Mad Max: Fury Road - What a Lovely Day It Is

Casual Shinji

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Gorfias said:
Good point about the end of this one. It's an explanation. As for what's next?

Who knows. But I think it can be done. The first 1/2 of Thunderdome was so good I didn't know where they could go from there (other than a remake that doesn't veer so dramatically in tone in the 2nd half).

My fingers are crossed. I'd love to have that much fun again soon.
Yeah, but Fury Road was so flipping huge and crazy it's a miracle it come out coherently at all (seriously, George Miller deserves the Oscar for Best Director for what he's been able to accomplish). If a sequel goes even bigger and crazier it'll just collapse under its own weight.

But for all we know Fury Road will bomb and we won't have to worry about that.
 

gorfias

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Casual Shinji said:
But for all we know Fury Road will bomb and we won't have to worry about that.
I hope not. I'll be watching: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=furyroad.htm
 

jhoroz

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Just got back from seeing it. Really, really good movie. What kept me on the edge of my seat and mesmerized wasn't so much the action (which is fantastic BTW) but just how unique and insane the world and its characters are. This is some of the coolest world building I've seen in a film and it's all done in the background of this giant frenetic chase scene. No long winded exposition, just classic visually story telling. It's what I loved about the original. The film never told you that there was a shortage in fuel and gasoline, or that there's an increase in violent gangs, it just shows you and lets you fill in the gaps. If Mad Max 2 defined what the modern post-apocalyptic film looks and feels like, Fury Road cranks it up and reinvents it into this almost Terry Gilliamesque insanity (although it does lose some of the more grounded and believable sensibility of the first film).

I also don't get the people who say this should be called the Furosa film. This film is as much about Furosa as it is about Max and Nux. She may have more spoken lines, but Max's character is presented through Tom Hardy's almost beast like physicality and behaviour and his wild and vivid hallucinations of his daughter. Not only that, but from the second film onwards, Max has also been part of a larger ensemble rather than hogging the main spot light. He's like the Man with No Name who stumbles right in the middle of a large mess and is surrounded by larger than life characters. He's defined by the people and crazies around him, rather than the other way around. This is as true in the Road Warrior as it is in Fury Road.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

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This film has ruined all other action films for me. Just as Ong Bak and Ip man ruined kung fu films too. Every future action film will judged by the bar that this has raised. The balance between believable, gritty action and over the top, is something beautifully mastered here. I mean, when the guitar shredding, flamethrower dude appeared, my first thought was not that it was at all unbelievable...it was just that this is exactly what mad max needed. Honestly, the first film I would say it didn't bother me at all with the lackluster plot direction. Great work, Mr Miller!
 

[Kira Must Die]

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I went and saw it yesterday with my parents, and we loved it. My mom loves the Mad Max movies, except for Thunderdome, which she hated. I asked her afterwards if this was better than Thunderdome (which I never saw. I've only seen the first two,) and she told me that it doesn't even compare.
 

Keiichi Morisato

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Darth_Payn said:
I want to see it, just for that car that's made of mostly speakers driven by that guy playing a guitar with a flamethrower attached. Like it's literally powered by rock-n-roll!
what's cool about the guitar guy is that he is playing that on set, and the chase music that was put in post production go along together. that was awesome, and the detail was incredibly surprising. there is this scene later where Max is fighting on that platform and hitting guys with the guitar, but whenever he got a break, the guitar guy would get back on and start shredding and adding to the music of the scene, it was awesome.
 

BoredRolePlayer

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Keiichi Morisato said:
Darth_Payn said:
I want to see it, just for that car that's made of mostly speakers driven by that guy playing a guitar with a flamethrower attached. Like it's literally powered by rock-n-roll!
what's cool about the guitar guy is that he is playing that on set, and the chase music that was put in post production go along together. that was awesome, and the detail was incredibly surprising. there is this scene later where Max is fighting on that platform and hitting guys with the guitar, but whenever he got a break, the guitar guy would get back on and start shredding and adding to the music of the scene, it was awesome.
I was cheering for that guy so hard.
 

PapaGreg096

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I thought the film was freaggin boring, the action was one big chase scene over and over again and the characters weren't really that memorable whether they be hero or villian
 

Therumancer

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Gorfias said:
[

I was disappointed that Max just leaves what could be a good way of life. In the other movies, something separates him for those he is trying to help and he is left to wander alone. Here? He could just have himself a five way. But he walks away.
Still, I want to see another one of these.

Spoilers Of A Sort:

Haven't seen it yet but I will say that the kind of ending your talking about here wouldn't work for Max. Part of his whole schtick is that he's not just surviving day to day, but that he's truly broken inside due to what happened to his wife, and the community he once protected, and it's important to understand how he probably sees all these other bands and societies compared to where he started.

