The first two-thirds make for the most imaginative action movie since SNOWPIERCER. The last third, however, takes the road most traveled.
Go on. Is it that it all ends in an action scene? I found that sequence still had no clear survivor (except for Max) and plenty of main character who potentially won't be alive to celebrate. I also found many of the character conflicts remained the focal point during this section. It wasn't about matching up like-minded opponents like the F&F movies do (or most any other action movie). And there was no way to know for sure what was going to happen once they made it to their destination. A lot of unease during that scene and no final happy payoff.
I find it funny that I'm not supposed to care that the characters are hollow but it seems implied that I should care about the film's theme. Or am I projecting?
The ending is necessary and fine from a thematic standpoint - it ties it all together. However, I don't find the third act to add to the world nor do I see it much different from the first two-thirds. It's literally a retread - they turn around and go back and the action scene from the first third is, essentially, redone. From a purely aesthetic visceral experience, the film, at least for me, feels a bit anticlimactic. The evil baddie is destroyed, majority of the "good" characters live, they return to the kingdom, peace is inferred to be restored, etc.. What I think would be more imaginative is if they didn't turn back and Miller found a third choice. What would that third choice be? I don't know, I'm not the writer/director. But the last third has been done many times before and, other than Max leaving (in which I had the Captain Obvious realization that this was a western), I expected, beat-for-beat, the narrative to its very end. I was hoping even Nux would redeem himself to the baddies and betray the lot, yet that didn't even occur.
Granted, the film has definitely grown on me for its technical accomplishments (regardless of story convention, this is one of the best studio action adventure films in some time) and I am fairly happy with its critical reception. For all the grief with the F&F series, the final sequence in 7, while not surpassing, matches the canyon race in visceral action fun with its sheer ridiculousness and multiple POVs amongst the several battles present in the film.