Mortal1
Superstar
It would only work if they let him have complete control and like he did with Mad Max but if they did....
Mad Max spoiler discussion (We praten over de film in hier)
- Thread starter StraxStrax
- Start date
SumBlackguyz
Cacs Gonna Cac
Not seeing the hype about this movie. Nothing stood out to me about it except for the last escape scene and the mixed girls nipples
TheGodling
Los Ingobernables de Sala de Cine
This movie shows how pathetic and watered downactionmovies been the past 15 yrs
Fixed that for ya.
125 mill worldwide. Budget was around 250 million. It's not looking good. Hopefully it releases i more countries and has good legs.
NobodyReally
Superstar
It's made almost 80% of its budget back within a week. It's gonna be fine.
TheGodling
Los Ingobernables de Sala de Cine
Random thoughts and tidbits to remind and/or teach you suckas why this is the best motion picture in forever
I'm actually not sure where to start on all this so let's start with the obvious, namely that Miller is a master at visual storytelling and continuously proves that the ability to "show, not tell" is cinema's greatest strength.
Like the already addressed chrome paint, which we see three times in the movie. The first time it's hard to place its meaning, its purpose as a War Boy seemingly rises from near death to spray it on his mouth and jump to his death. By the time Nux does it when he opens all the guzzeline valves in his car during the chase into the storm as he speaks of being awaited in Valhalla, its ritualistic purpose should be clear.
Speaking of Immortan Joe's religion, it's simply amazing how widespread and detailed it is without ever dropping into needless exposition. We don't even need to see a sermon, other than the moment Immortan Joe blesses Nux with chrome paint as he prepares to jump the rig and kill Furiosa. It's the constant mentions of Valhalla, V8, shiny and chrome and witness me's that sell the religion without ever bothering to explain the specifics. And since I mentioned the moment, my favorite delivery on a line in the movie might just be Immortan Joe's blessing after Nux says he'll stick Furiosa in the spine and keep her alive for him.
"No, you will kill her, stop the rig and return to me my property. Do so, and I myself, shall carry you to the gates of Valhalla!"
"Am I awaited?"
*sprays chrome paint on his mouth*
"You shall ride eternally, shiny and chrome!"
Of course that's just one part of the "show, not tell" gift of Miller. Like the first time we see Corpus Collossus (the fat bearded midget). Immortan Joe has just put on his gear, walks to greet the people of the Citadel, and there he sits in his hanging seat thingy, in the background to the side of the screen, in front of the lake of pumped up fresh water. We only see him for maybe a second or two, but you know he's there, and you want to know what the fukk is up with that thing, but Miller holds back and doesn't give us anything until the character actually has a purpose in the story (when he tells Immortan about Furiosa going off-road) and the dialogue quickly, and inconspicuously, tells us he's Immortan's son and the brother of Nathan Jones' Rictus Erectus, without it coming off as a "we are his sons" statement. And this constantly happens, we're already shown things but Miller doesn't bother to explain them until later (or not at all), it simply enriches the world as it is even without explanation.
The same way the movie never really gives us anything about The People Eater. At least when we see The Bullet Farmer, we understand where that name comes from as well as the fact he has very military feel (the "hut hut" with which he commands his troops). With the People Eater, all one can guess is that since it's his name and everybody's fukking crazy he probably eats people for real, but Miller sees no reason to confirm it with something as corny as a line of dialogue about how someone is looking tasty or other hints at cannibalism.
Btw, second best delivery of a line in the movie? When Furiosa shoots the search light on the Jigsaw (the Bullet Farmer's car with tank treads), blinding the Bullet Farmer and turning him full out mental.
"I am the Scales of Justice! The conductor of the choir of death! Sing for me brother Koch. SIIIIIING!"
Speaking of that, I absolutely love the moment before he gets mental when he asks the War Boy to hold up a torch and he says he does. He then tells him to keep it closer and he says it's right in front of his eyes. I actually love the part where he says he's going after Furiosa and pulls out a bullet from his teeth (because those are his dental crowns). Those amazing little details!
I feel enough has been said about the whole feminism thing but I'm sure I'll bring some up when I get to the females.
