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Mad Max: Fury Road [Spoilers will be Witnessed]
Atomika
Live fast and get fucked or whateverRegistered User regular
Live fast and get fucked or whateverRegistered User regular
This movie is spectacular in every sense of the word and you should go see it immediately, if not sooner. If you do not wish to be spoiled, this is the last sentence you should read. Adios.
I expect most people came into this movie expecting a high-octane action smorgasbord, and in a way, they got it. However, this movie is a classic bait-and-switch, and as I sat there watching this starkly and pointedly anti-patriarchal condemnation of The World of Men™, I couldn't help but grin at the thought of all the dudebros and meatheads in theaters across the country twisting in their seats as it all unfolded; the fact that the pre-film trailers for my showing were for a bunch of bro-tastic schlock (oh, Vin Diesel, you walking Ed Hardy cartoon) just made it all that much sweeter.
Oh, man, though. Where to start? This movie is got so much going on, and it just slam dunks everything. Action? BAM!. Character? BLAM! Deeply symbolic narrative tying imagery to a greater throughline exploring the ingraining of misogyny through iconography and dogmatic ritual? GET DUNKT ON. And then it all explodes in an orgy of practical effects and red dirt.
Yes, the action is fantastic and novel and almost unceasing; in a two-hour run time, it felt like a good hour-forty was just one single chase scene, and that ain't bad. Director George Miller puts on a master class of dynamic characterization, defining characters through their actions and reactions instead just having bland cutouts talk about each other with adjectives. In a way I was very surprised to see, this film recalled to me THX-1138, and more specifically the way that George Lucas described his process in that film as not making a movie about the future, but making a movie from the future. Fury Road feels like a movie from the Wasteland. Maybe you know who Max Rockatansky is going into this film, maybe you don't, but either way it doesn't matter because this story is going to make you live in this world for 120 minutes up close and gritty-like without holding the scrap-metal prosthesis that used to be your hand. It's going to throw terms and slang at you and not give a dandy fuck if you aren't too good with context clues to put the pieces together. It's going to use symbolism time and time again to tell the story of how the ego of men continues to destroy all things in the mad pursuit of vanity and greed, and if you don't like the story that tells then the story suggests you may be part of the problem.
Let's talk about that symbolism, shall we? Everything on-screen is information, not a shot wasted, and it shows a world tyrannically ruled by the vile Immortan Joe and his family -- his muscle-bound meathead son, Rictus Erectus, and his brothers Bullet Farmer (the avatar of the military/industrial complex) and People Eater (the avatar of aristocratic sloth and decadence) -- while Joe himself, in his medal-adorned false muscle suit and death's-head codpiece, is the distilled essence of aging machismo. This isn't so much a world built of rules and consequence, but rather a broad impressionistic satire of the gender codes of our own world; Joe and his family prize above all the masculine ideal, strength and power and the ability to harm, and everything else is either a means to that end or an obstacle to it. Women in Joe's kingdom have but two roles within his castle walls -- sexual object or mother -- and it's brilliant how Miller points out the masculine dissonance that wants to believe that those two are separate and exclusive states. Joe keeps a harem of nubile teenage slaves to slake his lust, but the product of these unions are given to Milk Mothers, wet nurses who perform the actual duties of motherhood (and also provide Joe's family with the only real nourishment they have), so that the girls may be returned to their coital duties. And then his girls, his "property" are stolen, setting the whole movie into motion, and only once does someone in Joe's clan remark upon the wastefulness of sending an entire army to war over a personal affront. And Joe's army puts the "waste" in wasteland, as we are constantly reminded how rare resources are in this world the whole while the armada of cars and trucks and guns and flame-throwers barrel across the scorched desert for no discernible gain.
Every concern with Joe and his revhead Warboys is about the immediate, and he keeps them in line with his cult built on reincarnation, martyrdom, and above all, service to Immortan Joe himself. Nicholas Holt plays Nux, the Warboy who begins to question his place in Joe's world, and through him we see the mindless adherence instilled into this flock by elevating the mundane to the sacred and surrounding it with ritual. Joe's cannon-fodder army of fallout-stricken idiots don't just catch bullets for him, they "go to Valhalla" to be with the heroes, and their martyrdom is "witnessed" by group genuflection and a bizarre rite in which the mouths of the soon-to-be-deceased are sprayed with chrome, just another elevation of trappings of Joe's maniacal church, where death is the altar and gears and gasoline are the stations of the cross. Even their tattoos and brandings are of gears and engine schematics.
