"Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,. Signifying nothing."
This reminded me of so many franchises where they completely mistake/forget what made it great to begin with: Star Wars and GB are two others that spring to mind. All the familiar visual elements, but doesn't touch the deeper zeitgeist core.
A few basics:
1. MM is supposed to be SCARY. Mohawk from MM2, with his boy toy, is not just scary, he's DISTURBING - a depraved pervert and full-fledged psychopath (making jump scare with shotgun shell terrifying.) The scene of the young couple chased down by the gang in MM1 - resulting in onscreen rape and murder - is from a nightmare, end of society terror you feel in your bones.
In this wanna-be four quadrant tentpole MM, nothing is scary/disturbing. The closest it gets is pedo Erectus (!) kidnapping child Furiosa; which is
instantly sidestepped and forgotten (kept only to explain how she escapes.) It's like a Broadway musical or goofy rubber-mask haunted house version of MM, complete with silly gross-out body stuff. A parody of the pulse-pounding classic RW/MM2 (which plays like Sicario - lean, chilling and intense.)
2. Mad Max is supposed to be post-apocalyptic. Think zombie movie. It is supposed to connect to the destruction of our REAL WORLD - the backdrop is supposed to be the unraveled shreds of our society, real people trying to survive/hide in CONSTANT FEAR as they are hunted for their meager possessions or bodies, haunted by what has been lost. Like Rockatansky himself. This movie.... is set on some CGI planet where a bunch of earth's car parts, homeless people, the cast of Rocky Horror and the Priscilla Queen of the Desert bus got air-dropped.
3. Mad Max is supposed to be set in Australia, which has one of the most unique landscapes in the world. Not amidst the Boonta Eve Pod Race in Mos Espa. This endlessly CGI'ed landscape (yes most was filmed in Australia for tax purposes ONLY, altered to match FR's Namibia) looks somewhere between Eastern Africa, "Cars" and the AI take on "desert" on some FX guy's computer. (It may have zero connection to Australia beyond some accents, but it did lose Australian taxpayers nearly US$150 million - their loss is Miller's gain!
)
Character:
The core of this movie was supposed to be Dementus and Furiosa. A child stolen - its parent murdered - to replace the child/family Dementus lost. That's set up... then pretty much abandoned.
What SHOULD have happened: He personally protects and trains her to fight and survive, to be a future leader, ACTUALLY raises her as his child, she starts to love him as her real father, and him her, a powerful bond, as the memories of her childhood kidnapping fade for both. Even though he eventually expresses deep remorse over that past (grief made him do horrific things - cue flashback to pre-Dementus Hemsworth life, see murder of his loved ones.)
Then the end chase/face-off makes sense and has real power/weight - despite their 15 year bond she can't forget what he did now she's a woman/adult like her mother was, and he even understands her rage even though he's now the key leader of the bottom-up revolution against Joe and can't just allow her vengeance to play out.
As it all stands in the movie - dull, stupid, dull - not even clear he recognizes her for a long time. No idea what even happened there at Bullet Town - whatever, loved the yellow crane. He chases her and Poor-man's Max (who tf was that guy who died by cartoon dogs) across the desert in the most high octane, low drama-wattage chase in cinema history. Ahhhh, but that's how she loses her arm...!
Charlize must be laughing and laughing.
Rant #1 over.
Coming soon... Waterworld-girl tattoo map (yup, to the garden of eden!), Furiosa hides living up-close alongside males for years undetected (then grows long flowing hair!), some random dude with white hair as Joe walking around like a goofball among his idiot savants and, given we have a female lead...
how DOES this world see women/females exactly (it seems super inconsistent)?
Is it Stallone's Judge Dredd on wheels? Can a sniper rifle see objects fifty miles away? If a fleeing bad guy splits up his little convoy, should you follow his car as if he's still in it? If you set up a big battle between two wannabe Humonguses, should it happen off-screen and ignore the key villain's POV? The answers and MORE next time!
Quick, quick - must rewatch MM2 to cleanse bitter palate....
