Why So Blu?

The beginning portion of FR had plenty of sped up scenes when Max is trying to escape the tower. I actually have one friend who stopped watching after those first 5 minutes, because it took him out of the film completely with the speed up.

RichC2

Yeah, the opening foot chase was jarring as hell.

Brack

Movies are movies, comics are comics. I shouldn't have to read a comic to connect with some random flashbacks that amount to nothing anyway.

Solid Snake

You couldn't accept that this guy went through some shit that haunts him today? Even w/o the comics...which I do want to read at some point.... I got that Max fucked up bad before Fury Road started. The whats and whys didn't matter. Miller did fine with giving us some history on Max. Nor do I think the film implies that you need to know more beyond that. The comics are just added world building but not essential to the film.

Brack

Yeah, it was called the first Mad Max. That's all the history you need.

Why So Blu?

Which is why you get the flashbacks that don't have anything to do with the original films but do have that same theme.

If can't buy it then that's not the problem of the film.

Brack

It's not a matter of "buying" a flashback; it's the fact that they aren't dealt with or done very well, and an excuse to peddle off some comic books evidently.

Solid Snake

I heavily doubt Miller did that to sell some comics. It's just added filler. Not essential.

What is your issue exactly w/ not accepting that Max fucked up? Remember. We don't see a lot of world building in these films. Shit. MM1 and MM2 have a wild event happen between them. We got the same thing w/ Fury Road. We jump in Max's life. Points in his timeline. We don't immediately follow the man event to event. We don't need to.

hanshotfirst1138

I basically figured out from from context clues that the little girl was someone Max had failed to save and was therefore haunting him (literally). One of the things I liked about the film was how it didn't spoon-feed the audience that, you get all kinds of hints about a larger mythology that Miller obviously thought out, but the movie doesn't tell you about directly and just hints about. If you've never seen any of the previous films, you get all of the exposition about the world-nuclear war, no gas, apocalypse-I'm the first sixty seconds, and then it's off and running.

Brack

None of the other movies have stupid flashback scenes/sequences to explain why Max is the way he is. It's not like anyone seeing this movie hasn't seen the other Mad Max movies at least at some point unless they're teenagers or whatever.

The movie just doesn't fit with the previous MM movies. It's trying way too hard and just isn't as good with the characters as the earlier films. And Max isn't central to the plot, like he was in all of the other movies. Just watched Mad Max 2 and Beyond Thunderdome, and still think they work better than this slicker looking, higher budgeted but ultimately pointless exercise in what an updated Mad Max movie would be I guess, but based on the worldwide take we won't be seeing anymore of these. It's fine for what it is, but isn't even close to being the best in the series.

JumpCutz

Beyond Thunderdome "works better" than Fury Road? Are you serious?

Brack

As a Mad Max movie, certainly. Fury Road isn't even about Max.

JumpCutz

Sure it was, and it was light years better than Thunderdome.

Solid Snake

Neither was MM2. We followed him constantly but it wasn't about him either once the actual plot comes in. MM3 too. None of the MM films have been about Max except for the first one.

Brack

Not the plot, but he was central nonetheless. Max was definitely the driving force of both of those films. He was in nearly every scene and we identified with his character, despite being an outsider. In Fury Road, we don't get much from Max in that sense. He's designated to being a driver for crying out loud. Until the last 20 minutes of the movie, his character is just a supporting one, and even then he's only good for coming up with the idea of going back. Plus the main villain is pretty weak, even if his suit thing and face mask were kind of cool. It's not a good thing when Furiosa and Nux steal the show from the title character.

Brack

I beg to differ. I never got a sense of the society and who and what the villains were doing outside of Immortan Joe will his cult. The other groups pop as merely obstacles for the numerous chases sequences. Only near the end of the movie did it finally slow down enough for me to care about anything going on in the movie, so in that respect the movie started to feel like a Mad Max movie, but it was disappointing to see how long it took to get there. Max's role until the end was being a blood bag (still didn't understand how the villains figured that out; still a stupid plot device) and getaway driver for the most part.

RichC2

I tended to agree after my first watch through, but there actually is quite a bit layered in there and throughout that I didn't pick up initially, imo this is one of the few movies that works better in repeat, in large part because you aren't trying to follow anything along and have a much better feel for the characters at that point, gives you time to pick up on the detail littered throughout. That and Max definitely keeps the gears oiled and turning in the movie.

Brack

I watched it twice in a 24 hour period, nothing changed for me, other than it solidified my opinion.

RichC2

Weird, to each their own.