Mad Max - Fury Road

[Frank]

I hadn't seen The Road Warrior before Fury Road. I quickly rectified this, and while I liked it, it's hard to appreciate fully without the nostalgia you'd have for it if you'd watched it a lot growing up. It's not even really fair to compare them given the huge disparity in budget. But I'd say RW drags a bit in places, whereas FR just has this irresistible breakneck pacing from start to finish.

The two films were made 35 years apart; it took Terminator 2, Matrix 2 and Bourne 2 to get audiences even half-way to where George Miller wanted to take them. *

Mad Max 2's still operating on the Where Eagles Dare/Fistful Of Dollars model of a dramatic set-up with occassional action scenes, rather than pure action. 

In terms of the evolving grammar of action cinema, 35 years before Mad Max 2, the hot action ticket was John Wayne winning the war in the Pacific theatre. 


* Even then, as previously noted, Fury Road wasn't a runaway success

[moogie101]

I'm stunned this film has generated so much praise on here, personally I thought it was shite.

[JamesC]

You thought wrong.

[radiator]

I hadn't seen The Road Warrior before Fury Road. I quickly rectified this, and while I liked it, it's hard to appreciate fully without the nostalgia you'd have for it if you'd watched it a lot growing up. It's not even really fair to compare them given the huge disparity in budget. But I'd say RW drags a bit in places, whereas FR just has this irresistible breakneck pacing from start to finish.

The two films were made 35 years apart; it took Terminator 2, Matrix 2 and Bourne 2 to get audiences even half-way to where George Miller wanted to take them. *

Mad Max 2's still operating on the Where Eagles Dare/Fistful Of Dollars model of a dramatic set-up with occassional action scenes, rather than pure action. 

In terms of the evolving grammar of action cinema, 35 years before Mad Max 2, the hot action ticket was John Wayne winning the war in the Pacific theatre. 


* Even then, as previously noted, Fury Road wasn't a runaway success

Totally - that's why it's hard to directly compare them.

[Hawkmumbler]

I'm stunned this film has generated so much praise on here, personally I thought it was shite.

[Tiplodocus]

I'm stunned this film has generated so much praise on here, personally I thought it was shite.

They are joking, of course, when they say you "thought wrong".  Everybody is entitled to an opinion, especially around art.  My big brother - a bit of a cinephile - didn't like it either.  So he's off my Christmas card list.

[JamesC]

I'm stunned this film has generated so much praise on here, personally I thought it was shite.

They are joking, of course, when they say you "thought wrong".  Everybody is entitled to an opinion, especially around art.  My big brother - a bit of a cinephile - didn't like it either.  So he's off my Christmas card list.

I think even those who don't like it surely must be able to appreciate the production design or stunt work. It's awesome on many levels.

[James Stacey]

one of the many reasons for its genius
http://vashivisuals.com/the-editing-of-mad-max-fury-road/

[TordelBack]

one of the many reasons for its genius
http://vashivisuals.com/the-editing-of-mad-max-fury-road/

Great little piece that, cheers.  Damn you, I need to watch it again now!

[CalHab]

That's a really interesting article.

I took none of that in when watching the film as I spent the entire film with my jaw agape or flinching from the action, which just goes to prove what an achievement it is.

[I, Cosh]

For me the reason it is soooo good is it one of the few films, certainly in recent times that realises that cinema is a visual medium and story, characters and themes can all be developed by showing not telling. This in turn allows it to pull off having an interesting story, characters and themes while being an absolute thrill a minute non-stop adrenaline fest.

Its simply doesn't compromise anywhere as it doesn't feel the need to explain everything to the watcher and allows them to draw things out from what they see, making it more engaging at there same time.

All these things but especially this. I'd forgotten how good it was but this rush of enthusiasm from everyone really has me hankering to watch it again. Maybe if can be the first thing we see in the new flat on Saturday night!

Imagine the world we might live in if Miller had got to make that Justice League film he wanted to.

[Keef Monkey]

There's a rumor that the legal scuffle over the property are the reason Rage 2 exists. Supposedly the studio were pretty far along with a sequel to their Mad Max game when all the lawsuits started flying so there's a bit of scuttlebutt that what they had has been repurposed into a Rage sequel. Would make sense, aside from the party-rock tone of the trailers there's a real Mad Max vibe coming from it so you could see where it might have started out as that - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgPRE5pak6k

[James Stacey]

Not sure its anything to do with that. WB games didn't like that the first one didn't make the expected returns for them so they shipped their sequel ideas to Id apparently.

[JOE SOAP]

Imagine the world we might live in if Miller had got to make that Justice League film he wanted to.

A world without Fury Road.

[inkymonkey]

Just had to post higher res versions of the costume test images from George's JL:Mortal.

So, so happy this film never got made. Though seeing Megan Gale as Wonder Woman was a pleasant experience. Poor bloody Immortan Joe nearly expired under all those Martian Manhunter prosthetics though.

It is somewhat sobering to think that it was Happy Feet that finally enabled Fury Road to get made...