The greatest moment of Charlize Theron's portrayal of Furiosa. That moment in the canyon when she's trying to continue the deal with the motorcyclists. They're mad because she's been followed by more men than they could ever fight, she tries to go on as if nothing is the matter, Angharad has some minor contractions and struggles to remain silent, Furiosa sees Immortan's troops heading into the canyon, Angarahad's groans get loud enough for the motorcyclist leader to hear, and then there's that perfectly sold look of desperation by Theron when Furiosa realizes this plan was complete shyt and they're utterly fukked. Finest acting moment of the entire movie. Second finest acting moment? The way she takes place behind Max when he's wasting the sniper gun's bullets and kinda pushes for Max to hand the gun over, who reluctantly does so knowing he will certainly fukk the shot up with that woman staring at him.
And while we're on finest moments, is there a greater shot of juxtaposition in the movie than the shot, after the storm has hit and the first act of pure fukkery has ended, where Max, with a chained Nux and car door on his shoulder and an empty sawed off shotgun makes that turn around the corner of the rig and finds himself looking at five beautiful women, dressed scantly in white, washing their bodies in an abundance of fresh water? It's almost angelic in comparison to the grit of the wasteland, and the fact that Miller starts the shot in a blur and pushes it into focus only sells it more.
My favorite of the five wives btw? The Dag, the skinny platinum blonde haired girl played by Abbey Lee who speaks mostly in slang ("He's a filthy smeg who only eats slanga"). She's also set to play the antagonist in Nicolas Winding Refn's upcoming movie The Neon Demon btw, so she was already on my to-watch list and it's good to see her stand out in this.
I like how all the wives have a different purpose too. You have The Splendid Angharad, who is perhaps the most naive but also the leader, who knows they deserve better than accept the fate the world has bestowed upon them and is willing to risk it all. Small moment of 'show, not tell' greatness: when Immortan Joe has a clear shot on Furiosa and she opens the door and hangs out, his unborn child being the only thing in the world that Immortan Joe would not risk losing. Second small moment of 'show, not tell' greatness: when Max asks her to bring him the water hose after that wide shot of the wives and the camera follows the hose she holds by her side, which conveniently and effectively shows her pregnant belly at the same time. No need to speak on it, we can all see it.
Remember when I said the wives are shown to be almost angelic in their first appearance? Miller certainly goes there again when the women capture Nux and plan to throw her out. The dialog that follows about how he's kamikrazy and Immortan Joe's battle fodder leads to the most simply effective moment of philosophy in the entire movie:
"You're an old man's battle fodder. He tells you what to do and you kill!"
"No, we are not to blame!"
And then, not simply said, but spoken with a very Shakespearish emphasis:
"Then who killed the world?"
The moment itself playing out as Nux hangs over the edge of the rig, the women above them, appearing even more cerebral than before, literally looking down on him, bestowing upon him this question to ponder on as they push him down into the dirt, like angels casting out an unworthy soul from heaven itself (of course, they are for now on a journey to heaven, the Green Place, metaphor galore). And of course the question remains, the same one they painted on the walls of the dome at the Citadel, "Who killed the world?". The answer is obvious of course, men like Immortan Joe, who saw society collapse but instead of trying to make the best of it as humanity as a whole, succumbed to the descent and pushed it further into the abyss.
Now I'm suddenly reminded that there's another wife of great importance, and it's not Toast (Zoe Kravitz, the one most to the point and realistic) or Capable (the red haired chick, part of Nux' redemption arc), but Cheedo, the wife who after Angarhad's death wants to run back to Immortan Joe, believing he would forgive them. Then during the final chase after Furiosa has barely made it onto Immortan Joe's vehicle, she gets out of the rig and asks Rictus to take her, who does so. It's that moment where you go "Ah come on, you stupid woman!" although you probably didn't have time to finish that thought as she quickly extends her hand to Furiosa to pull her up. Bah Gawd! It was a ploy, a ruse to help Furiosa, and we fell for it because Miller swerved us with that earlier scene into thinking that she would actually want them to take her back. Everything is shown for a purpose. Grade A masterful storytelling.
Speaking of swerves, how about that Green Place swerve? Of course, I doubt there are too many who actually believed the place still existed, but the mere fact that we already got to see the Green Place and didn't realize it because of how ruinous and desolate it looked (those fukking bird people, man) only makes the impact of it being gone bigger. It certainly helps sell Furiosa's big breakdown, and it's hard as fukk to sell ye olde "fall to my knees and shout 'noooo' at the sky" moment in 2015. And continuing about swerves, I like how Miller not swerves the characters (and consequently dumbing them down) by having Max immediately call out the naked woman in the tower as bait. You know damn well that in every other movie they'd fall for it like dumb-asses and then they'd find out Furiosa is one of theirs and they'd let them go, but Miller doesn't waste any time on such bullshyt.
