Mad Max: The Wasteland

The Wook said:

Well, I disagree with you entirely, mate. But I "Liked" your post, nevertheless, because of your use of the term, "MMIQ". lol

The Wook

ps~Thunderdome is obviously a big drop off from MM and RW. But I still liked it. I mean, it had Mel, afterall. And TBH, Savannah's legs were worth the price of admission alone. I would much rather watch MMBT than MMFR, any day of the week.

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I knew that would save me from a savage beating.:lol

It opened with Max driving camel`s Fing CAMEL`S, DID`NT YOU SEE THE Fing CAMELS. :lol

The Wook said:

Mad Max Fury Road suffered from two, very major problems:

1) Charlize Theron was the most compelling, virtuous badass in the film...

2) Tom Hardy possesses none of Mel Gibson's intrigue or magnetism...

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(Abbreviated for brevity)

Reluctantly, I must agree with you here.
When I was a kid, I wanted to BE Mad Mel.
Watching "Fury Road", I wanted to be Furiosa.
Hardy Max just comes across as feral and insane.

I still love "Fury Road", though.
I still think it's one of THE BEST movies ever made.

Agreed Max has lost it a little in Fury Road but it gives them the option to go straight back to another time and show him not so lost it and give us the whole slow burn.

Mr Webber said:

Agreed Max has lost it a little in Fury Road but it gives them the option to go straight back to another time and show him not so lost it and give us the whole slow burn.

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Yeah, if they get another actor to play Max.

Or better yet, just de-age Mel with CG.

The Wook

robstyle said:

With Fury Road it seems everyone here is overlooking the fact why it ended up with a secondary character as the lead, Mad Mel was going to come back to the role some years ago for an absurd amount of money (I seem to recall the number being $25 million) and only work for eight days. This was long before those WETA cars were made. The secondary role wasnt written as a female. Also overlooked in this mess is the mass amount of reshoots adding more Hardy Max to Fury Road. If anyone else here had seen the early cut of the film im certain they would chime in and tell you, it wasnt in any way shape or form a Mad Max movie, it was all Furiosa. Its been mentioned in this thread prior the film stumbles on whom the lead is. If this were to be that Mad Mel movie, it wasnt his story but the secondary character who is the lead. In the end result of Fury Road, the reshoots seemed to have confused people as the title is Mad Max Fury Road, not just Fury Road.

Now, imagine if Mad Mel had come back as an aged Max, in a desparate attempt to steal supplies from an encampment he is captured. He then meets up with someone who recalls stories of a lone man in the wasteland.... Max's story then confirms lore and legend and we are free to allow that secondary character to take over the majority of the film as the escape and chases happen. Eight days of filming would equal about eight minutes of footage on screen for one character.
Instead of the lore and legend happening between characters, its force fed to us in a series of bizarre and out of place flashbacks and visions in Hardy Max's own mind. That means he is Max and not someones version of a wasteland story we are being told.

Ive said it before, take the Mad Max out of the title and its a decent movie, its just not a Mad Max movie, and doesnt seem as if was intended to be from the start about 20 years ago.

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Hello, I'm new here, but after reading this post full of complete nonsense I decided to join in to set the story straight.

I'm a huge mad max fan, a moderator over at madmaxmovies.com and I also run the mad max wiki among other things. Look for the same user name there to confirm.
What robstyle said here is such nonsense it makes my head spin, but I guess people like to pretend to be knowledgeable when in fact they're not.

Here's the deal:
First off, Mel wasn't going to work for only 8 days. Fury Road back then was almost exactly the same as the movie we got now and this one took 138 days to film, so to keep the main actor for 8 days on set is absolutely ridiculous.

The secondary role wasn't written as male! Furiosa was always in the mix, originally called The Praetorian, Warrior Woman, Imperator.

This movie did not have any reshoots! In the middle of filming in Namibia in 2012 Warner Bros suddenly decided to remove The Citadel sequences and announced the release sometime in 2013. After arguing with WB, Miller and Colin Gibson (production designer) won WB over and proceeded to film The Citadel sequences in Sydney in November 2013 as planned. Those were not reshoots.