An interesting thing I noticed was how Miller treats the violence in this film; it's not something that I would say is overtly glorified. It seems like there are probably two dozen spectacular wrecks in this film, but I can't recall a single one filmed in the typical slow-motion, god-camera pornographic coverage that ensures you don't miss any part of the mayhem which is the standard today in most empty-headed cinematic explosionfests. Miller, for a film that is most violent, does not for one minute revere any of this violence. We get no lingering money shots of aftermath, no reveling in the bloody destruction of the many bodies in the wake, no emotional death scenes to find glory in, no retaliatory brutal end for our baddies. Miller kills people left and right in this film, sometimes severely so, but he seems to share the sentiment of his badass elderly lady marksman/motorcycle bandit, who longs for a day when being good at killing people wasn't a necessary skill. Even the painfully grim death of key villain Immortan Joe is quick and pulled away from, the most confirmation we get of it is the proclamation of another character. Miller ingeniously understands what Zack Snyder failed to with Sucker Punch: you can't condemn objectification at the same time you're guilty of it.
The cast is really well put together, and this is definitely Charlize Theron's film, and she carries the hell out of it. If Marvel has any sense, they're sending her the contract for Captain Marvel right now, because this is the best heroine performance since Ellen Ripley. It's hard, it's nuanced, it's brazen and raw, and Theron shines in every scene she's in. I'm having trouble articulating just how impressive this performance is for prominently having Furiosa's humanity and femininity to shine through while never copping to hoary tropes or making her simply a dude with tits; the history of cinema is littered with women put in the same boxes that Immortan Joe separates his possessions into, mothers and sex objects, and Furiosa in simply refusing to be placed on any part in the scale of objectification becomes an iconoclast. Her most dangerous act of rebellion is making people realize they don't have to fit in someone else's box.
I could probably go on and on, but I'll rest here for now. I look forward to everyone seeing this. It's really something special.
I expect most people came into this movie expecting a high-octane action smorgasbord, and in a way, they got it. However, this movie is a classic bait-and-switch, and as I sat there watching this starkly and pointedly anti-patriarchal condemnation of The World of Men™, I couldn't help but grin at the thought of all the dudebros and meatheads in theaters across the country twisting in their seats as it all unfolded; the fact that the pre-film trailers for my showing were for a bunch of bro-tastic schlock (oh, Vin Diesel, you walking Ed Hardy cartoon) just made it all that much sweeter.
Oh, man, though. Where to start? This movie is got so much going on, and it just slam dunks everything. Action? BAM!. Character? BLAM! Deeply symbolic narrative tying imagery to a greater throughline exploring the ingraining of misogyny through iconography and dogmatic ritual? GET DUNKT ON. And then it all explodes in an orgy of practical effects and red dirt.
Yes, the action is fantastic and novel and almost unceasing; in a two-hour run time, it felt like a good hour-forty was just one single chase scene, and that ain't bad. Director George Miller puts on a master class of dynamic characterization, defining characters through their actions and reactions instead just having bland cutouts talk about each other with adjectives. In a way I was very surprised to see, this film recalled to me THX-1138, and more specifically the way that George Lucas described his process in that film as not making a movie about the future, but making a movie from the future. Fury Road feels like a movie from the Wasteland. Maybe you know who Max Rockatansky is going into this film, maybe you don't, but either way it doesn't matter because this story is going to make you live in this world for 120 minutes up close and gritty-like without holding the scrap-metal prosthesis that used to be your hand. It's going to throw terms and slang at you and not give a dandy fuck if you aren't too good with context clues to put the pieces together. It's going to use symbolism time and time again to tell the story of how the ego of men continues to destroy all things in the mad pursuit of vanity and greed, and if you don't like the story that tells then the story suggests you may be part of the problem.
