CaptainRaccoonWhitly · @Whitly12
11th Jun 2015 from TwitLonger
Mad Max: Fury Road, aka "leave me the f*** alone already about this movie!"
This is courtesy of @TheMadHero. If you ever need someone to thank for venting about my frustrations with Mad Max: Fury Road, he's to thank.
Let's get one thing clear here: I don't think Mad Max: Fury Road is straight up garbage. It's too high-octane and well-constructed on a surface level to be that. Plus, I like its incorporation of a pro-feminist message that isn't rammed in your face. Tact is key, and any political message, even the pressing ones, could stand to learn that.
My issue comes largely from how hollow the movie really is. Much like Birdman, the film presents this grand story that it thinks is so important. In this case, it's about the post-apocalyptic world of Australia and its compartmentalization to the extreme. Everything about it regulated by a tyrannical dictator whom, shocker, is also a man. Because as tiring as it is to constantly hear people point the blame at the white, heterosexual, Christian male, he has a lot to answer for and still answer for now.
The problem is that it never goes into much detail about why that's an issue. You're just expected to accept that Immortan Joe is evil based on his actions. And while, yes, I buy it 100% that he's an a**hole, he's also a f***ing cartoon. There's no subtlety to his character, his appearance looks even more ridiculous than a Trigun goon (which is quite the feat), his voice is impossible to take seriously and his "warboys" don't have any real character. If this is supposed to be a representation of the hyper-masculine nature of society, well then...I can't take it seriously.
Speaking of which, the female component of this movie is played up as an extreme opposite. In Mad Max: Fury Road, men are evil, women are saints. That's the beginning and the end of it. There's no nuance, no depth, nothing. What, women can't be awful too? What is it with this ridiculous, double-standard that insists that women can't be as bad as men sometimes? I respect feminism immensely, but this isn't an issue of feminism. It's an issue of "head up your a**." Why are the women automatically the good ones in this movie? Wouldn't it have been more interesting if at least one of the matriarchs was crooked? A sort of "be careful who you trust?" balance to the hyper-ego of man, showing that the situation isn't exclusively one-sided?
On top of that, the story is ridiculous. Ignoring the fact that expository dialogue isn't always a bad thing (sometimes it's even crucial,) Mad Max: Fury Road is an escort chase movie. Except it's not even a well-written one. It's simply an excuse to show off how much money George Millar has now that he's a well-known director. Can you honestly tell me what the story is outside of "Max helps Furiosa deliver girls to better place, they realize said place doesn't exist, they go back to point A and kill the bad guys, the end"? What's the point of dragging 10 minutes of story out to 2 hours?
Oh, right, it's because of the dazzling, practically-executed effects. You know what? I'm starting to really hate the whole "CGI is awful, more practical effects" crowd. Because CGI has opened us up to a lot of really great possibilities that were never available before the 90's made it mainstream. We should be embracing those opportunities, not begging for the stop-motion and painstakingly-handcrafted effects that, while cool in their own right, don't always hold up after 20+ years. So what if a guy on strings played a flamethrower guitar for real? So what if a giant truck got flipped in the air? That's what The Fast and the Furious franchise is for, hence the initial comparison, and you don't see people calling those movies masterpieces?
By the way, the frequent integration of flashbacks is really distracting. But let's set up Max's potentially interesting back-story to be explored in a future movie, okay?
As for the music? Junkie XL's score is slathered on as badly as an early-Saban Digimon dub. What are the stand-outs? Are there any at all? What about this score is remotely appealing? If you say "the guitar riff," I'm gonna laugh.
Finally, this movie draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaags. A lot. By the time the last act rolled around, I wanted it to END. Because it was wasting my time. Isn't that bad enough.
I get it, this is a pro-feminist film that mostly relies on imagery to tell its story. It's also a complete waste of time that's too stupid to take seriously. I'm neither excited for another Mad Max movie after seeing this, nor ready to see it again. And I'm sorry to say this, but I really think it's true: if the roles were reversed, and this were a movie about taking down the matriarchy, people would be furious. Because the movie is so incredibly shallow that it fails even as a feminist movie. It's entertaining, true, but that's the beginning and the end of it. And maybe I AM being a little over-reactionary, but when the first thing I think of when I see the trailer for this movie is only reconfirmed while watching it, that it's a sci-fi Fast and the Furious, well...what else am I supposed to say?