Mad Max: Fury Road.
Jul. 1st, 2015 06:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhythmaningThis afternoon, I went to see Mad Max: Fury Road.
Since this might contain spoilers - though frankly anyone who is likely to go will already have gone - I'll make some general points first and continue below the fold.
The gentle humour and in-depth characterisation, coupled with subtle dialogue that allowed the fascinating story to slowly unfold.
Ok that was just sarcastic, but I assume that FB is now showing the "More..." icon.
I'm trying to imagine to first script meeting.
"I know, let's have a chase!"
A moment later... "And then... Let's have a chase!"
This is a film of two halves, chase one and then chase two.
There is barely any dialogue, no character development, no exposition. It makes no sense whatsoever. The scene is set with an opening narrative, which falls away.
Max is mad. Furiosa is furious.
The special effects are apparently mostly physical rather than digital, and as others have said the while look of the movie is basically awesome. It looks amazing, a whole dessert rally of incredible steampunk vehicles, and has jaw dropping stunts.
The movie has one gear, which is foot-down fast. It is fun, in a mindless, smash 'em movie way. Which is fun. It is also utter, utter nonsense.
I say through to the end of the credits - well, nearly to the end, because the usher wanted to clear the cinema. The credits are hilarious. In Gravity, the digital special effects credits went on and on and on and on. In Mad Max, there were hardly ten lines of credits for digital special effects. But the list of mechanics scrolls on and on, and there are whole departments responsible for building vehicles and maintenance. There was a department responsible for "skulls and wheels".
The story of making the film as told by Wikipedia is fascinating - it has basically taken twenty years to get to the screen, and was filmed in Namibia when the Australian desert suffered some unexpected rainfall, and became green and fertile. (At least for a bit.)
Basically, it was everything I expected, and was fun, but wasn't a very good film.
Since this might contain spoilers - though frankly anyone who is likely to go will already have gone - I'll make some general points first and continue below the fold.
The gentle humour and in-depth characterisation, coupled with subtle dialogue that allowed the fascinating story to slowly unfold.
Ok that was just sarcastic, but I assume that FB is now showing the "More..." icon.
I'm trying to imagine to first script meeting.
"I know, let's have a chase!"
A moment later... "And then... Let's have a chase!"
This is a film of two halves, chase one and then chase two.
There is barely any dialogue, no character development, no exposition. It makes no sense whatsoever. The scene is set with an opening narrative, which falls away.
Max is mad. Furiosa is furious.
The special effects are apparently mostly physical rather than digital, and as others have said the while look of the movie is basically awesome. It looks amazing, a whole dessert rally of incredible steampunk vehicles, and has jaw dropping stunts.
The movie has one gear, which is foot-down fast. It is fun, in a mindless, smash 'em movie way. Which is fun. It is also utter, utter nonsense.
I say through to the end of the credits - well, nearly to the end, because the usher wanted to clear the cinema. The credits are hilarious. In Gravity, the digital special effects credits went on and on and on and on. In Mad Max, there were hardly ten lines of credits for digital special effects. But the list of mechanics scrolls on and on, and there are whole departments responsible for building vehicles and maintenance. There was a department responsible for "skulls and wheels".
The story of making the film as told by Wikipedia is fascinating - it has basically taken twenty years to get to the screen, and was filmed in Namibia when the Australian desert suffered some unexpected rainfall, and became green and fertile. (At least for a bit.)
Basically, it was everything I expected, and was fun, but wasn't a very good film.
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no subject
Date: 2015-07-02 06:48 pm (UTC)Action isn't enough - for me. It was a film of four parts:
I didn't feel the characters developed through that, though others disagree.
It was very comic book or computer game, neither of which are genres which hold any interest for me.
I enjoyed it, it was awesome, and it left little with me except unanswerable questions.
The fact that we are debating it shows it had depth. But having seen it, I'm done.
(Actually, maybe not true. I think a sequel might be more interesting. Furiosa establishes a vegetarian colony but has to deal with warlike cities around. Nux crawls back, creates a dynasty with the wife (I know they had names, but I only got that from the credits). Max meets Tina Turner. Oh hang on...
no subject
Date: 2015-07-02 07:02 pm (UTC)And yes, it does a great job of setting up a world with lots of stuff in it. Interesting locations, fascinatingly odd people. Lots of things to build on there if you wanted a sequel.
no subject
Date: 2015-07-02 07:20 pm (UTC)How did Furiosa lose her hand?
Why is Mad Max tortured by visions? (Possibly answered by Mel Gibson, but that's twenty years ago and I was probably too drunk to remember.)
Why were the Wives so pristine when everyone everyone else was so grubby?
Where did the milk come from?
Why did the huddled masses not stage a revolt?
How did dictator Immortan Joe And again I only know his name because of the credits) take and retain power when he is clearly an emotional and maybe physical cripple.
And thinking about it further, the post equating it to a Greek tragedy works. And as I said, it has clearly for me thinking!