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WHAT A LOVELY DAY!
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I’ve been hearing good things about this movie.
But dang do I really wanna watch 44 minutes of them talking about it? Someone watch it for me first and then tell me if it’s worth it.
I always make other things in the forground, because, you just need to HEAR them. I like to play Ragnarok Online besides. ^^
They talk, I listen and kill things! xD
And I think it’s worth it.
They’re not repetitive, they say a lot about the film compare it to others. MANY others!
They’re in a RUSH! 😀
im not sure if its a problem by this point.
but i have to have a lets play or review playing on my second sreen.
i have either 300+ episodes of linkara playing while i do other stuff or nostalgia critic,cinema snob……
i hope i could get used to silence if i needed to.
Go see it! Worth it
You want a review… of a review? To save you the trouble of listening? What pathetic First World entitled piece of shit kind of attitude is that? I am seriously glad I am thinking of killing myself. The rest of you stupid human beings make me tired of being alive.
I feel if this movie does well it will set a new example for hollywood- super creative; doesn’t treat the audience like idiots; girls kicking ass (no damsels)!! And no shaky cam thank god!
Ok I’ll have to watch it then. I just have a short attention span.
Ok, sorry for the essay length post, but here is my view on the film. TL, DR: I love this film and I think the characters themselves are really interesting:
One of the main strengths of this film is that knows ho much it needs to explain and how much to leave for the audience. Everything is built into the world to the point where not much actually needs explaining because you can work it out for yourself, or at least are expected to. It doesn’t treat it’s audience as idiots. We only really get two portions of exposition. One at the start of the film is pretty vague and only really says “hey there’s been an apocalyptic war”, whereas the other is relation to the character of Furiosa. Again, it reveals minimal information and isn’t so much an exposition dump as a brief overview of what happened with no details. In some ways, this piece of exposition has an air of “I do not want to discuss this” about it. It implies our focus should be in the present, not the past. However, while this is a good way of keeping your film from slipping into streams of exposition about various characters and what their motivations are (which would be so easy), it makes sense in relation to the world and those characters. There is no time to reminisce. You move forward pr you die.
This just one example of the excellent visual and implied world and character building George Miller has done. Mad Max seems more, well, mad in this film than the previous film I watched (Road Warrior). I would judge that this film takes place after Road Warrior for that reason. Gibson plays a cooler character than Hardy sand he has more charisma as this clever and cool lone badass, and while there was tragedy and loneliness in Gibsons excellent performance, it’s amplified by Hardy. Max now talks less and twitches more, as if the world itself is finally getting to him and he’s beginning to crack, the last of his humanity draining through the seams until he isn’t any more than a desert rat, twitching from everything and constantly on the run. He even states that in the film that he’s being reduced to the instinct to survive. But if you’ve got nothing to survive for, and are doing it for the sake of it, that will get to you eventually.
Now we come to Furiosa. Furiosa’s character is comparable to Max as of Road Warrior. She is a badass, but she also cares about people. I feel like she’s had to prove herself over and over again throughout her life. It is my assumption that after she was captured, her arm was removed. This disability would mean that she would have to fight extra hard in Joe’s citadel. This would have toughened her up again and again, with her one hope driving her all the way: getting home. I’m willing to bet that she became good at mechanics in that citadel, and as such earned the respect of both the machine-crazy Warboys and Joe himself. She even kept her hair short and painted herself with grease to fit in with the Warboys. In my opinion, she also made that mechanical arm herself. A great comment on the Mad Max wiki suggests that her mother may have been the one to remove her arm, as she didn’t want Joe taking her as a breeder (and was then executed).
Speaking of the Warboys, let’s talk about Nux, the best character in the film in my view! The Warboys like Nux are all inherently sick and are slowly dying, perhaps due to radiation, and this would make sense since they’re refered to as Half Life. This kind of sickness feeds into their need to live fast and die with honour. It’s rare that we see the minions of the villains in such detail, let alone seeing one of them having a defined and in depth character arc. He was wonderfully portrayed by Nicholas Hoult. He helped sell Immortan Joe’s society, because it gave a human face to the enemy. They all simply want to get to valhalla, and they follow Joe because he gives them hope in a hopeless wasteland, that’s why they’re so devoted to him.