Now that we're on the Vuvalini part, I also love the subtle implication of the salt plains being the former ocean. I've seen people argue that there's nothing to imply such, but it's obviously called the salt plains for a reason and they believe they might need the 160 days to cross it on motorcycle. Name me one other place other than a dried up ocean that fulfills those requirements.
Back to the Vuvalini, I've seen someoneo in this thread comment on how quickly the two Vuvalini on the motorcycle got taken out during the final battle (the youngest failing to shoot through Immortan Joe's bulletproof glass only to be run over by the People Eater, whose almost orgasmic response to that kill is another beautiful detail of depravity btw) but that needs to happen. It's kind of a subtle throwback to The Road Warrior where most of the guys who join Max on the truck simply aren't a match for the overwhelming forces of Lord Humungus and die reasonably quickly. This isn't 300, they aren't Spartans with 20:1 K/D ratios, they are mere survivors and they're lucky if they take out some bad guys before the bad guys take them out.
I'm actually not sure where to start on all this so let's start with the obvious, namely that Miller is a master at visual storytelling and continuously proves that the ability to "show, not tell" is cinema's greatest strength.
Like the already addressed chrome paint, which we see three times in the movie. The first time it's hard to place its meaning, its purpose as a War Boy seemingly rises from near death to spray it on his mouth and jump to his death. By the time Nux does it when he opens all the guzzeline valves in his car during the chase into the storm as he speaks of being awaited in Valhalla, its ritualistic purpose should be clear.
Speaking of Immortan Joe's religion, it's simply amazing how widespread and detailed it is without ever dropping into needless exposition. We don't even need to see a sermon, other than the moment Immortan Joe blesses Nux with chrome paint as he prepares to jump the rig and kill Furiosa. It's the constant mentions of Valhalla, V8, shiny and chrome and witness me's that sell the religion without ever bothering to explain the specifics. And since I mentioned the moment, my favorite delivery on a line in the movie might just be Immortan Joe's blessing after Nux says he'll stick Furiosa in the spine and keep her alive for him.
"No, you will kill her, stop the rig and return to me my property. Do so, and I myself, shall carry you to the gates of Valhalla!"
"Am I awaited?"
*sprays chrome paint on his mouth*
"You shall ride eternally, shiny and chrome!"
Of course that's just one part of the "show, not tell" gift of Miller. Like the first time we see Corpus Collossus (the fat bearded midget). Immortan Joe has just put on his gear, walks to greet the people of the Citadel, and there he sits in his hanging seat thingy, in the background to the side of the screen, in front of the lake of pumped up fresh water. We only see him for maybe a second or two, but you know he's there, and you want to know what the fukk is up with that thing, but Miller holds back and doesn't give us anything until the character actually has a purpose in the story (when he tells Immortan about Furiosa going off-road) and the dialogue quickly, and inconspicuously, tells us he's Immortan's son and the brother of Nathan Jones' Rictus Erectus, without it coming off as a "we are his sons" statement. And this constantly happens, we're already shown things but Miller doesn't bother to explain them until later (or not at all), it simply enriches the world as it is even without explanation.
The same way the movie never really gives us anything about The People Eater. At least when we see The Bullet Farmer, we understand where that name comes from as well as the fact he has very military feel (the "hut hut" with which he commands his troops). With the People Eater, all one can guess is that since it's his name and everybody's fukking crazy he probably eats people for real, but Miller sees no reason to confirm it with something as corny as a line of dialogue about how someone is looking tasty or other hints at cannibalism.
Btw, second best delivery of a line in the movie? When Furiosa shoots the search light on the Jigsaw (the Bullet Farmer's car with tank treads), blinding the Bullet Farmer and turning him full out mental.
"I am the Scales of Justice! The conductor of the choir of death! Sing for me brother Koch. SIIIIIING!"
Speaking of that, I absolutely love the moment before he gets mental when he asks the War Boy to hold up a torch and he says he does. He then tells him to keep it closer and he says it's right in front of his eyes. I actually love the part where he says he's going after Furiosa and pulls out a bullet from his teeth (because those are his dental crowns). Those amazing little details!
I feel enough has been said about the whole feminism thing but I'm sure I'll bring some up when I get to the females.
