{"id":17012,"date":"2016-07-03T18:00:59","date_gmt":"2016-07-03T22:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/?p=17012"},"modified":"2016-07-04T10:08:59","modified_gmt":"2016-07-04T14:08:59","slug":"mildly-angry-max","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/mildly-angry-max\/","title":{"rendered":"Mildly Angry Max"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Mad<\/a>The latest Mad Max movie isn’t so much about Max as it is about the political-feminist message<\/b> of the film. Max himself seems somewhat perturbed, sometimes cross, but not really mad<\/em> in the sense of going berserk. Mildly angry most of the time. Grumpy Max.<\/p>\n

Not like the original, fast-quipping, fast-shooting, troubled character played by Mel Gibson in the B-flick that went viral back in the late 1970s. The new Max is more phlegmatic. And not nearly as good a shot. Despite some great effects and photography, Mad Max: Fury Road<\/em> doesn’t hold a candle to the originals, mostly because of the thin characters.<\/p>\n

Well, Mel Gibson is too old to reprise the role, and his subsequent anti-Semitic outbursts and rabid, fundamentalist Christianity have put him into the “no-film” zone for Hollywood these days. Or at least relegating him to modest roles in films of great mediocrity<\/a>. But as the original Max, he was pretty damned good in the first three films of the franchise.<\/p>\n

Mad Max was a story about a loner trying to survive in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic world. Sort of like the Conan series of films, set a few millennia in the future, with guns instead of swords. It was a wild, exciting, scary place.<\/p>\n

The new Mad Max is set in an even harsher version of that world, but one that begs more explanation. And the plot is thinner than a corn tortilla.<\/p>\n

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The two-hour film spends most of its time driving without much purpose other than to keep moving (and then when they get to nowhere, they turn around and do it all over again in the other direction…). A much bigger chunk of that time could have been spent explaining the background stories. Or making us empathize with the characters even a little. Of all of them, I only felt something towards the bad-guy-turned-good, and he’s only likable in less than half the film.<\/p>\n

What’s with the white-skinned guys? The silver paint sprayed in their mouths? The blood? The weird costumes the leader wears? It’s creepy and violent, and well designed, but illogical. It’s like someone gathered together a bunch of futuristic tropes and threw in some chase scenes. You can perhaps guess what it means, but it’s never really made clear.<\/p>\n

The first Mad Max is actually a typical cop-gang-revenge story that could have just as easily be set in LA or Frisco or San Diego instead of the futuristic Australian outback. It could also have been set in an ancient era (a la Conan). Max is driven by his desire for revenge for the murder of his wife and child. The audience cheers for him. It’s a great stunt film, too.<\/p>\n

The audience of the new film is merely a spectator along for the drive. You sort of want the party to escape, but you’re not emotionally or intellectually invested in any of them. When one of them\u00a0dies en route, it’s an “oh, well…” moment. Another cardboard character dies. Even the baddies are cardboard. And Max? well, he’s just there.<\/p>\n

The new Max is a quiet type, hardly speaking through the film, and not as nattily dressed in leathers as was Mel. In fact, he’s rather shabby and mumbles a lot. Scruffy Max isn’t as appealing as Mel’s sleek leathery guy.<\/p>\n

What he’s doing in the outback is never made clear. His reluctant companion – the woman trying to drive her female companions (sex slaves it seems) to freedom has a much bigger, much more vocal role. And while dressed in bikini-like costumes\u00a0apparently cribbed from a 1960s’ James Bond film, these harem girls are not the kick-ass women of, say, Tarantino’s films. More like ambivalent, fatalists who finally figure out how to pull a trigger.<\/p>\n