Mad Max: Fury Road

[Magin]

Quick question: do I need to see any of the other Mad Max movies before I see this one? I'm hearing good things about the action (which is what I'll be going to it for), but if I need to see the other Mad Max films first...

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Magin

Quick question: do I need to see any of the other Mad Max movies before I see this one? I'm hearing good things about the action (which is what I'll be going to it for), but if I need to see the other Mad Max films first...

Each Mad Max movie can be watched as stand alone movies.

[sunset]

Yeah, watch them if you want or not, in any order.

First one I ever saw as a kid was Road Warrior (Mad Max 2) which got me hooked.
Then came Thunderdome halfway through the 90s and then 10 minutes of the 1st that aired on tv at one time.

I only really saw the 1st Mad Max for the first time in my life... last week.

[Xellos-_^]

i thought mad max2 was the best of the mad max movies.

[Sheba]

It's Road Warrior that pretty much set the tone for the post-apocalyptic genre, from anime like Fist of the North Star to games like Fallout.

[Kafriel]

Back from the theatre! After hearing soooo much about it and having a number of peple rate it at 8.7+/10, I decided to watch Fury Road. Alright, let's get this started:

Spoiler for Movie commentary, spoilers included!:

The action and carnage are great, and a wonderful example of how violence doesn't need to be lingered on or glorified to get the impact across to the audience, to make them "feel" it.

I'll touch on this first because I feel the exact opposite. Having an army of war boys craving glorious death and making the movie a 3-part chase is an extended violence showcase, there frankly little else in the movie besides the road fights.

Speaking of the action scenes, they most certainly deliver. Despite spanning so long, the fights are not boring because there's always a different element to them and the goal at hand differs from race to race. Amazing visuals, a lot of crazy (and this movie prides itself on the madness of the world) and three whole drivers for the big rigs!

So, what else does this movie have? This dude called Max who is haunted by ghosts (who knows what those are?), he is quickly captured and assumes the role of a "bloodbag" in Joe's turf...a place that somehow runs itself with Joe doing pretty much nothing. There are a lot of hints about the background without getting into depth, which is not actually bad, since most of the movie takes place outside of the Citadel...but it would be nice to have just a little more to work with before being launched into the grand chase.

Best part of the movie: the feeling of emptiness that fills the world. Endless wastelands with a small hint of land, the best place on earth being a bog full of crows and....weird-ass dudes with crow feathers on their backs walking on stilts 0_o Like I said, this movie loves crazy. Anyways, in a place where hope is an illusion and people only have death to look forward to, Furiosa's gang returns enlightened, having found purpose in life, inspired by MAD MAX! Who knows how long the water will last or if crops will catch on...the rest is for the viewers to ponder.

Overall, I wouldn't rate it higher than 7.8/10. It was very good, don't get me wrong...just not THAT good. I feel that people exaggerated when talking about it, but I don't regret watching this one.

[sunset]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

i thought mad max2 was the best of the mad max movies.

I concur.
My favorite of the franchise as well, so far.

Still pondering if I should take my nieces to go see this one.
You guys think two 15-16 years girls who watch The 100 religiously can stomach this movie's level of violence?

[Kafriel]

Probably, the only explicit scene is one where...

Spoiler for said scene, death of an important character:

Joe's jaw flies off the window along with his mask

but other than that, it's mostly takedowns and explosions, headshots and a bit of stabbing.

[Solace]

Originally Posted by Kafriel

I'll touch on this first because I feel the exact opposite.

What I meant was that the movie doesn't rely on excessive depictions of violence to get the point across that violent things are happening. The use of short cuts, sound effects, and minimal gore (for lack of words) actually help the violence feel more brutal, not less. It lets the imagination of the audience do most of the dirty work, and because of those elements the violence never feels comical or overdone.

For example:

Spoiler for Scene in the movie:

There's a scene where one of the wives is given an "emergency birth". I fully expected to see a scene where she was cut open, blood guts and all....but it didn't happen. Instead you see the body moving as the guy works the knife from a hidden angle, lots of squishy sounds, and finally the baby is lifted out (again from a hidden angle) and handed to the leader. The guy who cut the baby out speaks as if he is completely unaffected by what he just did, complete with twirling around part of the umbilical cord with his fingers.

Gross and violent? Yes. Does it get the point across? Yup. Did it need to rely on the blood and gore? No. The whole scene reveals a moment of characterization, setting, and plot, through a combination of showing just enough, leaving just enough to the imagination, and through that show and hide, explaining to the audience without berating them with "THIS IS WHAT IS HAPPENING, YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS" hamfisted writing that a lot of movies do now.

All I want are stories that don't insult my intelligence by acting as if I can't understand what I'm seeing on the screen unless an actor spells it out and/or the director specifically shows it. Mad Max was able to do that, which impressed me.

Or heck, pretend I'm smarter than I am and let me think about it myself. Maybe I won't get it right away, or at all, and that's okay. Food for thought is a good thing, and not everything needs an immediate explanation, or any explanation at all. Interpretation is a good thing. It spurs discussion and creative thought.

This dude called Max who is haunted by ghosts (who knows what those are?)

People who watched the other three Mad Max movies. But I thought it was pretty clear that whatever happened to them, or whoever they were, he was haunted by his involvement with their deaths. A little more explanation might have been nice, but I don't think it was needed.

[Kafriel]

The absence of splatter scenes is indeed welcome, people these days are too caught up trying to depict something "realistic" and underestimate what can be accomplished without being overly graphic.