They did not 'add more scenes with Max' during those 'reshoots' at all. The movie was very closely following the 3500 storyboard panels and there was literally no room to add any scenes with Max or change anything for that matter. The only reason this movie in its 2015 form seems to put more emphasis on Furiosa is because Tom Hardy does not have the baggage of Mel Gibson's Max. According to Brendan McCarthy - the man who wrote Fury Road with Miller - Mel's Max would've been an immediately recognizable character with a lot of history and wisdom as the old road warrior we had already seen. Now in his 50's he would've been an experienced wastelander. After replacing Mel with Tom this weight of the character disappeared which is why the character balance shifted towards Furiosa.

cayman shen said:

I don't know how he can top Fury Road, but Miller has certainly earned the benefit of the doubt. Bring it on!

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Top? Fury Road was by far the weakest of every Mad Max film.

I hope it's better this time. I was so not impressed.

Taipan said:

Hello, I'm new here. What robstyle said here is such nonsense it makes my head spin, but I guess people like to pretend to be knowledgeable when in fact they're not.

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This was your first post on the RPF, so let me give you some orientation advice. We endeavor to keep the discourse civil here, and avoid ad hominem attacks. It's fine to disagree with a fellow member, like you did in calling robstyle's post "such nonsense to make your head spin". Although given it's your first-ever post, and @robstyle is one of the community's longest-standing members, you could've stated your disagreement with his post much more politely. But it's really what you said next, that crossed the line. You don't know robstyle from Adam. And yet you felt compelled to say that he was "pretending to be knowledgeable". That's offensive, and insulting, and will not win you friends here at the RPF. Instead of ascribing dubious motives to his posts, just say he's mistaken, give your version of the truth, and let the readers decide whom to believe.

Not the best way to start out here on the RPF.

Taipan said:

The only reason this movie in its 2015 form seems to put more emphasis on Furiosa is because Tom Hardy does not have the baggage of Mel Gibson's Max. According to Brendan McCarthy - the man who wrote Fury Road with Miller - Mel's Max would've been an immediately recognizable character with a lot of history and wisdom as the old road warrior we had already seen. Now in his 50's he would've been an experienced wastelander. After replacing Mel with Tom this weight of the character disappeared which is why the character balance shifted towards Furiosa.

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Perhaps that is true. But too much of the weight of the character disappeared. So much so, that the film's title character was rendered a helpless, hapless, impotent dolt.

The Wook

ok,well it looks like we got some more info and clarification from Taipan regarding the long production of fury road and certainly explains even more of how the script and film was created.fascinating stuff and i hope we still get another film or two.

Look I don't care how long robstyle has been here or how respected he is among members of this forum, spreading false information about the movie is pretending to be knowledgeable which is a fact and stating it is not offensive. Claiming that Fury Road was never about Max and that Hardy's supposed reshoots added more Max to the mix is simply not true. Fury Road was written for Mel Gibson as the final Mad Max movie, Mel was later replaced by Tom, the whole thing was called a reboot and Max's character lost its weight in the process.

A lot of people completely miss the point thinking that Max's character was reduced to a grunting bystander and not look at what he had become by the end of the movie.
The reason he doesn't talk at all is because he literally forgot how to. The first time we see him he's completely feral. By the end of the movie he utters his own name, probably for the first time in years. Max's character arc is huge, similarly to Nux's.
Furiosa's character development is the weakest, but for some reason people think she takes over the movie without looking at the bigger picture. Margaret Sixel who edited the movie said that she had trouble emphasizing the importance of Furiosa because her character was simply boring. We don't learn anything about her, we don't know what her motivation is, we don't know what her redemption is, all we know is that she tries to get the Wives to safety and kills Immortan Joe at the end. I believe Nico Lathouris (script analyst and co-writer) mentioned the same thing at the Graphic 2016 talk at the Sydney Opera House with McCarthy and Miller.