I haven't seen this one yet, but at the end of the day remember a big key to Mad Max is that he usually becomes most effective when he has something to finally care about, whether it's trying to save a gas producing community (that actually screw him as a decoy) or protecting a tribe of kids. At the end of the day though it never can actually repair what broke inside of him. He's not the kind of guy that is likely to say "hey, gorgeous babes, I'll stay here, have great group sex, and become a slightly more benevolent kind of warlord", most people would, and that would fit a stand alone movie featuring a new character and meant to be self contained, but not Max, which they probably want to spin into a franchise.

See, the end of the series, the finale so to speak, would likely be Max falling in love again and healing the hole in his heart, and presumably retiring to, or managing to form something close to the old pre-apocalypse civilization. In that way you could see all the violence and insanity in between as a sort of metaphor for the rage of a man who lost everything despite it being "Real" in the context of the story, before finally ending when he find a way to get over it like most people wouldn't. Given that Mad Max always "wins" and walks away at the end leaving behind a legend, it's not a totally grim series since he always succeeds despite the odds, the ending would be when finally he feels healed enough not to walk away and the story ends with him just being "Max" again so to speak.

I won't say Mad Max is exactly a deep character, if anything he's pretty much just another version of the lone wandering ronin or gun fighter with a tragic past, but he's well done for what he is. The brilliant thing about Max though is that like Batman he's designed to be so damaged that you can do a nearly infinite number of stories with him, and technically you don't even need to end the series since him walking off leaving behind legends ever more can also sort of fit things, though I do expect one day they might end the series. If they do, they could always have Mel Gibson do it since he's an old man now.

I'll see the movie tomorrow, but that's my thoughts based on what I'm reading. I'd be very surprised if they had Mad Max retire with a bunch of female wasteland warriors, and would argue it didn't fit the character or what makes him tick. Something I'd expect the guy who made Mad Max to get, and apparently he does.
 

Casual Shinji

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ravenshrike said:
Casual Shinji said:
It works for Max as a character though, because he has no real shits to give or reason to hope. He's just surviving for the sake of it. This time he's caught in a war between Immortan Joe and Furiosa, tomorrow he'll run into another gang of crazies trying to kill eachother.
Except that's not MM at all. This is not a Mad Max movie. Replacing Max Rockatansky with a nameless badass mook along for Furiosa's ride would have lost you nothing in the movie. The Mad Max movies were about Max's personal journey through the post apocalyptic world and how every time he was truly presented with a choice to try and stop major atrocity he did so, fail or succeed. Still a good movie of course, but Miller really should have pulled a Ridley Scott and made it an AU.
Like I said, it's a different Max. One that's been surviving in a second generation wasteland. Who's mind and morals have deteriorated far more due to isolation.

It's sort of an impossible question to answer whether Fury Road Max is a genuine Max, because up untill this point the character was simply Mel Gibson playing a nameless badass. There's not much to the actual character beyond what the actor portraying him brings to the character.

The world this time also feels so much larger that it feels appropriate for the movie to be about more than just Max.


And you say 'alternative universe', but honestly the Mad Max movies have never had a coherent time line or structure. Kind of like the Evil Dead series, each movie just goes and does its own thing.
 

Dwarfman

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Saw this the opening night! Loved all the previous Mad Max movies - Yes including Thunderdome I don't know why it cops the shit it gets - And I would rate Fury Road just a little under Road Warrior. Balls to the wall carnage loved every moment. Recommend it to everyone.
 

Dwarfman

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ravenshrike said:
Casual Shinji said:
piscian said:
Charlize Theron definitely steals the show. In a way it feels like she's the main character and Mad max is just the viewer watching this movie happen. The film feels more like a look into this big world of the post Apocalypse than just a Mad max film.
It works for Max as a character though, because he has no real shits to give or reason to hope. He's just surviving for the sake of it. This time he's caught in a war between Immortan Joe and Furiosa, tomorrow he'll run into another gang of crazies trying to kill eachother.
Except that's not MM at all. This is not a Mad Max movie. Replacing Max Rockatansky with a nameless badass mook along for Furiosa's ride would have lost you nothing in the movie. The Mad Max movies were about Max's personal journey through the post apocalyptic world and how every time he was truly presented with a choice to try and stop major atrocity he did so, fail or succeed. Still a good movie of course, but Miller really should have pulled a Ridley Scott and made it an AU.
I'm going to disagree with you there. This is very much a Mad Max movie. Remember Fury Road is set between Mad Max and Road Warrior. At the end of Mad Max he avenges his family by raining hell upon Toe Cutter and his gang and then drives out into the badlands. At this point he's a shell of a man living one day to the next.
By the time Road Warrior has come along Max is still living each day as they come, however there's more to it than that. He's actually willing to help and interact with people. This is where Fury Road steps in and acts as a bridge between the point where Max is just existing for survival's sake and the point where he begins to give a shit again.
And despite the fact that Max does take a back seat in this film, this is still a very personal journey for him because up until the moment he meets Furiosa and the girls he was already taking a back seat within his very existence allowing himself to animalistically live eat day for survival.
 

gorfias

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Therumancer said:
He's not the kind of guy that is likely to say "hey, gorgeous babes, I'll stay here, have great group sex, and become a slightly more benevolent kind of warlord",
I was kidding a little about what I wrote earlier but..

he actually does appear to care about Charlize by the end. But he walks away. Been 20 years since I've seen them, but at the end of 2 and 3, I think he finds himself hopelessly separated from the people he could finally settle down with. They could have thought of a way for that to happen here too. Instead, for me, this felt like, "Max needs to leave because if he doesn't, it will hurt sequel prospects." The hope that he has found people he wants to settle down with adds poignancy and gives us something to root for. The disapointment hurts so good when he fails to have found a home.