Another thing that George Miller has sold really well is the whole machine cult aspect of Joe’s army. It makes so much sense that they would hold their vehicles in such high regard and worship the idea of being chrome and shiny and all that. Think about how important cattle are to certain cultures and faiths. They’re their lifeblood! It makes so much sense that when I look at the Doof Wagon (the guitar and drum vehicle), I don’t go “That’s awesome! It’s stupid, but awesome!” I go “Wow, that actually makes sense as a moral boosting apparatus… and it’s fucking awesome!” Seriously the way that the drums and guitar integrate themselves into the score was amazing. Speaking of which, the score by Junkie XL is one of the most intense I’ve heard in a film. That main dundundun dundundun duh duh duh theme is amazing. Additionally, I love how all the different cultures are truly differentiated in their designs, even within Joe’s forces, Gas Town and Bullet Farm are slightly different to the Citadel. It’s als worth mentioning that I think the vehicles themselves have a lot of character. I love all of the designs, The Peacemaker (the Tank one that attacks them in the swamp) is my favourite.
And what would this film be without the child of Bane and Skeletor himself: Immortan Joe. I love Joe. I think he does something very few villains are: He’s intimidating and interesting. Not only that, he’s intimidating partly because he’s interesting. Joe isn’t blackest black, he’s grey. Very very dark grey I’ll give you that, but you can at least see him as a human. A depraved, scumbag of a human, but still, a human. People like this exist in the real world. People who treat their partners as nothing but property. He’s the abuser in an abusive relationship who likes being in control. Ultimately, Joe doesn’t think he’s in the wrong. He doesn’t want to conquer the earth or anything, ultimately he just wants a non-mutated son. This motive is much more human, and therefore much more understandable and actually more terrifying because you can see where that rage and obsession comes from. He’s an awful human being, but a human being nonetheless. Not to mention the fact that he has created a functioning society in the middle of the wasteland.
Now we come to the Brides and the Many Mothers. I love how even the brides, women who aren’t that physically strong, still impact the battles. When Furiosa fought Max, they were pulling on the chains and helping her out. I also love that scene when Angharad bursts out of the cabin, holding onto the door, her face fixed on Joe. That entire moment is a visual representation of the word “NO.” The Many mothers are also awesome as hell. Now since we’re discussing the female characters, let’s discuss the feminist propaganda claims: This film isn’t feminist propaganda, but it is pro-feminist. Something can be pro-something, without actually being about said thing. Some of the concerns are slightly more complex than others. The ones saying “women wouldn’t be tough and strong in the apocalypse!” I’m simply going to say “did you watch Road Warrior? Or Terminator 2? Or Aliens?”
Now, those saying the film is sexist against men because all of the villains are men and most of the heroes are women require a slightly more complex answer. These people need to think about context. In this post apocalyptic world, Immortan Joe has created a society through hope. He holds the water and people have flocked to him. However, he needed to create a sustainable society. He did this through the introduction of breeders and the mothers milk situation. Joe himself created a sexist society. Joe is the sexist, and even he acknowledged a badass woman when he saw one, giving her a high rank. Of course most of his minions are men, though. He’s created a society in which women are used as a farm for milk or for creating his perfect son. That kind of requires a certain level of patriarchy. We even see that the Warboys aren’t really sexist. In fact, they had a lot of respect for Furiosa before she turned traitor. They simply follow Joe. And why wouldn’t they? They’ve been raised in this environment, and Joe gives them hope. Nux as a character shows that even people from that environment can change. As for most of the good guys being women. A) The wives are escaping from being sex slaves, so of course they’re in the right. B) The Many Mothers are a matriarchal society, likely formed due escaping from the many patriarchal societies that seem to have formed in the collapse of modern civilisation. I consider the Many Mothers to be protagonists more than heroines. After all, they do seem to share man of the values that the other wasteland societies share (distrust, raiding etc). Overall, the film probably doers have some symbolism in there, but it’s not men=bad women=good.
A very nuanced and in-depth analysis–I think you’re absolutely right! I feel slightly disappointed in our boys in this Sibling Rivalry, actually; I think they really sold the story and characters short (I especially wish Rob had elaborated more on his insistence on the glory of this film’s visual story-telling). There is so very much character and thematic complexity to this film if you pay attention and watch for it, but the film itself doesn’t shove that complexity down your throat.
I really want to see this movie.
The reason I didn’t see it opening weekend was that it seemed too jerky and spastic in the trailers.