The greatest moment of Charlize Theron's portrayal of Furiosa. That moment in the canyon when she's trying to continue the deal with the motorcyclists. They're mad because she's been followed by more men than they could ever fight, she tries to go on as if nothing is the matter, Angharad has some minor contractions and struggles to remain silent, Furiosa sees Immortan's troops heading into the canyon, Angarahad's groans get loud enough for the motorcyclist leader to hear, and then there's that perfectly sold look of desperation by Theron when Furiosa realizes this plan was complete shyt and they're utterly fukked. Finest acting moment of the entire movie. Second finest acting moment? The way she takes place behind Max when he's wasting the sniper gun's bullets and kinda pushes for Max to hand the gun over, who reluctantly does so knowing he will certainly fukk the shot up with that woman staring at him.
And while we're on finest moments, is there a greater shot of juxtaposition in the movie than the shot, after the storm has hit and the first act of pure fukkery has ended, where Max, with a chained Nux and car door on his shoulder and an empty sawed off shotgun makes that turn around the corner of the rig and finds himself looking at five beautiful women, dressed scantly in white, washing their bodies in an abundance of fresh water? It's almost angelic in comparison to the grit of the wasteland, and the fact that Miller starts the shot in a blur and pushes it into focus only sells it more.
My favorite of the five wives btw? The Dag, the skinny platinum blonde haired girl played by Abbey Lee who speaks mostly in slang ("He's a filthy smeg who only eats slanga"). She's also set to play the antagonist in Nicolas Winding Refn's upcoming movie The Neon Demon btw, so she was already on my to-watch list and it's good to see her stand out in this.
I like how all the wives have a different purpose too. You have The Splendid Angharad, who is perhaps the most naive but also the leader, who knows they deserve better than accept the fate the world has bestowed upon them and is willing to risk it all. Small moment of 'show, not tell' greatness: when Immortan Joe has a clear shot on Furiosa and she opens the door and hangs out, his unborn child being the only thing in the world that Immortan Joe would not risk losing. Second small moment of 'show, not tell' greatness: when Max asks her to bring him the water hose after that wide shot of the wives and the camera follows the hose she holds by her side, which conveniently and effectively shows her pregnant belly at the same time. No need to speak on it, we can all see it.
Remember when I said the wives are shown to be almost angelic in their first appearance? Miller certainly goes there again when the women capture Nux and plan to throw her out. The dialog that follows about how he's kamikrazy and Immortan Joe's battle fodder leads to the most simply effective moment of philosophy in the entire movie:
"You're an old man's battle fodder. He tells you what to do and you kill!"
"No, we are not to blame!"
And then, not simply said, but spoken with a very Shakespearish emphasis:
"Then who killed the world?"
The moment itself playing out as Nux hangs over the edge of the rig, the women above them, appearing even more cerebral than before, literally looking down on him, bestowing upon him this question to ponder on as they push him down into the dirt, like angels casting out an unworthy soul from heaven itself (of course, they are for now on a journey to heaven, the Green Place, metaphor galore). And of course the question remains, the same one they painted on the walls of the dome at the Citadel, "Who killed the world?". The answer is obvious of course, men like Immortan Joe, who saw society collapse but instead of trying to make the best of it as humanity as a whole, succumbed to the descent and pushed it further into the abyss.
Now I'm suddenly reminded that there's another wife of great importance, and it's not Toast (Zoe Kravitz, the one most to the point and realistic) or Capable (the red haired chick, part of Nux' redemption arc), but Cheedo, the wife who after Angarhad's death wants to run back to Immortan Joe, believing he would forgive them. Then during the final chase after Furiosa has barely made it onto Immortan Joe's vehicle, she gets out of the rig and asks Rictus to take her, who does so. It's that moment where you go "Ah come on, you stupid woman!" although you probably didn't have time to finish that thought as she quickly extends her hand to Furiosa to pull her up. Bah Gawd! It was a ploy, a ruse to help Furiosa, and we fell for it because Miller swerved us with that earlier scene into thinking that she would actually want them to take her back. Everything is shown for a purpose. Grade A masterful storytelling.
