26 (edited by Saniss 2015-05-20 04:20:18)

Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

So I'm gonna go ahead and agree with Herc that Mad Max: Fury Road is on the same level as Die Hard. I think it has the same re-watchability. Everything about it works.

The only shot that didn't scream "PERFECTION" was the guitar one, which was too obviously CG. Otherwise, it was two hours of insane action, pacing, acting, and my God, what eye-candy. Not many movies can pull off that much saturation. This one is off the chart, and it looks incredible.

And to know pretty much everything is real... Holy shit. I'm going to need a 10-hour documentary of this. How they didn't destroy dozens of cameras filming this, I'd like to know.

PS: fuck theaters who think it's good idea to have the sound too loud for every single movie ever, but when it's Mad Max, the one movie that NEEDS to be too loud, it's too quiet.

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Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

not long to go now...

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Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

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Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

30 (edited by Writhyn 2015-05-20 20:29:24)

Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

Just saw it. It was great.

The only three problems I had with it was that guitar and steering wheel shot, their reason for going back to the citadel, and their plan once they did.

I think it was a bit too easy to convince them that turning back was a good idea. Sure, salt flats are bad, but they seemed prepared to endure it. I would've liked to see something force them to turn back, or not try the salt flats at all. Very small quibble, but that may be just me.
Second was they seemed way too confident that the citadel would apparently be defensible once they got there. They didn't know they would get a chance to kill Joe, and even if the path was closed, the mountains could still be bypassed. I totally bought the people's reaction when they showed up with the "god" dead at their feet, but that should have been part of the plan somehow.

BUT other than that fridge logic, I thought it was great. As an action movie it was incredible. The violence wasn't body horror like I detest: just enough for you to flinch and fill the rest with your imagination.
The acting was great. Hoult, Theron, and Hardy were on point all the time. I bought the side characters too.
The fact that both the men and the women needed each other to survive was great. Not man-dependent or woman-power. Just people with strengths and weaknesses.

One final thing that made me happy: when Furiosa doused the burning engine with dirt, my immediate thought was "isn't that getting in the air intakes?"
...followed immediately by a shot of the air intakes re-opening their guard valves as the sand fell away. Perfect!

Witness me!

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Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

I have my own fridge logic questions

1. How can you possibly carry 160 days worth of motorbike fuel? I reckon two days max, Max. Unless they're some hyper-efficient futuristic engine.
2. What planet are we on? 160 days x 80 miles an hour x 10 hours a day = 5 times around the Earth at the equator.

not long to go now...

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Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

I got the sense that 160 days was just their way of saying "we have no idea how far."
They talk in mythological, melodramatic ways because of their society so it made sense to me.

Witness me!

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Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

Speaking of the different turns of phrase used in the film, I think I've fallen in love with the word "schlanger".

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34 (edited by Eddie 2015-05-21 17:51:47)

Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

Yeah, that was everything I love about movies, in one movie.  I feel like all movies are trying to pick up mjolnir, and George Miller just walks by and *yoink* effortlessly grabs it.

Eddie Doty

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Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

That. Is. A. Perfect. Analogy.

Disclaimer: if you dislike the tone of a post I make, re-read it in a North/East London accent until it sounds sufficiently playful smile

Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

doty

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37 (edited by bullet3 2015-05-21 18:57:29)

Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

Ditto. Basically everything I always complain about and wish movies would do, this does effortlessly. Visual storytelling, simplicity of plot/complexity of themes, character through action, continuity of motion in editing, world-building without exposition, gender equality, sympathetic villains (what other blockbuster dares to humanize religious extremists).

Think about how rich this movie is in thematic ideas and memorable characters, with barely any dialogue. It's enough to make you disgusted at how lazy every other modern studio movie is.

"Hope is a mistake. If you can't fix what's broken, you'll go insane". What a great thesis statement, and it's conveyed in under 15 words.

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38 (edited by Writhyn 2015-05-21 19:03:42)

Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

The world-building without exposition was by far far far my absolute favorite thing about it!!!
That the characters just did stuff and behaved in such ways that we were expected to observe and figure things out...it made me wholly engage with the characters. I bought every one of them and their turnarounds and motivations just by paying attention.

Witness me!

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39 (edited by avatar 2015-05-22 01:30:59)

Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

not long to go now...

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Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

not long to go now...

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Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

I think even without knowing anything about Mad Max, the movie works. So maybe it avoided exposition because it's a well-known franchise, but the result is the same: the movie works on its own.

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Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

I saw this the other night and yup, it was great. Apart from the name, I know absolutely nothing about the Mad Max series and I thought it played well to us newbies. I was expecting some more exposition, but I'm actually glad we didn't get that - just being thrown in to this world was absolutely refreshing.

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Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

Witness me!

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Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

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Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

Disclaimer: if you dislike the tone of a post I make, re-read it in a North/East London accent until it sounds sufficiently playful smile

Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

So playing devils advocate for the filmmaker here. I think it's supposed to play into the whole thematic thing of love and mothers and all that. Since this would be the first time Nux has ever had anyone be like...nice... to him, let alone do that whole mothery thing.

The only thing that bugged me about it is how quickly the tone flips during that scene. We've had half an hour or whatever of insanely high action tension, and then within 5 seconds it flips the switch into a calm, let's talk, romantic sort of scene with them in the lookout. It was just more disorienting than anything. But I didn't and still don't have a problem with Nux's flip in any real sense.

ZangrethorDigital.ca

Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

The character had nothing to live for. He happened not to kill himself. The girl is what happened next.

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Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

Agreed. But honestly did they have sex? If so I totally missed that. I thought it was just that she--instead of freaking out that he was there--recognized what he was going through because she went through the same thing, and was empathetic. He felt understood, and in their own, emotionally-stunted kind of way, felt a kinship that became love.

Witness me!

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Re: Mad Max: Fury Road (obligatory spoiler warning)

Yeah Writhyn thats how I read it. You think about it theyre both basically children at least emotionally but they kind of find something in each other to hold onto and it starts to become something more.

ZangrethorDigital.ca