Questions on the new Mad Max movie

[BreakfastMan]

The movie is much more pro-anarchy than pro-feminist, imo. Basically, without spoiling a whole lot, there are 3 main groups in the movie (besides the heroes) that each represent powerful institutions: religion, business, and the military. The main struggle of all the characters is to escape being captured and enslaved by these groups, the women wanting to avoid being sex slaves, the two main men wanting to avoid being either mindless soldiers or part of a machine. There is also some stuff about the environment in there as well, a little.

Also the movie is spectacular. Go see it, dammit!

 

[PapaGreg096]

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

 

[Casual Shinji]

It was a decent post-apocalypse movie, albeit with too much focus on CGI, but a horrible Mad Max movie.

...

Wait, where apart from the Citadel and the sandstorm was there too much focus on CGI? Unless we're counting the removal of safety wires and markers, which if you can actually spot that... damn good eye.

 

[IceStar100]

Spoiler: Spoilers. Second set of spoilers.

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie until the somewhat lame ending, which was way too neat and clean given the setting and subject matter (and doubly disappointing given how appropriately unforgiving the film had been up to that point). The death of Furiosa would have been a far superior finale.

I think relegating Max to powerless spectator for the first bit was pretty interesting, but I don't think that bit should have comprised damn near half the movie. It took way too long for him to get into the action. Then the decision to hide his greatest "feat" off screen was just completely bizarre and disappointing. I would have preferred more Max in my Mad Max, overall. It didn't help that Hardee went way overboard on understated; sorta made it difficult for Theron (who murdered it as Furiosa) not to grab the spotlight.

The gender politics are definitely a little on the overt side. Literally every bad guy is male, and even the two male protagonists are, at the very least, morally gray. The female characters range from supermodel damsels (who are eventually empowered) to oppressed background decorations (who are eventually empowered) to empowered warriors. It's hard to miss the dichotomy, though I can't say I really mind. Creators should be free to do what they like, after all. But I do think they missed an opportunity to create some memorable and interesting female villains. You've got so many colorful and fun bad guys in the movie, but no bad gals to speak of. It smacks of a sort of benevolent sexism wherein women aren't allowed to be anything but paragons of virtue or innocent victims. Let the ladies have some evil fun, too, damnit.

Overall: way, way more fun than Age of Ultron.

Spoiler: Spoilers. Second set of spoilers.

Honestly came off as more a comedy then an action. To me it showed up as a try hard film. Heck they missed a point when they find out that the world they though was paradise. Should of left it there. That the mad max way. The world gone to hell all you can do is survive.

Why I quoted you was Tina in beyond thunder dome rocked it as an evil overlord.... Lordess? Anyway she was fun and I loved her in it. So yeah making all the girl become empowered would make sense since its a dog eat dog world and you better learn to fight or your going to die. Still some female bandit would rock. Make it seem like women are just bad asses or used. No middle ground at all. Where the matron who rule with an iron hard or the crazy bandit or anything beside damsel and empowered goody two shoeEven J.I.JOE had the Baroness and she was Awesome.

 

[Zhukov]

Wait, where apart from the Citadel and the sandstorm was there too much focus on CGI?

Well, I'm not sure if this counts as "CGI", but it's colour-corrected to hell and back.

I've lived in the Australian outback. It's, err... really not that colour, except maybe during a particularly good sunset. (If you like, do youtube search for on-set or B-roll footage. I guarantee you'll see a massive difference.)

Not that it bothered me in the slightest, mind you. I'm quite happy for my post apocalyptic car chase extravaganza to come with pretty colours.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Going to see it later tonight. From the sounds of it, I'm expecting something completely bonkers.

And to think, without the MRAs I'd have written it off as just another cynical ultra-late rehash of an old series just about everyone is familiar with in some fashion made to make a quick buck.

Between them and the rest of the Internet blowing up about it* I'm actually hyped.

*(Though in different ways.)

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, I'm not sure if this counts as "CGI", but it's colour-corrected to hell and back.

I've lived in the Australian outback. It's, err... really not that colour, except maybe during a particularly good sunset. (If you like, do youtube search for on-set or B-roll footage. I guarantee you'll see a massive difference.)

Not that it bothered me in the slightest, mind you. I'm quite happy for my post apocalyptic car chase extravaganza to come with pretty colours.