Let's talk about that symbolism, shall we? Everything on-screen is information, not a shot wasted, and it shows a world tyrannically ruled by the vile Immortan Joe and his family -- his muscle-bound meathead son, Rictus Erectus, and his brothers Bullet Farmer (the avatar of the military/industrial complex) and People Eater (the avatar of aristocratic sloth and decadence) -- while Joe himself, in his medal-adorned false muscle suit and death's-head codpiece, is the distilled essence of aging machismo. This isn't so much a world built of rules and consequence, but rather a broad impressionistic satire of the gender codes of our own world; Joe and his family prize above all the masculine ideal, strength and power and the ability to harm, and everything else is either a means to that end or an obstacle to it. Women in Joe's kingdom have but two roles within his castle walls -- sexual object or mother -- and it's brilliant how Miller points out the masculine dissonance that wants to believe that those two are separate and exclusive states. Joe keeps a harem of nubile teenage slaves to slake his lust, but the product of these unions are given to Milk Mothers, wet nurses who perform the actual duties of motherhood (and also provide Joe's family with the only real nourishment they have), so that the girls may be returned to their coital duties. And then his girls, his "property" are stolen, setting the whole movie into motion, and only once does someone in Joe's clan remark upon the wastefulness of sending an entire army to war over a personal affront. And Joe's army puts the "waste" in wasteland, as we are constantly reminded how rare resources are in this world the whole while the armada of cars and trucks and guns and flame-throwers barrel across the scorched desert for no discernible gain.
Every concern with Joe and his revhead Warboys is about the immediate, and he keeps them in line with his cult built on reincarnation, martyrdom, and above all, service to Immortan Joe himself. Nicholas Holt plays Nux, the Warboy who begins to question his place in Joe's world, and through him we see the mindless adherence instilled into this flock by elevating the mundane to the sacred and surrounding it with ritual. Joe's cannon-fodder army of fallout-stricken idiots don't just catch bullets for him, they "go to Valhalla" to be with the heroes, and their martyrdom is "witnessed" by group genuflection and a bizarre rite in which the mouths of the soon-to-be-deceased are sprayed with chrome, just another elevation of trappings of Joe's maniacal church, where death is the altar and gears and gasoline are the stations of the cross. Even their tattoos and brandings are of gears and engine schematics.
An interesting thing I noticed was how Miller treats the violence in this film; it's not something that I would say is overtly glorified. It seems like there are probably two dozen spectacular wrecks in this film, but I can't recall a single one filmed in the typical slow-motion, god-camera pornographic coverage that ensures you don't miss any part of the mayhem which is the standard today in most empty-headed cinematic explosionfests. Miller, for a film that is most violent, does not for one minute revere any of this violence. We get no lingering money shots of aftermath, no reveling in the bloody destruction of the many bodies in the wake, no emotional death scenes to find glory in, no retaliatory brutal end for our baddies. Miller kills people left and right in this film, sometimes severely so, but he seems to share the sentiment of his badass elderly lady marksman/motorcycle bandit, who longs for a day when being good at killing people wasn't a necessary skill. Even the painfully grim death of key villain Immortan Joe is quick and pulled away from, the most confirmation we get of it is the proclamation of another character. Miller ingeniously understands what Zack Snyder failed to with Sucker Punch: you can't condemn objectification at the same time you're guilty of it.
The cast is really well put together, and this is definitely Charlize Theron's film, and she carries the hell out of it. If Marvel has any sense, they're sending her the contract for Captain Marvel right now, because this is the best heroine performance since Ellen Ripley. It's hard, it's nuanced, it's brazen and raw, and Theron shines in every scene she's in. I'm having trouble articulating just how impressive this performance is for prominently having Furiosa's humanity and femininity to shine through while never copping to hoary tropes or making her simply a dude with tits; the history of cinema is littered with women put in the same boxes that Immortan Joe separates his possessions into, mothers and sex objects, and Furiosa in simply refusing to be placed on any part in the scale of objectification becomes an iconoclast. Her most dangerous act of rebellion is making people realize they don't have to fit in someone else's box.
I could probably go on and on, but I'll rest here for now. I look forward to everyone seeing this. It's really something special.