Speaking of swerves, how about that Green Place swerve? Of course, I doubt there are too many who actually believed the place still existed, but the mere fact that we already got to see the Green Place and didn't realize it because of how ruinous and desolate it looked (those fukking bird people, man) only makes the impact of it being gone bigger. It certainly helps sell Furiosa's big breakdown, and it's hard as fukk to sell ye olde "fall to my knees and shout 'noooo' at the sky" moment in 2015. And continuing about swerves, I like how Miller not swerves the characters (and consequently dumbing them down) by having Max immediately call out the naked woman in the tower as bait. You know damn well that in every other movie they'd fall for it like dumb-asses and then they'd find out Furiosa is one of theirs and they'd let them go, but Miller doesn't waste any time on such bullshyt.
Now that we're on the Vuvalini part, I also love the subtle implication of the salt plains being the former ocean. I've seen people argue that there's nothing to imply such, but it's obviously called the salt plains for a reason and they believe they might need the 160 days to cross it on motorcycle. Name me one other place other than a dried up ocean that fulfills those requirements.
Back to the Vuvalini, I've seen someoneo in this thread comment on how quickly the two Vuvalini on the motorcycle got taken out during the final battle (the youngest failing to shoot through Immortan Joe's bulletproof glass only to be run over by the People Eater, whose almost orgasmic response to that kill is another beautiful detail of depravity btw) but that needs to happen. It's kind of a subtle throwback to The Road Warrior where most of the guys who join Max on the truck simply aren't a match for the overwhelming forces of Lord Humungus and die reasonably quickly. This isn't 300, they aren't Spartans with 20:1 K/D ratios, they are mere survivors and they're lucky if they take out some bad guys before the bad guys take them out.
Last edited:
TheGodling
Los Ingobernables de Sala de Cine
Which is as good a moment to start talking about the action (wait, we're only now getting into the action? WTF?) in all its gloriousness. Let's start with the not-quite-opening-but-close-enough when Max escapes from his captivity at the Citadel and runs through the tunnels with that trademark George Miller sped-up framerate. It's actually the only scene in the movie where I caught it (I think it also happens during Max' and Furiosa's fight, but I'm not 100% sure) and it just sells the tension so hard. I actually heard that this time around Miller more often found him slowing down the framerate to make some of the car crashes and stunts more clearer. I guess that's the advantage of working with a blockbuster budget, instead of playing it safe then speeding it up because you can't afford to waste any money you can go all out and simply make it look good in post-production.
I actually don't have much to say about the first action scene other that I fukking loved how Junkie XL drops the tension action scene music during the storm sequence and instead goes for something almost majestic, like he knows it's not important to be in suspense at this moment, you're supposed to bask in the magnitude and grand statement this force of nature presents, only to drop right back into the tension when Nux declares what a lovely day it is and goes Kamikrazy. Funniest dumb comment I've seen on the internet btw is someone wondering why anyone would waste the supposedly valuable fuel to weld spikes onto cars (the rusty spike-covered Buzzards), like we didn't just see a guy with a flamethrower guitar five minutes earlier. Of course it doesn't make sense, but all these people are crazy, remember?
The second big chase of the movie, the canyon chase with the motorcyclists is probably my favorite. Powered by the best song on the soundtrack (Brothers In Arms, Youtube it, I've been listening to it on repeat ever since I started writing this shyt about two hours ago), a song so goddamn good it's almost bothersome how they chose to use it for a scene in the middle of the movie and not the big climax. Anyway, this shyt has probably my favorite two stunts of the movie, the first being the guy who slides his motorcycle under the rig to grab onto Furiosa as she tries to climb back in, and the guy who jumps the rig but is shot down mid-air by Furiosa, who ducks back into the cabin as his motorcycle flies over her crashing onto the hood. I'm almost certain there had to be some CGI involved there, but I'm not sure and the mere fact this movie makes you think that a scene where a motorcycle is propelled over one of its major stars heads isn't a special effect is insane enough in its own right. Come to think of it, how the fukk did they shoot that scene where the guy is hit in the face with the smoke pellet and crashes underneath the rig? I love btw that in one of the close-ups of Max shooting down some guy mid-air the camera stays on Hardy and you just see a small part of the motorcycle and the guy fly by at the edges of the screen. But I also love the big jump Immortan Joe does with his monster truck that seems to almost end very badly as it swoops sideways with two wheels of the ground dangerously close to that rock ridge with one guy hanging onto the side of the truck with one arm (must've been special effects involved, right?). And I know there has to be some major fukking wizardry involved as well in that shot where the rig hits the side of that spiky rock while Angarhad hangs off the side of the rig, let alone how the fukk they shot that shot of the Monster Truck sweeping leftways into the ridge to avoid Angarhad and flip with those guys still hanging from the sides.