So far, it is doing better than other action movies I loved, like the new Judge Dredd. Fingers are still crossed: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=furyroad.htm
 

webkilla

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Saw it last night - loved it

One of the things I particularly liked (and I'm not spoiling anything here) is how they world-built and how they used the terrain itself as a proper hazard.

In the older movies the supply of fuel was never explained. Raiders in the middle of the desert still need fuel. Where does that come from? In this movie, this is addressed.

Similarly, then the fact that a post-apoc world's terrain is salty and impossible to develop for agriculture is addressed as an issue. It helped flesh out the movie setting and explain character motivations.

All in all: Its awesome
 

josemlopes

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ravenshrike said:
Casual Shinji said:
piscian said:
Charlize Theron definitely steals the show. In a way it feels like she's the main character and Mad max is just the viewer watching this movie happen. The film feels more like a look into this big world of the post Apocalypse than just a Mad max film.
It works for Max as a character though, because he has no real shits to give or reason to hope. He's just surviving for the sake of it. This time he's caught in a war between Immortan Joe and Furiosa, tomorrow he'll run into another gang of crazies trying to kill eachother.
Except that's not MM at all. This is not a Mad Max movie. Replacing Max Rockatansky with a nameless badass mook along for Furiosa's ride would have lost you nothing in the movie. The Mad Max movies were about Max's personal journey through the post apocalyptic world and how every time he was truly presented with a choice to try and stop major atrocity he did so, fail or succeed. Still a good movie of course, but Miller really should have pulled a Ridley Scott and made it an AU.
Nope.

He saves them all from death when he could have just went on his way in the salt desert. As he said "At least that way we'll be able to... together... come across some kind of redemption."

He still feels like he owes people help for what happened to his family, and it goes against his first judgement of himself that the world reduced him to the instinct of survival, it shows that he can go against that instinct for the sake of helping others, at least in this version of Mad Max.
 

Nazriel

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This movie grabbed my attention and held it for the entire duration. I cannot recall the last time I was held in suspense over what was going to happen next and how they were going to survive.

Going to see it a second time in the theater which I'm not sure I have ever done. Bottom line: Must see movie.
 

Paradoxrifts

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The action is kinetic and frantic, except for the long, boring stretches towards the middle and last acts where the movie tries desperately to make you feel attached to a bunch of characters with next to no character development. George Miller still has not learned from the debacle of Mad Max 3 how to keep his politics out of his film making.

Worth renting when it comes out on DVD.
 

SupahEwok

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Gorfias said:
he actually does appear to care about Charlize by the end. But he walks away. Been 20 years since I've seen them, but at the end of 2 and 3, I think he finds himself hopelessly separated from the people he could finally settle down with. They could have thought of a way for that to happen here too. Instead, for me, this felt like, "Max needs to leave because if he doesn't, it will hurt sequel prospects." The hope that he has found people he wants to settle down with adds poignancy and gives us something to root for. The disapointment hurts so good when he fails to have found a home.
Okay, lemme clear up some confusion.
At the end of Road Warrior, Max and the Gyrocopter pilot are looking upon the remains of the battle. Then it cuts to the Gyrocopter pilot driving the bus with the actual fuel, with a voice-over explaining what happens to their community. I don't remember the voice-over word for word, but it, combined with both scenes featuring the Gyrocopter pilot, shows that Max did have opportunity to come with them. He chose not to, just as he chose to not settle down at the end of this movie.

Max isn't a character so much as a played-straight archetype of the lone wanderer. His journey will never end, because as soon as it does, he isn't that lone wanderer archetype anymore. If he settles down, he is no longer Mad Max.

Also, in regards to the discussion about Beyond Thunderdome: BT's problem was that the original script wasn't for a Mad Max film. The original idea was that a group of kids, living in a post apocalypse setting, would suddenly stumble upon an adult who'd change their lives. It was bounced around for a couple of years before somebody said, "Hey, let's slap Mad Max on as that adult, he's post-apocalypse and it'll be great for marketing!" Combine that with George Miller not giving a shit because one of his collaborators for the first two Mad Max movies, a good friend of his, had died and killed his enthusiasm for the project, and that's why you have a movie that has two incredibly dissonant halves. The first was made up by the original Mad Max folks, to justify it as a Mad Max movie, and the second half was doing what they could with the executive mandates they were under and eventually felt like something out of a Disney film.