It just goes to show colour grading can still make a movie look great, instead of making it look oversaturated and "greasy". The whole movie takes place if a frikking desert and yet it looks so lush and vibrant. That enormous tanker explosion near the end must've been the most beautiful red I've ever seen on screen. Any other director and we would've probably gotten another Terminator Salvation.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

One of the first things my wife said walking out of the theater was that she liked it, but she wasn't sure she could take much more testosterone in another movie for awhile. Really, just because a movie has male or female characters doesn't mean it has been masculinized or feminized in any particular way. They're empowered female characters... in a completely male dominated world in a movie focusing on heavy metal, car chases, and violence. 500 Days of Summer isn't a "guy movie" because the main character is a male. Inglourious Basterds wasn't a smash hit only because dudes wanted to see it. A large percentage of the audience was female who were going to a Brad Pitt movie. This whole "men vs women" debate on the internet is beyond dumb and if you think you're making a political statement by not seeing a movie, then you're incredibly deluded and self involved. No one, besides the incredibly small amount of people who read your thoughts on the internet, gives a tenth of a shit. This movie was about women because that's what the plot was about, in the same way Beyond Thunderdome was about a group of kids. It's also about lots of disturbing surreal visuals and car wrecks.

 

[BaronVH]

I am flabbergasted by some of the comments. This is classic cinema and better than the other three Mad Max movies put together. Most (80%) of the effects were practical. All of the vehicles were drivable in real life. Please go see this in a theater. The only agenda I saw in the film was crafting an exceptional science fiction action movie. Honestly, I will likely see this two more times in the theater and that never happens with me. It truly shows how an action movie should be made.

 

[Erttheking]

You know there's a thought that's been kicking around in the back of my head that we might be getting to the point where we would deliberately avoid media just because the people that they see as them in the us vs them conflict that the internet is spending 24/7 on actually liked it. Kinda looks like we're slowly coming around to that. I read that the movie is really good with messages being that the main bad guy is a bad guy because he enforces the view that women only have value if they fuck him and men only have value if they kill for him, and THAT is why he's the bad guy. One of the foot soldiers even breaks down after he can't die a glorious death and gets comforted by the good guys and ends up switching sides apparently. It's about toxic masculinity (Toxic masculinity, not masculinity. If I say the phrase toxic wine I don't say all wine is toxic do I?)

Plus the movie just has a 98% on rotten tomatoes. Can't we just watch a kickass movie without screening it to make sure it's a feminist free zone?

 

[Ihateregistering1]

So I just saw the movie last night.

To start, the movie is batshit crazy and I've never seen anything like it, I'd recommend it to anyone. I seriously don't know how a dozen stuntmen didn't die making this movie. Best action movie I've seen in a long time.

As for feminism and what-not with the film, Max and Furiosa are clearly pretty equal in the film. They both save each other's butts on numerous occasions and are both bad-asses who respect each other. Furiosa does have a lot more lines, but part of Max's character is that he almost never talks (I think he had like 16 lines in the entirety of The Road Warrior).

2nd, Max is a bad-ass, but the movies never went over the top with the idea. It's not like "Book of Eli", where he can walk into a room and kill 20 dudes with a knife, Max needs help.

3rd, one could argue a "toxic masculinity" angle, since all the bad guys are, well, guys, while the majority of the good people are female, but I never really read it like that, nor did it feel like hammering you on the head. Immortan Joe is basically just a warlord who has brainwashed people into what is essentially a cult. All the previous Mad Max movies had female and male heroes and villains; this is in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, everyone has to be tough as nails to survive, so no one bats an eye at fighting women. Likewise, the movie doesn't give in to the usual tired trope of a bunch of characters laughing off the female character before she kicks everyone's ass, so you don't have to deal with the tired old "DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT!?!? SHE'S A GIRL AND THEREFORE NO ONE THOUGHT SHE COULD KICK ASS BUT SHE TOTALLY KICKED ASS AND EMBARRASSED THOSE SEXIST GUYS!! DID YOU SEE THAT!?" cliche.

It's also worth noting that none of the 'brides' that are rescued are exactly stone-cold killers. They help out, but it's not like they randomly start kung-fuing bad guys.

 

[Angelblaze]

So I just saw the movie last night.

To start, the movie is batshit crazy and I've never seen anything like it, I'd recommend it to anyone. I seriously don't know how a dozen stuntmen didn't die making this movie. Best action movie I've seen in a long time.

As for feminism and what-not with the film, Max and Furiosa are clearly pretty equal in the film. They both save each other's butts on numerous occasions and are both bad-asses who respect each other. Furiosa does have a lot more lines, but part of Max's character is that he almost never talks (I think he had like 16 lines in the entirety of The Road Warrior).

2nd, Max is a bad-ass, but the movies never went over the top with the idea. It's not like "Book of Eli", where he can walk into a room and kill 20 dudes with a knife, Max needs help.