Aah, but that final chase though... Those transitions. How the hell do you show a close-up of a guy being thrown of a rig with in the background a truck with one of the polecats coming in, cut to a shot from the side of the rig where you see the guy that was thrown off managing to grab and hold onto some rope underneath the rig while the truck with the polecat moves in closer and the pole sweeps towards the rig, then cut to a close-up back in the rig and see that polecat come in from above, and during each of these shots, the vehicle is in the exact position it should be compared to the previous shot? How? Matter of fact, how the hell did Miller remember that when Max throws a guy off the Doof Wagon (that's the vehicle with the guitar guy, The Doof Warrior), we would see that guy fall in the next shot of a Furiosa climbing onto Immortan Joe's vehicle. The amount of editing continuity is just unfathomable. There's no way all these stunts and action sequences should follow each other up as well as they do unless they were shot at the same time with five different cameras, and we know that ain't the case! Miller is so many levels above the next best guy right now that if he were to look down, the guy would look like an ant. A fukking pissant. And I can't even name him because I honestly don't know who's alive right now that deserves the honor of being called 'next best action guy' after Miller. Nobody. And if you can't see it, you might as well start calling yourself the scales of justice as well because you're fukking blind.
And right now I'm nearing the end of this shyt, and maybe you caught onto the fact that for a very long piece I haven't even mentioned Mad Max that much. So is it true, is Mad Max really a supporting player in this shyt?
Of course not, dumb-ass, the reason he gets so little mention is because I've already touched on his role and the importance of it many times before, this shyt is long enough without me repeating things I've already spoken on countless times.
But still:
Let me mention that scene at the end when he saves her life and finally brings up the courage to tell her his name. The audience always does an awkward laugh here because the movie is called Mad Max so it's not even a mystery to us what his name is, but it's to them and the fact he chooses to tell them is the final closure to his character arc so it's actually a big deal.
And now that I'm on Max anyway, I love the way he says "How much worse can it get? First they take my blood, now my car!" when he's mounted on Nux' car. The one moment where I felt he was actually channeling Mel Gibson. Also loved the "Confucumas!" swear, although it isn't as double layered and clever as the War Boys calling themselves Fukashima Kamikrazy.
Another greatly delivered line?
"I had a baby brother. I had a little baby brother. And he was perfect in every way!"
As shouted by Nathan Jones' Rictus Erectus, repeating nearly at verbatim what the Organic Mechanic said to him moments before, sellign the manchild act without resorting to 'durr-durr' type stuff. Matter of fact, the whole way Nathan Jones plays Rictus is pretty much perfect, from that little grunt and nod when he approves of the mother's milk his father lets him taste, the way he nags Corpus Collosus to let him use the telescope and of course the way he rips out a V8 engine out of a truck and yells "Riiiictuuuuus!". Not bad for a guy who was known to be such a bad actor that they didn't even dare to give him any speaking lines in a fukking Tony Jaa movie.
In fact, Miller got a great acting performance out of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (Angarhad) too, not too shabby either for a woman whose only other acting achievement was being an even less convincing lead actress than Megan Fox was in the Transformers movies. It almost makes you wonder if Miller actually knew what he was doing all along when he was pulling off all those (much hated) left-field casting decisions for his Justice League movie. That's a rhetoric question, nerd-brehs.
But yeah, everybody did a great job here. I'm still not sure how @FlyRy had the audacity to talk about some of the line delivery being off. Even that guy who was totally getting his Hamlet on when he tells Nux about Furiosa's betrayal is spot on. "Chaos! Betrayal! An imperator gone rogue!"
I think that's about it for now. I hope so actually because I'm going to be pissed as hell if I wrote all of this shyt down and I still forgot something. Regardless, this is a movie for the ages, the new standard of action and perhaps almost certainly one of the greatest films I have ever seen.
And I fukking called it ages ago, plebs.
P.S. fukk I knew this wasn't everything because although I didn't want to say too much about the Doof Warrior, I do want to say it's absolutely brilliant how Miller used him to build tension whenever they're too far behind the heroes to appear too dangerous of a threat (because you know, they're a fukking blip on the horizon). Because even if you can barely see them, you always hear that fukking guitar, slowly growing louder. Masterful!