I suspect that I will like this thing.
if you didnt like the trailers then…..
the trailers were awesome!
they captured the crazy,awesome,nonstop action marvel perfectly i think.
Mad Max: Fury Road is probably the best action film in the last 10 years. One reason I read it was delayed is because George Miller wanted Heath Ledger as Max… weird huh? That being said…
Doug, you’re truly a conundrum. For someone who praises Spiderman 3, X-Men: Last Stand, and many other films that people dislike (for OBVIOUS reasons) it’s okay to be devil’s advocate, or Henry Fonda even. For someone with the persona of ripping movies apart, this makes little to no sense, but Doug and NC aren’t the same person. This has to be true, because NC would rip the ever loving SHIT out of Beyond Thunderdome. I even question if you’ve seen it, because no rational person who can even have a hint at analyzing a film should like this one at all.
I know, I know, different opinions, but from your track record this just makes no sense. I’d rather watch a Transformers movie any day than Thunderdome again. Road Warrior and Fury Road have little plot, but that doesn’t mean they have little story. And for someone to think that, really means they didn’t get the subtly of the films, sorry, it’s true. Only when Rob had to explain this to you did you seem to get it. Code words like “Show, don’t tell,” something I think a whole generation have been jaded and brainwashed into thinking is bad because of Christopher Nolan, who thankfully Rob also brings up. The ending of Interstellar, where MM is floating in the 5th dimension is completely ruined by him NOT SHUTTING HIS MOUTH. Stanley Kubrick had Dave walk into a white room, watching himself age, and he doesn’t say a damn thing. Much more powerful imagery and emotion can be seen in a glance than any dialogue, again, Rob brings this up with Charlize Theron’s performance. (Seeing a pattern?)
I know, you made a Dark Age of Action movies saying how stupid they were, how the acting was terrible and the stories were stupid and lame. And your ending is that movies began bringing depth and plot and character back into the fold, which is true. But just because a film like Fury Road comes out, that has all of that, but doesn’t shove it in your face, doesn’t mean it’s not there. (And you don’t have to say you liked the film if you really didn’t either.)
Beyond Thunderdome is a PG-13 almost Disney, should be PG, kid friendly film, that has two stories squished together, had George Miller not even interested in the movie because a friend died during the making of it, Tina Turner shoe horned in because America wanted it that way so she could do the crappy soundtrack, snoozefest, overly drawn out, no ending, piece of crap. Remember the guy with the weird Geisha mask on his back, that should have died 5 times and didn’t because… funny? How could you like that and not Space Jam? A film with actual cartoon characters in it!
I could go on… just watch “Everything Wrong With Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” and even they don’t mention everything, because EVERYTHING is really wrong with that movie. Sorry, I don’t usually rant about someone’s opinion, but this one bugged me.
Beyond Thunderdome isn’t *that* bad IMO, but yeah, when Doug called it the best of the trilogy I was like… what?
Wow, two movie reviews in one: Mad Max AND Pitch Perfect 2?! Score XD. I really want to watch both those films :D. Thanks as always guys.
ahaha Chris Tucker is in the California Love Music Video, Which Portrayed Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome…
Coincidence??
I like the Transformer movies (except for number two) but I will agree that the last one DID have too much dialogue. I fell asleep early on in the movie and was only woken up by some explosion. I’m being serious. Haha, Doug’s summary made me laugh so hard! 😀 Thunderome was PG-13? I think that I’ll see it as soon as possible, then (despite having to see Mel Gibson’s crazy-man face). Anyways, I have already said everything that I feel about this movie on everyone else’s review. I don’t care about “feminist” arguments. I just want to see interesting characters and cool visuals. YOU MUST REVIEW PITCH PERFECT 2, PLEASE SIRS! Also… so… um… what happens in Babe 2?
I really like Thunderdome myself, and I do think most of the backlash is just from the stipulation that saving kids = kid friendly story. It works really well as the “come full circle” chapter, since failing to save a child was, after all, what turned him into Mad Max in the first place. Not to mention, it has two of the top 3 action scenes in the entire series (thunderdome and the climax).
