Uhh. So me and bestfriendofalltime saw this on Thursday and uhh. I still have no words. I don't think I've seen a movie this great in years. I want to roll around in its existence and sort of bask gently and weep, or punch a shark in the face. Discuss?
I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, but when I saw it, I LOVED it. I loved Furiousa and the brides and I loved the women from the Green Place. Also I've been getting into cars recently and so the war rig had me practically drooling. I still can't believe a movie featuring so many badass female characters got the funding that it did but I am sooo grateful that it did.
I had the same feeling. Basically I came away feeling like I had driven something for two hours without stopping, that was how much adrenaline there was. It was amazing. And so many little details! So humanising and great and true. I love that in a shitty awful world people can still choose not to eat each other, and that's the right way. Good movie. Good message.
I was happy about that too. Those movies where it's basically 'everyone is bad there's no good left even the protagonist is just a monster' really bother me. I liked that yes, the characters weren't always in the right, but ultimately the main characters tried to help each other. Furiousa rescued the wives, Splendid tried to protect Furiousa, and Capable showed kindness to Nux when she would have been justified in killing him. Like there was plenty of potential for it to be a gory, gruesome, terrible bloodbath, but it wasn't, and I appreciate that.
I am so pleased that the Capable/Nux friendship thingy didn't turn into some sort of weirdness where she gentles him through sex or whatever. I was pretty much waiting for it to go there, but it didn't! And I did feel genuinely sorry when he finally died. Considering he started off as just another rando I expected to go out quickly, that's a lot of change. I like that he changed. Also eleventy million yeses for the brides using their "status" as "goods" to protect other people/to make it harder for McJackass. Of course it's horrible they have to do that, but I am pleased that the movie realised that this is a thing people do.
I really liked Nux's arc. I like that his motivation at the end was still clearly his central motivation at the beginning. He wants to do Something. He wants to be helpful. He wants to die heroic on the Fury Road. It's just who he's dying for. But even earlier, he's all "I can drive the truck! I know how to drive the truck! Let me drive the war rig!" Also I really got more of a motherly vibe from Capable with regards to Nux. Plus Nick Hoult in the knitting circle. I can totally see Nux in a knitting circle. And yeah, Splendid using herself as a meatshield was all kinds of awesome.
Capable and Nux's interactions were beautiful. She knew what to do for him so well. She really is a very motherly figure.
A thing I've found interesting about Mad Max: The number of people participating in fandom like behavior who were not in fandom before this movie. This movie could be structurally junk and it's doing SOMETHING right. It's catching people who aren't fans of dumb action flicks. It's catching people who aren't into philosophically deep films. It's got the widest net I've ever seen from an audience perspective and that's absolutely astounding. Also, from a "story structure" theory standpoint it's damn near perfect.
yeah idk even what is happening everything is mad max and it is great my life can be separated into before mad max and after mad max i will pick my friends according to whether they like this movie aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh
Someone on my Facebook friends is convinced it was THE MOST RACIST MOVIE THEY'VE SEEN IN FOREVER and it really doesn't make sense.
Uh. Could it have been better in terms of representation? Absolutely, but I don't think the conclusion really follows.
