Mad Max: Fury Road

boing
41

Saw the movie the day before the official release, so last thursday- I have a great theatre that gets releases a day early somehow.

I have been waiting for this movie for decades. Mad Max 1-3 are my favorite movies, and Waterworld behind them. Yes, I am one of the people that actually liked Waterworld. I admit it. Something about the beauty of the world that was, brought back by those left behind, and adapting to something that could be, but is wildly different is very appealing to me.

I was absolutely certain I had to see Fury Road, and was equally certain Hollywood would just fuck it up with their usual crap- story, acting, and plot construction go to the shitcan while CGI and big explosions overtake the film, but they throw in overt winks and nods to the people who came loving the originals to the movies. The interceptor was a bit of that. I had to go and see the failure the same way you feel you have to look at a carcrash.

I came away with a beautiful feeling- being awed at how real and intoxicating the landscape was filmed. It made the apocolypse feel beautiful in a way, especially the stars in the desert scene. I canā€™t remember many movies that the cinematography actually made such a high impression on me.

Maxā€™s backstory was really the only thing that pissed me off. The stupid ghost child and people flashbacks felt very Hollywood, and not like the original would have done. They could have at least made him the original Maxā€™s son or something, I hate when a new actor takes over with no explanation, no hint no matter how brief, that this is the original max somehow, or a Max in another paralell reality. It was made to look like the exact same car, with the blower setup a bit more exotic. Same exact first and last name. Thatā€™s too close for me.

The vehicles- a vision Iā€™ll remember for the rest of my days. I just WANT the Gigahorse. One of my favorite parts was the brief look at the whole Citadel- it reminded me of something out of Laputa, the anime- with wind towers and such. I wish they had shown more of it, like they did with Bartertown in MM3.

The most awesome part that cinched the film for me was the flamethrowing madman on the guitar warparty rig leading them into battle. He took it over the top, crossing into Fist of The North Star-esque post-apocalyptic ridiculousness and awesomeness. Ironically, Mad Max the original was a large inspiration for the Fist of The North Star Anime. Did you think that was a coincidence?

The film left me wishing it was another hour longer, with more scenery development. I just learned Joe was played by the same actor that did the Toecutter from the original. That was a great nod.

The only other thing I can think of I wished Iā€™d seen was as another said- some nod to the gyrocaptain Bruce Spence.

I came away from the movie for the first time thinking Hollywood didnā€™t fuck up a series. I think it isnā€™t a pure continuation of the series without some kind of tie from this Max to the original, but if you think about it as not a sequel, but itā€™s own stand alone film, then it was absolutely amazing. It was worth waiting for. Almost perfect, almost what I dreamed for decades theyā€™d make. A first- I actually hope this gets sequels.

7 Likes
42

Meh indeed. I walked out of that theater and instantly forgot what Iā€™d just seen.

Explosions + mayhem ā‰  compelling story

compelling story + mayhem + explosions = :slight_smile:

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43

Why would the decadence of the mega-wealthy not exist, in ludicrously bizarre and horrible ways, in an apocalyptic wasteland, when we can find an infinite number of examples in our own world?

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44

Saw it yesterday. Meh.
Things I liked:

  • The idea of making a whole movie that is a car chase.
  • The knife in the shifter.
  • The flame thrower guitarist.
  • Lots of the vehicles.

Things that were disappointing:

  • The characters, or lack thereof.
  • The dialog.
  • The story.
    charlize theron is a very good actor, but she, or the role, just didnā€™t offer much.
    I suppose I am comparing it to Beyond Thunderdome, perhaps that is unfair of me.
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45

Because people have been flogging this same boring dynamic for millennia? It was already old a thousand years ago.

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Maybe itā€™s an inherent aspect of the human condition?

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Thatā€™s like buying some nice picture frames, and keeping the placeholder photos they came with instead of using your own. Conditioning is what you make of it.

Nobody seems to want their kid to grow up being spoon fed and sitting in their own poo - yet many seem to think its ā€œobviouslyā€ ok for this to the baseline for society at large.

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Iā€™m pretty sure that you donā€™t. Because objectification doesnā€™t mean there is no reason for the character to exist, only that there is no reason for her to be depicted naked or scantily clad. And there was no plot reason that required the one actress to have her impressive nipples poking through her top or for the other to be naked on top of a ruined utility tower.

