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[wierd]

In her defense, her role as Aeon in the Aeon Flux movie only sucked because the script writers HEAVILY departed from the dystopian fabric of the original material.  I guess having her be a black leather sexual deviant from Monica was too un-PC.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[Fniff]

I'll reiterate my opinions from the happy thread.
Some say this film is like a religious experience. I say it's like being on drugs.

[SealyStar]

I haven't seen it so I'm going off limited information, but what's so feminist about it? The fact that it has a female co-star? The fact that the evil guy is a rapist? Both of those have been action movie staples for a while - what's different about this that makes this so hypermegafeminist that MRAs are boycotting it and feminists are lining up to see it just for the ideology?

[Aqizzar]

I haven't seen it so I'm going off limited information, but what's so feminist about it? The fact that it has a female co-star? The fact that the evil guy is a rapist?

The entire plot revolves around women (who all act like various incarnations of 'beaten wife' characterizations) escaping the clutches of a quasi-religious cult leader who very explicitly considers women livestock for carrying his children.  Later, a bunch of characters referred to as the "Tribe of Many Mothers" joins in on the macho-figure killing fun.  The themes are 21st century oriented, as opposed to the themes of the old movies.

What saves it from being ridiculous is by presenting every character as relatable in some way, and being just plain awesome to watch aside from literally a few seconds of cringe-worthy dialogue here and there.

That's something can be said about a lot of other possible criticisms as well, especially in the overall ridiculousness factor.  There are several scenes that are almost shot for shot copies of shit that happens in Waterworld and The Postman and that Deathrace remake and so many other movies that loudly or subtly ripped off the original Mad Max movies.  Fury Road gets away with a lot of stuff other presentations made laughable just by being really well written and acted, and specifically by having all of the characters take everything they're doing completely seriously.

That and I've always liked Charlize Theron. She's played a hard ass in a lot of movies and people are saying this is a good performance. I'd like to see her playing that role in a movie that doesn't suck ass.

I've seen reviewers calling this Theron's vehicle to be the next Sigourney Weaver.  Because apparently the Alien franchise is the only acting role Weaver ever did.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[sneakey pete]

I'm not going to delve into all that crap, because frankly people are just being dicks but that's nothing new.

However, there's two things that really set this movie apart for me.
First is the world building. The movie gets straight into things, a quick monologue to set the scene then away it goes. From there it introduces many, many bits of the world itself as it goes, without resorting to flashbacks, or exposition and the like. It trusts that you will just take it on its word that these people do this, by showing you. There's no "oh no, the canyon, the bike dudes in there will hate us because of x/y/z", its just "ok there's bike dudes shooting us now". I love it when a movie does this, another good recent example would be John Wick.

Second is the usage of actual physical vehicular stunts. The movie looks good, seamless so to speak. This was rammed home to me during one of their publicity stunts where they had a lot of the movies vehicles driven through downtown sydney, with actors in the costumes from the movie. It looks surreal. However, the movie looked exactly the same (except in a desert), something like that you can't do if you've made everything up with CGI.
There is a second string to this, as the first movie (although a different type of movie, really) was what launched the Australian film industry up a notch. I recall an interview with one of the stuntmen about the stunt where a car is driven through a caravan. How did they do it? They got a caravan, a ramp, and drove through it without really knowing how it'd end up. The industry though is now a more permanent fixture, the cars for the movie made in Australia as far as i know.

[Yoink]

Just saw this.
I'm on my phone so no in-depth review right now. Funnily enough, I was composing a one-word review of the film as I watched it, and then the white-haired Vader wannabe looked at me and said, "mediocre". He quoted it word-for-word!


(Of course, the movie then proceeded to drag on for what felt like several more hours of torment, and that one word was quickly joined by several others- most of them unfit for polite company.)

[Andres]

I just watched this and it was a great movie. Best action movie that I've both watched and am able to remember. Everything was awesome. Also my first time watching a movie where most people have Australian accents. I wasn't expecting that and I was very happy. War Boy culture is awesome.

[Parsely]

Just saw this.
I'm on my phone so no in-depth review right now. Funnily enough, I was composing a one-word review of the film as I watched it, and then the white-haired Vader wannabe looked at me and said, "mediocre". He quoted it word-for-word!

Wow. I can't wait to hear why you disliked it so much. I hope you didn't go in expecting anything more than an action movie.

[SalmonGod]

I definitely recommend seeing it in theaters, because it's a fantastic feast for the senses.  You will not be able to appreciate it at home, unless you have an awesome home theater set-up.  As awe-inspiring as some of the unapologetic scenery porn shots were, I was even more blown away by the audio.  It's just amazing when the whole theater is shaking with the combination of war drums and engines.  This alone was a memorable experience.  I couldn't even tell you when last I was so gripped by raw appeal to the senses, if ever.

As for the feminist stuff, this is my favorite kind of controversial film.  It doesn't make any direct statements about anything, but it's loaded with some of the strongest symbolism I've ever seen.  So the content is definitely there, but it's left wide open for interpretation.

In one scene, it's established that Max and Furiosa are forming a bond of mutual trust, and Max is becoming invested in helping these women with their liberation.  In the very next scene, he's fucking washing blood from his body with 'mother's milk'.  Seriously.  And it's played so fucking deadpan that none of it registered with me until long after the movie was over.  That is good storytelling.  And I really didn't expect it.  I expected a B+ action film.

In fact, I feel really sorry for anyone who is exposed to the controversy before seeing the film, because focusing on looking for this stuff is sure to spoil a first viewing.  Just enjoy the spectacular cinematography on first watch.  Don't think about anything else.

[Parsely]

I'm really good at avoiding all that rumor stuff (I never read the news) as well as spoilers (I avoid watching trailers on YouTube), so like with everything, I went into Mad Max completely raw. Wasn't even planning on seeing the movie the day I went. It was a perfect experience for me.

[TempAcc]

In her defense, her role as Aeon in the Aeon Flux movie only sucked because the script writers HEAVILY departed from the dystopian fabric of the original material.  I guess having her be a black leather sexual deviant from Monica was too un-PC.

Pretty much. I never expected hollywood to do a decent adaptation of aeon flux, not only due to how weird and controversial the character is, the sheer strangeness of the original mtv series and comics is literally impossible to adapt into a live action movie, well, at least one made in hollywood, which is considered the land of bland movies and repetitive themes across the world :v

Anyway, in regards to the mad max adaptation/remake thing, its pretty good. They did manage to keep the whole over the top and hammy feeling of the original series, and the main actor did a good job playing Max, altough he's not as taciturn as young mel gibson.

[Aqizzar]

Funnily enough, I was composing a one-word review of the film as I watched it, and then the white-haired Vader wannabe looked at me and said, "mediocre". He quoted it word-for-word!

(Of course, the movie then proceeded to drag on for what felt like several more hours of torment, and that one word was quickly joined by several others- most of them unfit for polite company.)

I take it you live somewhere that paint-huffing hivespawn, sand people with dunebuggies, and mobile heavy metal concerts are par for the course?  If so, where is this magical place, I must seek it out and achieve a new level of jaded.

[SealyStar]

Well, the Internet's Favorite Feminist^TM is saying it's not a feminist movie because it only shows women participating in "orgies" of "male violence" and "stoically killing people", instead of "reimagining concepts of power" or "redefining our social value system", and claims the camera "treats [the brides] like things from start to finish".

"Good enough" and "fun" are both patriarchal concepts.