I actually don't have much to say about the first action scene other that I fukking loved how Junkie XL drops the tension action scene music during the storm sequence and instead goes for something almost majestic, like he knows it's not important to be in suspense at this moment, you're supposed to bask in the magnitude and grand statement this force of nature presents, only to drop right back into the tension when Nux declares what a lovely day it is and goes Kamikrazy. Funniest dumb comment I've seen on the internet btw is someone wondering why anyone would waste the supposedly valuable fuel to weld spikes onto cars (the rusty spike-covered Buzzards), like we didn't just see a guy with a flamethrower guitar five minutes earlier. Of course it doesn't make sense, but all these people are crazy, remember?
The second big chase of the movie, the canyon chase with the motorcyclists is probably my favorite. Powered by the best song on the soundtrack (Brothers In Arms, Youtube it, I've been listening to it on repeat ever since I started writing this shyt about two hours ago), a song so goddamn good it's almost bothersome how they chose to use it for a scene in the middle of the movie and not the big climax. Anyway, this shyt has probably my favorite two stunts of the movie, the first being the guy who slides his motorcycle under the rig to grab onto Furiosa as she tries to climb back in, and the guy who jumps the rig but is shot down mid-air by Furiosa, who ducks back into the cabin as his motorcycle flies over her crashing onto the hood. I'm almost certain there had to be some CGI involved there, but I'm not sure and the mere fact this movie makes you think that a scene where a motorcycle is propelled over one of its major stars heads isn't a special effect is insane enough in its own right. Come to think of it, how the fukk did they shoot that scene where the guy is hit in the face with the smoke pellet and crashes underneath the rig? I love btw that in one of the close-ups of Max shooting down some guy mid-air the camera stays on Hardy and you just see a small part of the motorcycle and the guy fly by at the edges of the screen. But I also love the big jump Immortan Joe does with his monster truck that seems to almost end very badly as it swoops sideways with two wheels of the ground dangerously close to that rock ridge with one guy hanging onto the side of the truck with one arm (must've been special effects involved, right?). And I know there has to be some major fukking wizardry involved as well in that shot where the rig hits the side of that spiky rock while Angarhad hangs off the side of the rig, let alone how the fukk they shot that shot of the Monster Truck sweeping leftways into the ridge to avoid Angarhad and flip with those guys still hanging from the sides.
Aah, but that final chase though... Those transitions. How the hell do you show a close-up of a guy being thrown of a rig with in the background a truck with one of the polecats coming in, cut to a shot from the side of the rig where you see the guy that was thrown off managing to grab and hold onto some rope underneath the rig while the truck with the polecat moves in closer and the pole sweeps towards the rig, then cut to a close-up back in the rig and see that polecat come in from above, and during each of these shots, the vehicle is in the exact position it should be compared to the previous shot? How? Matter of fact, how the hell did Miller remember that when Max throws a guy off the Doof Wagon (that's the vehicle with the guitar guy, The Doof Warrior), we would see that guy fall in the next shot of a Furiosa climbing onto Immortan Joe's vehicle. The amount of editing continuity is just unfathomable. There's no way all these stunts and action sequences should follow each other up as well as they do unless they were shot at the same time with five different cameras, and we know that ain't the case! Miller is so many levels above the next best guy right now that if he were to look down, the guy would look like an ant. A fukking pissant. And I can't even name him because I honestly don't know who's alive right now that deserves the honor of being called 'next best action guy' after Miller. Nobody. And if you can't see it, you might as well start calling yourself the scales of justice as well because you're fukking blind.
And right now I'm nearing the end of this shyt, and maybe you caught onto the fact that for a very long piece I haven't even mentioned Mad Max that much. So is it true, is Mad Max really a supporting player in this shyt?
Of course not, dumb-ass, the reason he gets so little mention is because I've already touched on his role and the importance of it many times before, this shyt is long enough without me repeating things I've already spoken on countless times.
But still:
Let me mention that scene at the end when he saves her life and finally brings up the courage to tell her his name. The audience always does an awkward laugh here because the movie is called Mad Max so it's not even a mystery to us what his name is, but it's to them and the fact he chooses to tell them is the final closure to his character arc so it's actually a big deal.
And now that I'm on Max anyway, I love the way he says "How much worse can it get? First they take my blood, now my car!" when he's mounted on Nux' car. The one moment where I felt he was actually channeling Mel Gibson. Also loved the "Confucumas!" swear, although it isn't as double layered and clever as the War Boys calling themselves Fukashima Kamikrazy.
