.

Randy of Action Figure Times posted the following reaction on his site:

This IS the kind of Mad Max II/The Road Warrior on steroids, go-big-or-go-home, bug-nuts crazy, toss-you-in-the-deep-end mythology and put-it-all-out-there-in-case-we-never-make-another-one Mad Max Fury Road.

This movie feels like thirty years of Miller holding in passion for a world that he built so long ago, exploding on the screen. You, remember the third act of The Road Warrior, the bad-ass truck chase that is still hailed as a masterpiece of filmmaking? You do? Good.

Because that’s what this whole movie pretty much is-and it works! A chase that goes long and deep into the heart of Miller’s post-apocalyptic world, trying to get out of the Wasteland. It opens up and hardly slows down…

Its beginning feels like part Miller’s burning passion bursting forth after so long and part a gift to those who’ve waited so patiently for a “real” Mad Max movie. You could watch only the first act as a die-hard fan and you feel like the wait has been worth it.

From Tom Hardy’s Max to Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa to Nicholas Hoult’s Nux to Hugh Keays-Byrne’s Immortan Joe, they are all characters of the world, there to move Miller’s world into all-new ground.

Other attendees also had praise for the film. Adam Lamar tweeted:

And blogger Kevin West wrote:

Just came from a year in advance screening of “Mad Max Fury Road”. Weird to not see Gibson as Max but Tom Hardy holds it down just fine. Great action sequences and amazing post apocalyptic vehicles and costuming with awesome makeup.

So, all in all, if these first reactions are to be believed, it sounds like Miller has a hit on his hands with Mad Max: Fury Road. A new synopsis for the post-apocalyptic action film recently landed online, and you can check it out right here:

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD is the fourth film of George Miller‘s Road Warrior/Mad Max franchise co-written and directed by Miller. The post-apocalyptic action film is set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and most everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life.

Within this world of fire and blood exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order… There’s Max (played by TOM HARDY from The Dark Knight Rises), a man of action and a man of few words, who seeks peace of mind following the loss of his wife and child in the aftermath of the chaos.

And… Furiosa (played by CHARLIZE THERON from Prometheus), a woman of action and a woman who believes her path to survival may be achieved if she can make it across the desert back to her childhood homeland.”

Sadly, the long post-production period on the film means that the rest of us will have to wait until next year to see how Miller handled the challenges of returning to the Mad Max universe.

In addition to Hardy and Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road stars Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Hugh Keays-Byrne, and Nathan Jones. It opens May 15th, 2015, and we can’t wait.