Taipan said:

Look I don't care how long robstyle has been here or how respected he is among members of this forum, spreading false information about the movie is pretending to be knowledgeable.

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You don't know that. You're completely speculating that he's "pretending to be knowledgeable". If he's wrong--and I'm not saying he is--then it could be a very innocent case of him posting information here that he learned from a source he deemed credible. For you to suggest that he's willfully spreading false information in an attempt to sound knowledgeable, is insulting. Particularly when you're a noob, and you don't know him...or anyone here...from Adam. I'm trying to help you out, since you're new here, that you're coming off as hostile and offensive.

Taipan said:

A lot of people completely miss the point thinking that Max's character was reduced to a grunting bystander and not look at what he had become by the end of the movie. The reason he doesn't talk at all is because he literally forgot how to. The first time we see him he's completely feral. By the end of the movie he utters his own name, probably for the first time in years. Max's character arc is huge, similarly to Nux's.

Furiosa's character development is the weakest, but for some reason people think she takes over the movie without looking at the bigger picture. Margaret Sixel who edited the movie said that she had trouble emphasizing the importance of Furiosa because her character was simply boring. We don't learn anything about her, we don't know what her motivation is, we don't know what her redemption is, all we know is that she tries to get the Wives to safety and kills Immortan Joe at the end. I believe Nico Lathouris (script analyst and co-writer) mentioned the same thing at the Graphic 2016 talk at the Sydney Opera House with McCarthy and Miller.

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I don't give a damn what the editors, writers or any of the other filmmakers say in defending their work. I know what I saw on that screen, and Furiosa was the most compelling character in the film. Max was an absolute bore to watch.

Mad Max Fury Road was a horrible Mad Max movie.

The Wook

Not to feed fire with guzzoline, but what Taipan has posted lines up with what I've read on the production of FR and the footage/interviews with the filmmakers.

Also, to The Wook, just to balance this thread out, FR is not just one of the best MM movies but, I think, one of the best films in the last decade in terms of technical, cinematic execution. It's just a matter of pearls before swine, in your case.

PoopaPapaPalps said:

Also, to @The Wook, just to balance this thread out, FR is not just one of the best MM movies but, I think, one of the best films in the last decade in terms of technical, cinematic execution. It's just a matter of pearls before swine, in your case.

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Oh yeah?! Well remember what you said, because in a day or two, I'll have a witty and blistering retort! You'll be devastated THEN!

Taipan said:

I'm a huge mad max fan, a moderator over at madmaxmovies.com and I also run the mad max wiki among other things. Look for the same user name there to confirm.
What robstyle said here is such nonsense it makes my head spin, but I guess people like to pretend to be knowledgeable when in fact they're not.

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Where is that WIlly Wonka meme when you need it? So youre an admin and run a wiki page, tell me how you work in film and production? Pre production on what was once MM4 was at least 17 years ago. Of course you should know this as you run a wiki page. Ive had run ins with the madmaxmovies people prior particularly when reaching out to some of them about info on the cars pin stripping and interior as we were in the process of building a replica interceptor at the time. But even then the same "you dont know what youre talking about" replies were all that was made in return.
I also suspect youve not seen the early cut of Fury Road? The one with less Hardy Max. Of course not as you likely would have to be close to someone on the project to see it. In the end the general public, even website admins and wiki page runners, are only ever entitled to what is deemed necessary and fit for consumption. This brings in a quote I once heard, "I guess people like to pretend to be knowledgeable when in fact they're not". Its closed mindedness that keeps many insiders away from letting little known information, insider stories and production history out of the bag. Believe what you like, im not rewriting history, im just a guy on the internet who raced cars, had many lunches in a spaceship and worked for NASA. Many times truth is stranger than fiction.

robstyle said:

Where is that WIlly Wonka meme when you need it?

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Allow me to assist you with that, style.

I’m not sure about Anya Taylor-Joy, but I’m there for anything that comes from Miller’s Wasteland