It didn’t get critics like Roger Ebert calling it the best Mad Max movie for nothing.
i dont hate it as much as most people.
no actually i dont hate it.i tolerate it.
i have a lot of issues with it…but the train chase was really cool with the exception of the stupid slapstick and kidsmovie music throughout the movie.
i really liked the beginnining,thunderdome but the kids themselves werent as bad as i feared but it really led nowhere for me…
the whole movie doenst really do.tina turner doesnt get shot in the face and max is just stranded there once again…
the slapsticky stuff and home alone feeling were probably my single biggest problem.everything else has sort of been present in the other mad maxes:lack of closure,the feeling that it went by really fast and sometimes not knowing whats going(thats mostly the first one)
One day, Doug and Rob will go 24 hours without mentioning Man of Steel, Dark Knight Rises, or the Star Wars prequels.
God damn, are fanboys EVER going to stop bitching about the Star Wars prequels? It’s been 15 FUCKING YEARS! The phrase “Star Wars fan” has become synonymous with “whiny little crybaby.” Aw, they didn’t meet your expectations? Boo-fucking-hoo! Get over it and move the fuck on already!
“Yeah, it’s a dumb action film, but…” No buts. It is a dumb action film. Simply stop talking and acting as if there is something intellectual to say about it.
There is something intellectual to say about it, though. That’s the wonder of it–it can be both, and it is. There is a METRIC TON of thematic complexity hiding in the details of this film that’s there for anyone paying attention and watching for it–but it doesn’t force itself onto you. Saying that it has thematic and intellectual depth doesn’t AT ALL detract from the joy of enjoying it’s gloriously dumb action, but to claim that gloriously dumb action is all there is to this movie is to sell it short.
I just couldn’t get on with this film and am pretty confused about the crazy amount of critical praise it’s getting. I watched it mostly bored, and I’m a massive action film fan. I don’t know if it’s because I was tired at the time, but it didn’t excite me, the action scenes were fine, and the style was very nice, but other than that it had nothing, the characters were mostly pretty dull (exception being Nux), Tom Hardy’s accent was painfully awful and he had no character to speak of.
Also possible plothole I noticed whilst watching:
Furiosa says she was kidnapped as a child from her all female clan by Immortan Joe…how much younger is she supposed to be than Max? Max was a cop pre-apocalypse. Charlize Theron is two years older than Tom Hardy, this really confused me. Was she kidnapped pre-apocalypse by Joe? Why was there a weird female warrior clan pre-apocalypse?
Actually, that’s explained by something I read the director said. Basically, there is no official timeline for the movies (aside from the first Mad Max – the origin story – being at the beginning). They are all just “tales of Max” – folk stories, myths, legends, that sort of thing – that the people of the wasteland tell each other.
Which, when you add a touch of headcanon, makes a lot of sense. My HC is that in Fury Road we’re now at the point of having had at least a couple of generations go by since the big catastrophe. You’ve got the Many Mothers who are all very old, but who remember times of plenty, and you’ve got Immortan Joe who appears to be a very, very old man with a vague military background pre-apocalypse. You’ve also got a lot of nods towards Norse myths, the warboys’ religion being just the most obvious example.
So, in that sense, tales of Mad Max sort of take on a mythological status the way tales of Odin the Wanderer would have for the Norse people.
And at that point, the name means more than identifying someone as *literally that person*. Calling yourself Mad Max means identifying yourself as a wanderer seeking redemption. There was a real Mad Max, and some of the stories are about him. But those stories grew with the retelling. Some other wanderers might have taken on the name Max in reference to this, or even gone mad in the wastes and believed they really were him, and some people might have invented Max stories of their own entirely. Until you get to the point where some warlord starts panicking when he hears that Mad Max overthrew another warlord nearby, because he swears he saw Max die years ago. And suddenly Max can’t die, can’t be killed, lives endlessly in the wastes.
In Fury Road, Max doesn’t give his name to anyone until right at the end, after he’s done something to bring himself redemption and peace, something self-sacrificing for the sake of the people he was with. And although we see him with his V8 at the very start, he loses it so quickly and before the plot happens, that for all intents and purposes he could’ve been a slave in the Citadel all his life for all we know. We also know he’s got a very, very fragile grip on his own sanity. So was he the original Max? Somehow ageless and immortal? Or did he give that as his name to say something specific to the people around him? I am Spartacus, you know?
I like this headcanon because it leaves room for a LOT more stories about Max, and a lot more exploration of the wider Max universe. There can be many Max’s, and they can exist at many times post-apocalypse. And they can be either sartorial and witty or broken and feral as suits them.
and now things went 180 degrees, and people are calling the movie sexist
XD
too funny
Not gonna lie – I loved Mad Max. It completely deserves the praise it’s getting, and it is a miracle that it was even made (this film began production in 1997 – seriously).