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Steam: adamjnet
Which I did earlier today. And oh boy, this is a real riot of sound and color.
One of the girls at work was asking me what it was about and I answered honestly "women".
Do we need spoiler tags in here? I'll throw one on, just to be friendly-like.
Without detracting from Furiosa, who was amazing, I never felt like Max was particularly outshone or anything; he had more than enough badass moments, and felt pretty real to me. I liked how he seemed aware of his own, maybe not insanity but certainly instability. At the end, when he shares a look with Furiosa before wandering off into the wastes again, it seemed like he knew there was nothing for him in building up a civilization, and that, in fact, a person like him would be more a problem for it than an asset. Shades of the Operative from Serenity mentioning how he won't have any place in the world he's trying to build. Ties in, too, to the bit when they meet the Vulvalini and one immediately asks "who are the men?" For the women in the wastes, even allied fellows like Nux and Max aren't trustworthy.
I mentioned the scene with Max threatening Furiosa and the wives with the shotgun was fantastic: so many layers of menace and knowledge all playing off one another to just ratchet up the tension. Max has to worry about the women seeing through his ruse or pulling a fast one on him; the women have to worry about Max going off and shooting somebody; both groups have to wonder what will happen if and when Nux wakes up; and all of it takes place with the dust cloud from Joe's horde in the background. It wasn't the flashiest sequence in the movie, but I thought it was one of the most artfully handled.
(tagged anyway for being a mega-spoiler)
pleasepaypreacher.net
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
Overall it was a very good movie but certainly not in a traditional way. Like there was so much content but not much substance on the surface. But at the same time could be picked apart for deeper meaning. When me and my wife were leaving the theater talking about it we were both like "well that was something" but as we talked more we decided that there was actually quite a bit going on there. I guess any movie that can spark conversation has more to it than any other generic forgettable movie.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
note that it was 12c or around 53f outside.
pleasepaypreacher.net
pleasepaypreacher.net
Honestly, I got more interested in seeing it after hearing about those sweet, sweet MRA shitwizard tears.
And now I want Charlize Theron in more action roles.
also let me shout out my man THE DOOF WARRIOR AND HIS DOOF WAGON.
this fucking soundtrack. i dont know how im going to sleep tonight knowing im seeing it again tomorrow.
Yeah I said before if her agent isn't out there trying to get her new action movie roles then he's a fool! Well if this movie makes money that is.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I will say right away, while Atomika is spot-on right about how the movie plays well and never shows something the film doesn't pay off, it's not some outright anti-patriarchy device. It's more about finding hope in hopelessness, and good vs evil. And you can achieve that very well with innocent "wives" as the plot device and a man who has lost everything and thinks he's gone crazy but is in fact planting seeds of normalcy everywhere he goes, and runs across a similar themed person. To be honest, it kind of feels like people are trying to latch onto this being some ground changing subversion of the action genre when it's just a great movie, no qualifiers or reasons why it is so. This constant need to pick things and claim it's on a certain side based on x, y, and z is no different than what was witnessed in the movie (beer me five that guilt trip is better than anything Rogen and Streisand could have done).
The story is bare bones, yet is able to create a world that works well with the established movies and really makes sense for a post apocalyptic world. The film makes sure you see why things are like this, what happens and what for (like the paint huffing, it's a WTF turned ohhhhh moment), and Max's sole reason for being there, being alive, is nice and subtle. It's a simple rescue film that turns into a chase and ultimately a final showdown, but that's all that is needed when the theme of the movie is just move forward, no matter what.
Tom Hardy does a great job, the idea of making Max so exposed to the elements he's now almost grunting and can't really give long sentences because his voice is almost shot works well, even though he does a good Australian accent. Theron is very good as well and definitely upped her Captain Marvel potential, and while she does get some moments of one upsmanship on Max that more than likely got the ire of people, it's more because the film sometimes refuses to show how bad ass Max can be. How they initially meet and join up could have been fleshed out better, it's essentially a forced fight like when comic heroes have to team up, when literally a few words would make things go a lot easier. But it still feels like Max's movie, his journey to make things right, even though he's adapted to the world better than anyone, really (one of the best character scenes is him figuring out where every weapon is on the truck).
