Certainly does not hit the heights of Fury Road for me. (Not that I wanted, needed, or expected this to be the same thing, but just that what this is doesn't appeal to me in the same way). The CGI and VFX work here isn't quite as strong as Fury Road's.
That said it's a fun return to the Mad Max universe. It leans heavily into the world building and ends up being a dark, gritty, nasty time all-around, while…
Never quite seems to hit the stride it could (or wants to), nevertheless a fun time. Gosling and Blunt being cute together can’t really make up for a screenplay that doesn’t really give the relationship (and story) any meaningful stakes.
The unfortunate irony is that Leitch is so eager to showcase stunt work (and he does), but then he mostly fails to provide the supporting context for those stunts that really makes us care about good stunt work in the movies: stakes, suspense, story, and careful direction.