Another greatly delivered line?
"I had a baby brother. I had a little baby brother. And he was perfect in every way!"
As shouted by Nathan Jones' Rictus Erectus, repeating nearly at verbatim what the Organic Mechanic said to him moments before, sellign the manchild act without resorting to 'durr-durr' type stuff. Matter of fact, the whole way Nathan Jones plays Rictus is pretty much perfect, from that little grunt and nod when he approves of the mother's milk his father lets him taste, the way he nags Corpus Collosus to let him use the telescope and of course the way he rips out a V8 engine out of a truck and yells "Riiiictuuuuus!". Not bad for a guy who was known to be such a bad actor that they didn't even dare to give him any speaking lines in a fukking Tony Jaa movie.
In fact, Miller got a great acting performance out of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (Angarhad) too, not too shabby either for a woman whose only other acting achievement was being an even less convincing lead actress than Megan Fox was in the Transformers movies. It almost makes you wonder if Miller actually knew what he was doing all along when he was pulling off all those (much hated) left-field casting decisions for his Justice League movie. That's a rhetoric question, nerd-brehs.
But yeah, everybody did a great job here. I'm still not sure how @FlyRy had the audacity to talk about some of the line delivery being off. Even that guy who was totally getting his Hamlet on when he tells Nux about Furiosa's betrayal is spot on. "Chaos! Betrayal! An imperator gone rogue!"
I think that's about it for now. I hope so actually because I'm going to be pissed as hell if I wrote all of this shyt down and I still forgot something. Regardless, this is a movie for the ages, the new standard of action and perhaps almost certainly one of the greatest films I have ever seen.
And I fukking called it ages ago, plebs.
P.S. fukk I knew this wasn't everything because although I didn't want to say too much about the Doof Warrior, I do want to say it's absolutely brilliant how Miller used him to build tension whenever they're too far behind the heroes to appear too dangerous of a threat (because you know, they're a fukking blip on the horizon). Because even if you can barely see them, you always hear that fukking guitar, slowly growing louder. Masterful!
@hexagram23
A pantheon level flick cant get a sticky?
Avengers been up for a month and is just flame wars now and some of the other stickies are suspect.
We getting our ass beat by pitch perfect 2.
The uninformed need to know
A pantheon level flick cant get a sticky?
Avengers been up for a month and is just flame wars now and some of the other stickies are suspect.
We getting our ass beat by pitch perfect 2.
The uninformed need to know
NobodyReally
Superstar
I feel like there was a very spiritual themes running throughout this movie, with discussions of hope, faith, and redemption. And then there's the little girl Max kept seeing. It was almost like she was a guardian angel and would pop up at very interesting moments. She saved his life at one point (when an arrow was shot at his head), and saved the life of Furiosa (when he grabbed the gun during their first fight- he could have easily shot her if the girl hadn't appeared). She also led Max back to the group to tell them to turn them around. I also thought it was interesting that the gun jammed when he was gonna shoot off Nux's arm, and it jammed again when Furiosa tried to shoot Max. And finally just when Max is about to gnaw off Nux's fingers to get the chains off, he hears Furiosa's banging in the background. These elements seemed very supernatural to me, and underscored a possible spiritual realm watching over Max and Furiosa.
NobodyReally
Superstar
@hexagram23
A pantheon level flick cant get a sticky?
Avengers been up for a month and is just flame wars now and some of the other stickies are suspect.
We getting our ass beat by pitch perfect 2.
The uninformed need to know
Pitch Perfect is gonna end up making more money in the short run because it's a sequel to a newer movie and appeals to a larger demographic. However, that being said, I think Mad Max is gonna win the long race. It's currently beating Pitch Perfect. Looks like the word of mouth is slowly turning the tides.
I agree. Its doing better internationally as well. I just wanted to stanPitch Perfect is gonna end up making more money in the short run because it's a sequel to a newer movie and appeals to a larger demographic. However, that being said, I think Mad Max is gonna win the long race. It's currently beating Pitch Perfect. Looks like the word of mouth is slowly turning the tides.
TheGodling
Los Ingobernables de Sala de Cine
The gun didn't jam, it misfired because the shells were duds (most likely due to the sand caught in it). It's a throwback to The Road Warrior where his shotgun also misfires (due to the shells being crap and falling apart). But there's definitely a bit of a supernatural element to his visions as they seem to guide him as much as that they pop up in stressful situations.