As for Max, I know that getting Max's backstory was a no-go in this one, since he's just riding along (and this one hates too much talking :P), but seeing ghosts in the middle of a fight, twice, seemed out of place. If his character were to have a flashback, it could have been at the end of the second part of the movie, before the final stretch.

[ChuckE]

Watched it.I won't be trying to find the hidden meaning behind the film. I don't care. Simple as that.

Well. To the point. What can I say?
Basically the whole movie is an extended version of the pursuit from the second movie. I even roughly say that it's the whole movie itself: travelling main bad guy's harem from point 1 to point 2. And backwards. On the truck.

Things I liked.
1) Max being an observer. Yes, I believe that his point in the movie is to be an observer. He just participated in the event and was not a main actor there. I liked that.

2) The chase in the second movie was spectacular. What could be even better ? Of couse bigger chase! Yeah. I loved its scale there. And the episode when sandman...whoops I mean sandstorm entered LoL. Well that was great!
3) Cars. I love post apocalyptic cars. Interestingly enought the cars in the post apocalyptic movies usually represented by cars from 80-s or something earlier. That always bugged but whatever. Though there were some modern cars too. Overall those monstrous facilities with cars were like eye-candy for me.
And of course the main character - the truck!! Yes! It's awesome. And the idea to extinguish the flame using truck's plow and the sand....10/10

About the story...I did not feel the characters. I did not feel those harem girls...Maybe because there wasn't any backstory for them. I simply was not able to empathize them. I was not able to feel that `birds in the cage` idea because it's not detailed enough.

Basically I enjoyed the movie because I was not trying to find special sense behind it.
I'll give it 9 out of 10 because of the whole action. I could give 10 but Max lost his car LoL

P.S. The guy with a guitar definitely eats his bread. Dat passion towards music. Overall that music platform was a great addition!

P.P.S For whatever reason they added ghosts from the past. C'mon. It was long time ago.

[solidguy]

Originally Posted by Solace

There's some pacing issues, and Max could have used a few more moments of badass, but this is one of the best action movies I've seen in a very, very long time. Perhaps since the 90's, even.

I think you hit the nail on the head. Mad Max is receiving so much admiration because it is a throw back to an earlier era of action films. It feels very 80's early 90's to me in its depiction of dystopia

[MrTerrorist]

Finally watch the movie and what a treat it was.
The movie is like "Mad Max VS Orks" since Immortan Joe and his War Boys act like the Warhammer 40k green menace with their love of battle, rusty metal vehicles and their hammy screaming sounds like a WAAAGH!
Great story as well with my favorite character being Nux.

Spoiler for movie plot:

Too bad he sacrificed himself in end. I love the relationship he had with Capable. It was cute and humanize him.

BTW, is there any difference in scenes from where your watching the movie?

Spoiler for Question:

In one scene, Furiosa meets a member of her old tribe whose acting as bait where she wearing only her undergarments. I read from somewhere she's actually naked in that scene.

[HasuMasu]

Yeah, she was naked.

[Kafriel]

^Indeed. There are many scenes changed or removed depending on where you're watching, happened with another movie I recently watched twice (was missing 2-3 short scenes that could be described as offensive to certain groups).

Watched it.I won't be trying to find the hidden meaning behind the film. I don't care. Simple as that.

Wait, there's a hidden meaning behind all this? :O

[Magin]

Saw the movie today. I expected the post-apocalyptic world, but did not expect the entire 80's feel to it. It also irked me that there seemed to be a lot more to Max's character with the ghosts, and we get absolutely no explanation (keep in mind this is the only Mad Max I've seen so far). A few guesses, yes... and also, we're given a 30 second to maybe a minute of how the world was made post-apocalyptic. Maybe it's because I've seen two action movies in a row, but I could've used some more explanation there.

On a related note, something I found both good and bad was the simplicity of the plot:

Spoiler for Just in case:

Ride off from the bad guy's place to seek freedom, find nothing there, and then go back in order to flourish. This provided for plenty of action, true... and even better is when is takes the majority of the movie to get to where they originally wanted to go, then takes less than half the time to get back. Though I think they explained that as having far fewer pursuers.

And I probably should see the other Mad Max movies, because there was something else that I was confused about the whole time, other than the ghosts:

Spoiler for What I couldn't figure out:

What's with society relying on the blood of others? I understand that people will need blood transfusions every now and then, but what happened to the entire society? Is this supposed to be an interpretation of post-apocalyptic?

I probably should also mention that between all the flaming pipes, the drums, and the guitar guy, they all felt like they were literally thrown into the movie for the sole purpose of being a throwback to the 80's. They seemed to serve no purpose otherwise.

Despite all that, I give the movie a solid 9. The only other part that I didn't quite like was the absolute end:

Spoiler for After all is resolved:

As Furiosa and the girls rise on the platform back into the Citadel base, while Max himself disappears back into the crowd. But, that fits more with the theme of Max being just a piece on the board, I suppose.

[MrTerrorist]

Um No, Mad Max Isn't Ripping Off Fist of the North Star

I can't help but laugh over younger Japanese fans thinking Mad Max Fury Road is copying Fist of The North Star when it's the other way around.

[Jaden]

I thought the movie was great. It's difficult to be 90% action and spectacle like this, yet still be artsy as well. It made me think that Hollywood might have grown up a little.

[barcode120x]

Spoiler for Mad Max hot chicks:

Was kind of hoping Max would hit up one of those chicks he saved....

Anywho, decent movie in my eyes...then again, the other Mad Max movies never really caught my interest either.

[MrTerrorist]

Hideo Kojima Meets Mad Max Creator George Miller

Kojima has been witnessed!