That being said, when it comes to action movies released this year, I preferred Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Now I’m not saying Mad Max is a lesser movie in any way, but Kingsman was more my kind of movie: sleek, stylish, and action-packed. And I’m just curious as to why people seem to be overlooking it when talking about awesome action movies in recent years. I personally haven’t seen a more entertaining action movie since Dredd 3D.
Also, that church scene in Kingsman is the best individual action scene I have ever seen in my life.
I adore Kinsman intensely, and usually I’m with you in terms of prefering sleek and stylish to the very literally gritty type of movie you get in Fury Road. That said, for me, this film was very nearly transcendent. I MEANT something powerful to me in a way that Kingsman didn’t, and so for that, I do prefer it.
Completely agree with you. This was some of the most fun I’ve had with a movie in a few years (I think the last time I had this much fun was with Pacific Rim) and like Rob, I was going in expecting little Max and all girls… Then I realized most people have probably never seen a movie where the main character is also only along for the ride on someone else’s story. sigh And yeah, some people have complained stupidly about that, but the MRA boycott thing is a fabrication.
The Star Wars prequels where a masterful blend of practical and cg effects, not pure green-screen!
^ I don’t think we saw the same Star Wars prequels lol
Doug claiming Thunderdome was the best is rather revealing about his tastes.
Doug doesn’t know what he’s talking about. There is not a single memorable line in Thunderdome. Road Warrior, OTOH, contains several. The one I remember most is when Pappagallo tries to convince Max to join them. He offers Max a future with their group, a chance to be part of something greater than himself, but Max is too caught up in his own self-pity and refuses. Pappagallo angrily points out to Max that his pain is not special. “Do you think you’re the only one who’s suffered? We’ve seen it all here. But we haven’t given up. We’re still human beings, with dignity. But you? You’re out there with the garbage. You’re nothing.”
And yet, even after that, as Max is leaving, when one of Pappagallo’s lieutenants suggests they keep Max’s car, Pappagallo says, “He fulfilled his contract. He’s an honorable man.” Showing that even though he’s disappointed in Max’s decision, he still respects him. I cant think of any line in Thunderdome that even comes close to having that kind of power.
Just like when I first saw the trailer for this movie, at the end of it my initial thought was “what the flying fuck!” ha.
Having only seeing the first Mad Max and knowing that this is like a reset of Mad Max, I knew this could either be really good or fun but really terrible. I love what you said, it speaks to your inner Neanderthal XD True! I could not get over how well done this was. I took my dad and we kept saying how beautiful the cinematography is; the desert was very vivid. Yeah, it wasn’t about about Mad Max (like you said observer), I feel it was to introduce the world, and I think I read Tom Hardy is signed on for 3 more films.
I read somewhere that the writers sought after the Vagina Monologues writer to understand how feminists would act/react and be in this type of universe. Found that fascinating. I also read that the flame guitar weighed 130 lbs and the guitarist had control of the flames.. I needs one.
Anyway, a whole new respect to the way this was done, action done right and almost the old fashioned way.
My only nitpick for the movie was I was looking forward to see where the “green” place was, and was disappointed that Max suggested they went back. Yeah yeah I get why and whatnot, but really excited to see what will come.
Only Problem with this movie was not enough action, and the Kill switch bullshit on the truck that made him take them with him, Seriously he was about to leave them there “fuck you bitches I’m Mad Max, Hey what the hell ah come on” but knowing Max he would have gone back for them.
In this film, I compare Tom Hardy as Mad Max to Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker, a good performance; but only when he doesn’t speak.
Actually, speaking of Evil Dead, is there going to be an Old vs. New?
Fury Road was totally awesome! Boss!Charlize Theron, Feminist!Max and Shirtless!Nicholas Hoult do an epic win make. Those are three of my favourite actors of all time, and they are great in this movie. This might be my new favourite thing. What a lovely day, indeed. <3
Bonus point for the flamethrower guitar. That was metal. XD
Doug needs to take off those nostalgia goggles because Beyond Thunderdome is not that good. Rob facepalmed when Doug said Beyond Thunderdome was the best of the original three. The only decent parts are the Thunderdome fight and that’s it.
Rob Walker is such a star wars fanboy. Seriously how many time has he mentioned star wars. Also it would be funny id TFA became the next TPM.