3rd, one could argue a "toxic masculinity" angle, since all the bad guys are, well, guys, while the majority of the good people are female, but I never really read it like that, nor did it feel like hammering you on the head. Immortan Joe is basically just a warlord who has brainwashed people into what is essentially a cult. All the previous Mad Max movies had female and male heroes and villains; this is in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, everyone has to be tough as nails to survive, so no one bats an eye at fighting women. Likewise, the movie doesn't give in to the usual tired trope of a bunch of characters laughing off the female character before she kicks everyone's ass, so you don't have to deal with the tired old "DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT!?!? SHE'S A GIRL AND THEREFORE NO ONE THOUGHT SHE COULD KICK ASS BUT SHE TOTALLY KICKED ASS AND EMBARRASSED THOSE SEXIST GUYS!! DID YOU SEE THAT!?" cliche.

It's also worth noting that none of the 'brides' that are rescued are exactly stone-cold killers. They help out, but it's not like they randomly start kung-fuing bad guys.

I love that you pointed that out because its probably one of the biggest problems with women or any non-typical character in just about every movie not focused on them since...forever. 'LOOK SEE IM TOTALLY NOT A WEAKLING JUST BECAUSE IM IN THE LGBT CATAGOERYZ OR A WOMAN!'

Part of the reason I like alot of anime is because on the rare occasion when they do add dark skinned/black characters, it hardly matters and when it does its in passing (See: Dutch in Black Lagoon, Yoruichi, her brother, Harribel in Bleach, etc).

On topic: My tumblr has been loaded with people screaming 'OMG YES PLZ THIS IS IT THIS IS THE MOVIE FEMINISM HAS BEEN WAITING FOR AND ITS SO GOOD' so I guess I'll try to see and support it when I can.

 

[UberGott]

I've lived in the Australian outback. It's, err... really not that colour, except maybe during a particularly good sunset. (If you like, do youtube search for on-set or B-roll footage. I guarantee you'll see a massive difference.)

They shot this one in Africa rather than Australia.

It's still digitally graded to Hell and back, mind you, as basically any movie not made by Christopher Nolan in the last 15 years has been. That was one of my wife's complaints, actually - specifically the day-for-night shots, which I can't deny were a little on the crap side. (Most day-for-night shots are, to be fair.) I thought the locations were gorgeous myself, and it's not as if matte paintings and optical tricks to make backdrops are anything new in Hollywood.

Anyone complaining about this film being Feminist Propaganda are so insecure they'd probably froth at the mouth over Terminator 2, Aliens or Halloween for having stronk wyminz in their macho guy movies, too. Yes, George Miller hired Vagina Monologues writer Eve Ensler to be on set, but he didn't pick her because she's a random feminist: He picked her because she's a well known female activist and he wanted an expert on both abusive relationships and human trafficking to come up with a realistic set of emotions for how someone who'd been forcefully married to someone a local cult sees as a God would react. The film is "Feminist" insofar as it suggests that women are not property, but it's such an overblown universe it's taking place in that you'd have to be a literal caveman to take issue with it.

Personally, all that really drove me insane was the fact that neither Max nor Furiosa have Aussie accents. The War Boys and the Many Mothers were clearly supposed to be Australian natives... I'm struggling to remember now, was the scene that was subtitled in Russian? Seriously, where the hell is this movie taking place?

In short, it was a PR move. It's basically the same nonsense as when The Frog Princess got Oprah Winfrey as an advisor; anyone talking shit about the film was thus implicitly talking shit about Oprah, and you don't talk shit about Oprah. Not to say that Ensler is on the same level as Oprah with the general public, but it's the same basic idea.

Basically, Fury Road is feminist in the same way Top Gun is gay, or Friday the 13th is conservative. It's there if you're looking for it and adds some layers to the whole thing beyond the surface level excitement, but it's so absurd and unconcerned with the message beneath the actual driving forces behind it, only those with a boner for critical theory will actually give a damn.

Complaints about Max himself being a secondary character strike me as likely coming from people who haven't watched The Road Warrior in a while (or ever). He was ALWAYS on the sidelines, trying to avoid getting involved in the squabbles of either side, and his involvement here isn't much different than it was in the film everyone remembers as "the good one". He was a bit more prominent in Beyond Thunderdome, but... I haven't watched Beyond Thunderdome in about 15 years. There's a reason for that.

 

[jhoroz]

I am flabbergasted by some of the comments. This is classic cinema and better than the other three Mad Max movies put together. Most (80%) of the effects were practical. All of the vehicles were drivable in real life. Please go see this in a theater. The only agenda I saw in the film was crafting an exceptional science fiction action movie. Honestly, I will likely see this two more times in the theater and that never happens with me. It truly shows how an action movie should be made.

Not only that but Max wasn't exactly the focal point in road warrior either. He shares an equal amount of screen time with the villains and the group of settlers that are trying to escape with the fuel. It's an ensemble film, just like Fury Road is. Furosa, Nux, the brides and Max share an equal amount of screen time, it's just that Max's character is portrayed more through Hardy's physicality and hallucination of his family. Some people in this thread need to unshove their heads ass out of their ass, stop throwing money at CGI crap fests like the Avengers and go see a real fucking action movie.