I loved the Mad Max series but I'm not sure any more.<br /><br />First of all with this franchise each movie was a different story. Not normal for an action adventure franchise. Most successful movies more or less rehash the first movie in the sequel with a replay of the same gags and jokes that got laughs the first time. Even in the recent Star Trek movies JJ Abrams repeated what he called the hero moment in both movies with the Enterprise coming up out of the clouds though both times had completely different set ups.<br /><br />1. Mad Max was his descent into madness, with the world going to hell he represented an attempt to maintain some kind of civilization and in the end he went over to the dark side. He is an anti-hero<br /><br />2. Road Warrior (or known by its Aussie name: Mad Max 2) This is a story about hope but not for Max. He's only out for himself and only does good if there is something in it for him. He is a reluctant hero<br /><br />3. Mad Max Beyond Thunder Dome. This is a story about redemption. He takes a job to kill a man. Murder for hire is evil and this would be a permenant stain on his soul but he can't complete it when he realizes that the man is mentally disabled and he goes back on the deal. Which gave us the great line, "Bust a Deal, Face the Wheel." Ultimately he is saved by and must save a group of children and in doing this he willingly sacrifices himself for them. He finds his humanity again but is left behind in the wasteland. He is the tragic hero.<br /><br />Now we get Fury Road which is a high octane petal to the metal thrill ride but a mash up of Road Warrior and Thunder Dome. It has very few slow moments where the audience can catch their breath and no comic relief what so ever. It amps you up and leaves you tense and when its over you few like you need to go sit and listen to the ocean. <br /><br />It simply took a bunch of things from the two previous movies mashed them together and since there was a bigger budget they buffed and polished them to be over the top and off the hook. however we've seen it all before. a vehicle with a prisoner strapped to the front but upright and leaning forward: that was Road Warrior but Fury Road does this with Max. Crazy bad guy wearing a mask, tractor and tanker in a road chase, both Road Warrior and Fury Road.<br /><br />dysfunctional outpost of civilization, and "innocents" that need to be saved: Thunder Dome and Fury Road.<br />Even the Warboy in Fury Road who gets a few seconds in the trailers is reminescent of Screw Loose in Thunder Dome. in fact the scene in thunder dome where Max's hair is cut off and a small child takes the clips is completely repeated in Fury Road. Really- this was a cool scene that we needed to see again? Max gets a violent hair cut and a small child takes the hair- big deal. <br /><br />What was good about Fury Road: I did like the character that who is missing her left hand and wears a post apocalyptic/steam punk prosthetic claw hand. I thought she was well drawn and defined and the moments when she took off the claw and it was just a stump she seemed genuinely vulnerable. <br /><br />Secondly they were smart about not letting us get a good view of the actor's face playing Max- half the movie his face is obscured and by the time you get a really good look at it its cemented in your mind that this is Max. You never really have time in the beginning to compare the new Max to Mel Gibson and I give kudos to the director for managing this. (though I dont think it was a problem really that it wasn't Mel in this picture- i simply noticed what he did and took note of it).<br /><br />What was real stupid: the geriatric woman biker gang who used to live in a "green place" that got took over by the desert/waste land lingering in that wasteland for years nursing some shoots of plants in small containers in a leather doctor's bag. Only when Max shows up do they even get the idea to go find someplace else to live. <br /><br />They didn't even get the detail right about Max's dead child changing the sex and age in the scenes where he is haunted by her ghost. I'm sure that writer would say that this movie was about Max putting his ghosts to rest but I found the dead daughter distracting since I knew that it was suppose to be a boy of a much younger age. <br /><br />They leave us with Max walking away from civlization at the end of Fury Road which was about rebooting the Franchise. I suppose that they intentionally did a mash up of the previous 2 movies to be a reboot and now will begin "thrilling" us with new intallments: Fast and Furious Max 26. As far as reboots go this one kind of sucks. <br /><br />If you've seen Road Warrior and Thunder Dome then you dont really need to see this movie. In fact I recommend just going and re-watching Road Warrior and Thunder Dome instead of this movie. They are far better stories and better crafted movies. The humor in the scene with the can of dog food and the gyro-copter pilot chained to the tree is fantastic and carried by the actor's face acting without anything being said.
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