Tendo City

I just saw Mad Max and got blown to the back of my skull. Then the title card dropped and the movie destroyed me. "Manly" isn't really the right word. This movie made this sort of high octane action gender neutral.

Best action movie in a long time.

I have a confession.

I liked Thunderdome.

No, not ironically. I enjoyed it for exactly what it was, a slapstick adventure romp with children and Tina Turner.

I'm the odd man out. Everyone loves this movie, it's critically acclaimed, but I just didn't like it. There was no time to get used to or care about the characters, everyone's kind of growling and I don't have any idea what they're saying. Then there's an excruciatingly long chase scene that's meaningless because I haven't bonded with the characters. I get that it uses shorthand to introduce the set-up (I've never seen a Mad Max movie, just know the general premise). I get that this tyrant king is hording water and these human brudemares make a daring escape. But I just wasn't invested in it.

I walked out thinking "Maybe I'm just not an action movie guy", but then I went home and watched the first Die Hard as a palate cleanser. *shrug* Maybe I'll give it another chance. Maybe I just don't get Mad Max? I didn't like the last movie I saw in the theatre, Interstellar, but my friends loved it. I don't want to say that the theatre is a factor, but it'd be nice to be able to put on subtitles or rewind if I don't understand something. Why were they pausing to uproot the tree when they were on the run from the empire? I walked out after 45 minutes in to grab a smoke and came back thinking I probably hadn't missed anything.

Quote:Why were they pausing to uproot the tree when they were on the run from the empire?

Uh...they were stuck in thick mud and were using the tree as leverage to winch the truck out...

It might just not be for you. For my part, I thought they did a great job establishing the characters. Not much exposition, but they told me everything I needed to know visually, with little bits said here and there as things went on.

I think that you might have understood why they were using that tree if you were more invested, but maybe this really isn't your cup of tea. From that, I suspect you might not like Gravity either. It's very similar in how it has very minimal exposition and gets straight into the action. (The difference is, Gravity came out of nowhere near the end with the whole "faith" moral. I didn't really care for that.)

I have VHS copies of the first two Mad Max movies (Mad Max and The Road Warrior; I tried watching the first one, last year I think it was, but lost interest somewhere in that overlong intro where there's this insane guy and his girlfriend cackling all the time and stuff while they cause car carnage and turned it off shortly after that. Haven't gone back, so far at least.

Well, that insane guy is part of a gang with an even more insane leader. It's pretty much more of the same, so if you didn't enjoy it, you probably picked right. Road Warrior is generally considered the better movie, if you want to just skip to it. These movies generally are self contained stories, so you can do that without feeling like you're missing anything.

Actually, I feel confident in saying you can just jump into the latest one without seeing the old ones.

Oh, so it's not like a continuing story, but it's episodic? Maybe I will just skip to the second movie then. I didn't know that, Mad Max isn't a franchise I've ever paid much attention to.

Yeah, it's more like a series of one-off stories, like Indiana Jones. Keep in mind, most people hate Thunderdome, but if you approach it like a fun kid's movie, it's pretty enjoyable and silly.