Needs more Furiosa.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I can still nitpick Fury Road. For example, how did they test Max's blood type when using him as a blood bag? Why is Furiosa's missing arm never explained? For a sequel/reboot, how come Max's back story is only vaguely shown in flashbacks? What the hell was that briefly shown, four legged stilt, swamp people or....okay, I think it's the rumored "greenland" that went to shit but it's awfully vague.
None of it matters though because none of it detracted from my enjoyment of the film. But, why though?
1. It's a Self Contained Movie.
Unlike Avengers:Age of Ultron (it's the only other movie on this blog we have talked about in depth so I'll be referencing it a little, apologies), Fury Road does not need an extensive knowledge of a cinematic universe to understand. It's basically mandatory to have seen every solo superhero film to understand what the hell is going on in Avengers:AoU. Hell, you even need the TV show, Agents of Shield, to understand everything completely. For Fury Road, having seen the previous Mad Max films is meaningless and arguably detrimental as the continuity is kinda screwy.
This happened.
The movie is a 2 hour long car chase scene where characters sometimes talk to each other. The best comparison I've seen is to the movie Dredd, a movie that is super awesome that almost nobody has seen. (Seriously, it's a sci-fi version of Die Hard. I'm not kidding). Dredd is also a very self contained movie. Everything that happens in both movies, ONLY happens to the characters in the movies. There are no innocent bystanders (or, they are minimal). There are no destroyed cities that should have massive effects on the populace. There is no worldwide changes if the villain wins....speaking of which.
2. The Stakes are Lower
Most action movies now, which are almost all superhero movies, have a plot that revolves around a villain either taking over the world or destroying it. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. For example, one of the best action movies ever, Terminator 2, is about world fuckery but at least that movie has some nuance about the details, mainly time travel and shit. But many, many other great action movies don't involve world domination. Die Hard. Aliens. Hot Fuzz (lol). Yet modern day action movies think "over the top" means ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING is at stake, when a good action movie doesn't need this.* World domination is a hard thing to conceptualize. It seems impossible and therefore movies that focus on it are more open to scrutiny.
*You know what is a high grossing action movie franchise that doesn't do this? The Fast and the Furious franchise....I'm not sure if I like my own argument now.
Out of Context: Superhero Movie or Not? Hard to tell.
If Imperator Furiosa and Max fail, what does that mean for the world of Mad Max? Nothing, really. The ladies go back into being sex slaves, if not outright killed. Max is most certainly drained of his precious blood. Nux is probably tortured to death as an example for the others. But these lower stakes are closer to real life, which means these characters...
3. The Characters are Very Easy to Root For
This should go without saying but, it's hard to root for a good guy when the good guy is a God that casually destroys a city block with his fight against another Superman, er, I mean God. It's easy to perceive superheroes as not giving too shits about us because....they largely don't. Avengers:AoU went out of it's way to show the good guys saving civilians (in response to a major criticism of the first movie I bet), despite the fact that there HAD to be some collateral damage in that final fight with Ultron.
Also, see any Michael Bay movie ever. Even the best Transformers movie, the first one, still has a climax that takes place in a major city with destruction everywhere. Civilians died. Suspension of disbelief only goes so far.
And nobody died.......
Fury Road, however, has characters that are so easy to root for because everything is so black and white. Immortan Joe is a warlord who is the gatekeeper to the most precious resource of the Mad Max world, water. To strengthen his power, he has raised a cult of War Boys addicted to paint huffing (I think???), and has regulated population control with his, uh, "milk women" (I seriously cannot find their names but the old ladies who did their own stunts, the Vuvalani, I CAN find and are badass). Oh and Immortan Joe takes some of that population as his harem of brides or whatever depraved sex slave metaphor you'd like me to use.
Not that every movie needs to be black and white since so much of life is a sexy shade of grey (pun intended), but sometimes movies need to make it obvious who the good guys are, which means...
4. Simplicity is Sometimes Better
Hey, I can get down with a David Lynch movie just like any other art house critic, but action movies are great on a more primal level. In Fury Road, director George Miller had the novel idea that movies are a visual medium and stuck to the saying, "show, don't tell." Most of the movie's details are shown rather than given expository dialogue. How do they get gasoline? They raid a nearby town that is basically an oil refinery, with an oil pump shown in the foreground. (They don't actually raid the town in the movie as it's used as a jumping off point). The aforementioned Max blood bag usage explains why they kept him alive and why later in the movie, he can revive Furiosa. Even Nux is shown the brutality of his former master when Max shows him compassion in keeping him alive. Also, one of the "wives" likes him.
"WHY DO WOMEN STEAL MAX'S SCREEN TIME!!!" - Some Men's Rights Douchebag.
This goes back to the "self contained movie thing" but yeah, most recent movies need some sort of supplemental material for the audience to understand it. This shouldn't be necessary for EVERY action movie. The GI Joe movies, for example, are absolutely ridiculous when taken out of context. For all the reasons reboots exist, GI Joe is the least understandable. Snake Eyes better be able to deflect bullets with his sword because these movies take place in the REAL WORLD. There is a reason soldiers don't sword fight anymore.
5. It's a Miracle This Movie Even Got Made
Let's all take a step back and appreciate that Mad Max:Fury Road is a goddamn miracle. I'm serious. What about this movie even makes it seem possible in modern day Hollywood? The only thing that makes sense is "reboot of a sorta popular franchise", but even then, Mad Max has always been niche. How did it get this good of a budget?
Let's consider the following:
- The original creator and director, George Miller, was allowed to reboot/sequalize his own franchise despite the fact that he had been doing nothing but children's films for the last 2 decades (notably, the completely CGI Happy Feet).
- Miller was allowed to do this movie with very little CGI, the only thing he has used recently, and instead use practical effects which always look better go AHEAD AND CALL ME A HIPSTER!
- Miller was allowed to do this with, seemingly, very little studio interference although this is impossible to know for sure. (Does he have naked pictures of somebody or something?).
- Miller was allowed to make the title character a sidekick in his OWN MOVIE, with something like 8 lines of dialogue, and destroy his iconic car.
- Also, Miller is over 70 years old.
- Also, also, a Hollywood studio realized that a medium sized budget can turn a profit and make itself some money even if it's not a MEGA profit. Take note, AAA video game studios.
How in the hell did this movie get made? I...don't have an answer for this. Leave a comment. It's open to anonymous comments, which I may regret if more than 20 people ever read this.
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To wrap things up, I LOVED Mad Max:Fury Road. Sound editing aside, (did anybody else think it was hard to hear dialogue during actions scenes or did my years of rock concerts deteriorate my hearing?) just about everything came as close to perfect as I could imagine. Please, PLEASE make more movies like this Hollywood.
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See my discussion with fellow Imperator AJ on Avengers:Age of Ultron here.
See my preview of my most anticipated movies of 2015 here. Mad Max:Fury Road is one of them.
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