The girls, all of them, eh, they're a mixed bag, half of them are annoying cliches while the tall blonde and redhead are the best, especially the redhead. They're blank slates in the world yet are able to do all this stuff that just wouldn't be possible compared to how Max and Furiousa had to claw for survival, and they're not as witty or as clever as they think they are. And there are a few moments of symbolism there that's just sort of eye rolling, more because I'm not going to take the girl from Transformers 3 seriously. Throw in a Wasikowska or some other seasoned young actress if you want the moments to really shine and stand out. Nux finally achieves not being absolutely annoying as the film goes on (though when he doesn't die after the first act it gets a little frustrating because plot is keeping him alive and telegraphing what will happen), and Immortan Joe conveys that dictator so well, though we never see his face, just his eyes. His entire appearance is built on hiding decay yet still remaining imposing, which he does well.
There are only three problems I have with the movie, and go small/medium/large in that order. One is the guitar guy, it's something that's cute once to get the story going, but got pointless after a while when you stand back and compare it to everything else in that world and the resources needed. The other is a severe, severe lack of Max's car, something the movie teases then flips you off with in the third act.
The final, more major point is where the story hits the breaks, feeling like a ripoff of a Top Gear Special minus the funny or character building.
Instead it's a forced lull into a reveal you knew was coming (though just turning around and trying to take back the Citadel was a nice enough change I didn't expect)
It was a pretty good 3D experience, if you're interested in it. There's one part in the film that panders to it, but it's never in your face and works well more when it comes to flashbacks and perspective changes.
It's a great movie and a solid reboot of the franchise, but I put Road Warrior still at the top spot. No movie can compete with the action and choreography here, it's the best visceral stuff you'll see all year, it's a more refined version of the car chaos in Furious 7 and flat out curbstomps Avengers 2, but this movie basically goes apeshit for 80 minutes then hits the breaks for no good reason other than a fairly standard reveal and forced emotional moment, and then hits the throttle again. Like in real traffic you're basically cussing and pissed off you had to stop and no matter how fast you can get going again that annoyance of having to stop for someone, something so stupid stays with you for a bit. Road Warrior is a much slower movie simply out of the restraints of the time but because it's focused more on Max's journey and interaction, it works better.
But watch it, enjoy it, don't make this movie turn out to be this year's Edge of Tomorrow.
To me it felt decidedly less Australian than the other movies.
It was nice Theron spoke normal God chosen American english, but this Australia also was a world where everyone was left hand driving vehicles.
I wanted to know when they hit the portal to the Dark Crystal universe.
That intro and the jittery camera are so good. I don't know the right word for the camera, it's not shaky and it's very clear the entire time, but the staccato kind of way they did it is great. I'm mildly deaf in one ear and some of the dialogue was difficult to make out, but nothing that mattered. For instance, other than Max and Furiosa, I have no idea who any of the other characters are named. Joe? Maybe?
The dialogue was hard to hear in the beginning for me as well, with no hearing impairments. You have Joe yelling about what's happening and the crowd and then on top of the engines and music it was hard to understand anything. Even when Max was chained to the car he was yelling but you couldn't hear him well.
It seems a bit like a bookend to the earlier scene, where Furiosa asks if he saw what happened to Splendid, and he gives her the minimum amount of necessary information.
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Also, they managed to work in a Conan moment with the
Steam: adamjnet
Because militaries love the bullshit of pageantry
it's the marching drummers for the armies of medieval times used to boost moral and instil fear into enemies.
its buzzfeed i know, but heres some info about the dude who played him, called iOTA. http://www.buzzfeed.com/adambvary/the-doof-warrior-max-max-fury-road#.sq14p0Bmw
One minor point I really appreciated: After the capture and the breakaway and the ghosts and the moving away from Gastown and the chase scene and the WITNESS and the epic sandstorm, the movie just stops. Cut to black and complete silence for a few seconds, before the slow scene of Max emerging from the sand and eventually meeting the Wives. In more traditional movies the rising action follows a slope before it slides back a little to give you breathing room. Since this movie's rising action is almost vertical, it requires a much sharper drop off in action, as if to say "Yeah, we know this is more intense than you expect, let's take five."