Mad Max: The Wasteland

Pretty sure that picture is just from the filming of Fury Road. Not from the new one.

I don't think there is any doubt about that, more that it was a way of drumming up word of mouth and showing that there is still activity in the Mad Max camp, potentially heralding an announcement of a future installment
 
I don't think there is any doubt about that, more that it was a way of drumming up word of mouth and showing that there is still activity in the Mad Max camp, potentially heralding an announcement of a future installment

Ah, sorry. My misunderstanding, then. I thought people were suggesting it was a set shot from the rumored new film or something.
 
Gee, I hope they cast a badass female lead again who dominates the story, while the supporting actor who play's Max stands on the sidelines looking clueless and comatose.

The Wook
 
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Well since nothing came out of comic con, its a total bust.

The person in charge of the Mad Max official instagram page has either the best sense of occasion ever or is completely lacking a sense occasion.
 
"Before Inspiration, comes the Slaughter";) Sometimes, good work is done in the Dark...no need to go to Comi-Con to compete with the Jones. Miller is doing his job, prepping what will be a truly inspirational movie!
 
Gee, I hope they cast a badass female lead again who dominates the story, while the supporting actor who play's Max stands on the sidelines looking clueless and comatose.

The Wook
Starting with The Road Warrior, George Miller intended Max to be a character drifting into someone else's narrative. He's never really the principal character of the plot. He's a tourist, much like Toshiro Mufune was in Yojimbo. This way Max also can remain relatively static figure throughout the franchise.

And I really don't want to see Max as a central character going through some existential arc beyond the moral commitments he seems to struggle with in each movie. I like Max as a grunting force of nature.

So it didn't bother me that Fury Road was more about Furiosa than about Max. With the exception of the first movie, none of the previous films, were about him either - the only difference is that Furiosa was the first central protagonist that wasn't pathetic.
 
Starting with The Road Warrior, George Miller intended Max to be a character drifting into someone else's narrative. He's never really the principal character of the plot. He's a tourist, much like Toshiro Mufune was in Yojimbo. This way Max also can remain relatively static figure throughout the franchise.

And I really don't want to see Max as a central character going through some existential arc beyond the moral commitments he seems to struggle with in each movie. I like Max as a grunting force of nature.

So it didn't bother me that Fury Road was more about Furiosa than about Max. With the exception of the first movie, none of the previous films, were about him either - the only difference is that Furiosa was the first central protagonist that wasn't pathetic.

Max did way more in RW and BT than he did in FR.

FR sucked, as a Mad Max movie. Shoulda been called Mad Charlize.

I love Charlize Theron! She's hot, great SA accent, and an amazing actress. And, she did a good job in FR. But for crying out loud, give her her own post-apocalyptic movie, instead of making her the star of a MM movie by relegating him to the sidelines (or tied haplessly to the front of a vehicle!).

The Wook
 
I don't agree but I understand where you're coming from.

But in all the films, even in the first MM film, Max was the catalyst for the events in the story and in the later films, the films proceed because of his involvement. I think FR is no different and makes a statement to the frailty of his character in that, by the end of the film, when the there is a potential of settling down and making something decent in an indecent world, he turns his back to it. He is too ingrained in that chaotic world; it's what defines him, ironically. For him to join Furiosa at that point, he would lose what makes him Max, which is a really interesting thing to think about because that's been his entire goal as a character: to find that peace as a man again, but to have it, he would lose his identity. And, sadly for him, that's all he's clung to since the first film. The idea of what makes him him and, hinted and implied at in FR, even he's not sure anymore.
 
This conversation has just illuminated for me a pretty big problem with Fury Road that I never noticed before:
Narrative viewpoint.
The film begins from Max's viewpoint (it even opens with him saying "My name is Max"), then, after his confrontation with Furiosa, it shifts to her perspective.
I wonder if this problem may be the root of the reason why some fans dislike this film, whether they can identify the problem or not (I only just realized it myself).
What would this film look like if it had been told entirely from Max's perspective? Or Furiosa's? Or even the wives (the film even seems to take their viewpoint at times).
I like the idea of the stories of Mad Max being legends, like stories told around a campfire, but that narrative doesn't work if you open the movie with actual narration from Max himself.
George should have picked a single perspective and stuck with it (I'd prefer to see the wives' perspective, personally).
I wonder if fans like Wook would like this film better if it was told entirely from the perspective of the wives.
Then Furiosa wouldn't be the star of the movie, she'd just be fighting alongside Max.
 
Honestly, I don't want to see Max struggle with anything. He did in #1 and it broke him. Now I just want to see him drive his car, occasionally come across someone in need of help that he instinctively has to assist, fight oppressors, and move on.

No personal growth. No moral lessons. Just: Wander, Loot, Fight, Wander, Loot, repeat...
 
Axlotl

I don't think that's exactly a problem with the film moreso a problem the viewer would have. Personally, I thought it worked because the film starting with Max's intro sets up how he sees the world and how his state of mind is at that point. When we're introduced to Furiosa, her viewpoint contradicts his and, in being stuck travelling with her, it reawakens something dormant he had suppressed for so long. Something that, ultimately, will tie him forever to the wasteland and keep him a wandering figure in it.

To the comment above mine, though I don't personally find that a very interesting set up for any story, even that has deep running moral implications for a character. Also, I think that was implied to be the thing that drove Max to the where he is at the start of Fury Road, having being boiled down to just an instinct (surviving) from repetitious fighting, looting, and running.
 
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Max did way more in RW and BT than he did in FR.

FR sucked, as a Mad Max movie. Shoulda been called Mad Charlize.

I love Charlize Theron! She's hot, great SA accent, and an amazing actress. And, she did a good job in FR. But for crying out loud, give her her own post-apocalyptic movie, instead of making her the star of a MM movie by relegating him to the sidelines (or tied haplessly to the front of a vehicle!).

The Wook
I can relate to your sentiment.

I would likely have been bothered more if Mel was still playing Max.

In my mind I was still trying to weigh Hardy's interpretation. In the meanwhile I was getting engaged with the other strong characters of the film. Yeah, part of me wouldn't accept that Furiosa could credibly engage the real Max at hand to hand but at least they made it clear she wasn't a physical match. And her performance was so recklessly nihilistic I liked watching her character. I could see her toe to toe with this Max. If it was Mel Gibson I might have felt differently.

I thought Thunderdome was much worse. The other characters were either weak or annoying or both. Tina Turner was just playing herself. Master-Blaster was a cool as a concept but the writing and performances were meh. And, worst of all, those stupid desert kids. God, I hated that movie. I just wanted Max to kill them all and drive away. On the other hand the characters in Fury Road were exceptionally written and performed. I came into Fury Road afraid of getting another Thunderdome.

The film I want most of all (which I know I'll never get) would just be the story of Max between Mad Max and The Road Warrior where it's just him (Ideally played by Mel Gibson digitally de-aged(?), the cattle dog and his V8 Interceptor having adventures in the wasteland.
 
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