Mind you, Iā€™m not calling that objectification. Iā€™m merely calling out the reviewer for saying itā€™s absent from this movie, apparently because he or she likes the pseudo-feminist angle, when itā€™s there just as much as any other comic book fantasy in the theaters.

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First, I didnā€™t say that a women with no reason to exist is what objectification means, only that that is an example. As I said, objectification means treating someone as an object, rather than a person (or in the case of media, framing a person to be viewed as an object rather than a person/character). You are correct that a person who had no reason to be naked would be objectified.

Secondly, both of the examples you provided make perfect sense in the context of the world/characters. There is a plot reason for both.

Third, why arenā€™t you calling it objectification? You said a naked women with no plot reason would be objectified, and that you feel there was not plot reason in those examples.

Forth, if youā€™re not calling it objectification, then how can you be calling out the reviewer for saying objectification is absent, when you apparently agree?

Finally, objectification is not about what is present, but why. This is why this movie is being treated differently to ā€œany other comic book fantasy in the theatersā€, despite superficially appearing very similar.

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50

What a lovely film!

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51

I like your math.

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A nekkid chick in a tower used to titillate a presumed straight male audience is not the same thing as a nekkid chick in a tower using those same chauvinist cliches to shoot dudes in the head.

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53

Let us not forget that her nekkidity was neither particularly titillating, nor particularly revealing. By the time the camera was close enough to see any naughty bits, she was robed.

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54

Itā€™s a beautiful thing, a nearly flawless expression of its mode. The folks complaining about the lack of worldbuilding exposition and the lack of character development are missing the point, I think, and missing it in the same wayā€”the movie is saturated with details that imply without telling, inviting the audience to draw the connections that define the world and the characters. Because those details are so thorough and consistent (every steering wheel in the pyramid had its own backstory) that process is, unusually, worthwhile, and leads to an extraordinarily rich subcreated world. Itā€™s all so tightā€”every character, major and minor, has a legitimate drive impelling them through the plot. Every egregious piece of welded metal has an implied purpose, its own contribution to the movieā€™s mode.

Hereā€™s where it hit me: One attack left the hood of the war rig in flames, and I remember wondering at the time how they were going to handle it. I thought about how Star Wars would do itā€”Artoo would trundle out and squirt foam to put out the fireā€”which obviously wouldnā€™t work here. Even having Furiosa whip out a battered fire extinguisher would be a violation of the movieā€™s modeā€”that kind of forethought would show an acknowledgement of the possibility of weakness. The rig is about power and forward drive and violence, not fretting about things that might happen. So I assumed the film would just sidestep it, let the flames die of their own accordā€”and then Furiosa flipped a switch, and a motherfucking welded iron plow dug into the sand, and the sand crashed over the hood in a glorious flame-smothering wave. It was the perfect solution, and emblematic of the amount of storytelling thought and visual analysis that went into every beat of this movie.

When I sat down, I was sleepy and cranky and skeptical. When I left, I was simmering with adrenalineā€”I was that guy in the old Maxell ad. (Google [blown-away man].) Itā€™s been jammed in my head for two days now. An action movie hasnā€™t done that to me in a very long time.

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55

Havenā€™t seen it yet, but these sure seem like contradictory statements.

56

ā€œThere is no romance, no rapeā€ā€¦ in the movie itself.
By the time the movie starts, the wives have escaped. Itā€™s made pretty clear what Joe had been using them for.

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57

Thanks for the clarification.

58

To each his own butā€¦
I want those two hours of my life back!

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59

Yes, it is. Putting some PC window dressing around it doesnā€™t change anything.

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I really love how movies these days are on the chopping block for people flogging their own worldview, and using them as a stick to beat each other up with for not following their very specific vision of How The World Should Be.

Weā€™ve gotten so addicted to being catered to, individually, that we get all up in arms over a movie that isnā€™t the nice, safe, all-the-rough-edges-sanded-off Hollywood pablum that ties everything up with a bow at the end, that also avoids anything violent, unless they are faceless bad guys.

Did I watch it? Twice? Oh, hell yes. Was it perfect? N. I never judge perfect, because it is the enemy of the good. At the same time, I want action movies like this. Less talk, more show, more GOGOGOGOGO! I love movies that are primarily talk, or ones that have great romances, but the middle of a GIANT ARMY OF DOOM coming at you is the stupidest place to put it, and too many movies have a romance subplot tacked on like a wart.

2 Likes