I tried to watch the first mad max movie because of the comments on here. Almost fell asleep half way through and had to turn it off.
I really just didn't like anybody in the movie except his family. I also felt a lot of the scenes, dialogue and acting we're really cringeworthy. I'll keep trying though.
The first one requires a lot of nostalgia and/or context now. It was a very low budget film made by amateurs (George Miller and Byron Kennedy) in an era (late 1970s) where cheap, fast and nasty sci-fi films were acceptable.
Its really only fun now as backstory to the series, to see Max ..and find out why he is 'mad'
The 2nd one is really their magnum opus.
The 3rd one was going to be their first real Hollywood level Mad Max production but Kennedy actually died in a helicopter crash scouting locations leaving Miller grief stricken and uninterested in continuing. George Ogilvie (a friend and fellow director) was brought on board to get it done and Mller was largely uninterested.
Miller got the urge again 10+ years later but it took him another decade+ to get something up and running.
A lot of people don't know that Mad Max 4 was set to go in 2001 WITH Mel Gibson as the star. After the September 11th attacks and the US dollar fall/Aussie dollar rise, the studio backed out and cancelled the project, not wanting to make a hyper violent, suddenly much more expensive film. .... that was when Mel Gibson left for good ...... what could have been, hey?
Later it was going to be an R-rated animated film and that went on for a few years, until they finally settled on doing a live action one.
