2015
Directed by George Miller
So this is another film I've been avoiding for quite some time. For one thing, I wasn't impressed by the original Mad Max and wasn't interested in watching an updated version with a creepy Dune aesthetic. It seemed like it was going to be hypermasculine garbage and I get enough of that in real life.
After a nuclear holocaust, the world is a desert wasteland run by Immortan Joe, a war lord who has multiple wives and an army of skinheads at his command. Max Rockatansky is captured and used as a blood bag for one of Joe's war boys. Gross. Anyway, Imperator Furiosa, one of Joe's lieutenants is sent on a mission to get gasoline. Unbeknownst to Joe, Furiosa has smuggled five of his wives out of the citadel and is taking them to the "Green Place" that she remembers from her childhood. Joe leads his entire army to chase them.
Car chases, minimum dialogue, and an insane amount of jump cuts...I knew right off the bat that this movie wasn't for me. I was actually surprised by the message of the movie; how it presented femininity as the antidote to toxic masculinity. Men destroy earth, women save it. It wasn't the most subtle or sophisticated message, but that's never really what the Mad Max series was aiming for.
Overall, not my cup of tea, but I didn't spit it out. Like I do with normal tea (sorry all my British readers).
RATING: ***--
Interesting Facts:
George Miller and Charlize Theron reportedly did not get along with Tom Hardy during filming.
Body count of 110.
I audibly groaned as I logged on this morning and saw what you new offering was. God I hated this film with a passion.
ReplyDeleteI read through, agreeing, sympathising you had to grind you way thought it, and was therefor somewhat astonished you gave this pile of garbage a full THREE points - Not, I hope, purely for the fake pretend feminist aspect? Something thrown in just to placate any media backlash against the concept of a lead villain with a hoard of sex slaves. We both know that the base demographic for this film spent the first part of the film drooling with jealousy....
Absolutly no offense taken that you cannot appreciate a good mug of tea (and, as it happens, pause here as I take my first sip of my morning mug). I mean, I'm sure you would not at all mind if I wrote most mainstream American beer as weak tasting overly cold piss.
Agreed about the beer. I'm just getting soft in my old age.
DeleteI didn't think this film was bad at all...it's not really my thing but it was well made and interesting idea, and I like a good car chase haha!
DeleteTo be fair to it Ray, was that not one of the points of the film re the sex slaves? The lead villain has sex slaves, the world has collapsed...this horror show is the result. Charlize Theron's character is fighting against the patriarchy in this movie is she not? She is the lead (as Tom Hardy does not get a lot to do) and the main protagonist (despite the title!) and most of the story is to do with her fighting against what men have done. While I was no big fan of the film don't get me wrong, if the main character is a woman fighting against the patriarchy I don't think the feminist angle is entirely fake (considering this took up the entire film). Bearing in mind, I saw this in the cinema when it came out and never thought about it again till I was reading this so my memory of it could be way off!
I am actually trying to think of a car chase scene in a movie that hasn't bored me (I'm sure one exists!). But if you do like them I can totally see why this would be a favorite.
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