In preparation for the new film Mad Max: Fury Road, I have taken it upon myself to marathon the entire original and now-former Mad Max trilogy. I am very much looking forward to this film, and have not seen any of the originals, and will be making my reviews here of them before Fury Road’s release on May 15th. So without further ado…

It still kind of shocks me that a film series such as Mad Max, yet alone the massive career of Mel Gibson, all started with an independent film. It certainly looks the part, and it only makes the final result on screen all the more impressive.

If anything else, this film serves mostly as a full-on origin story for the titular Max Rockatansky, and on that front, it succeeds. We really get to see Max go from a very dutiful and loyal officer and loving husband and father to the hardened action hero we’d see in the latter two films. His early nemesis, the Toecutter, and his burly motorcycle gang, the Acolytes, provide a wonderfully sick and twisted foil for Max in their crucial moments of the movie. It only makes me that more excited what may become of the Toecutter in Fury Road, considering the portraying actor, Hugh Keays-Byrne, will serve as its antagonist also.

In terms of story, it does feel noticeably jerky with the long stretches of conflicting tones. Yes, the Acolytes provide a constant sense of urgency and foreboding, but in scenes like where Max takes his family on vacation, the sense of their safety being in jeopardy is only on the back of the mind only until they actually arrive. While scenes with Max and his friend Goose are quite riveting in context to the plot, many scenes involving either of the two feel dragged out to keep the runtime over 90 minutes. I wouldn’t mind an 80 minute Mad Max movie if it were still lean with story.

It’s certainly a premonition of things yet to come, but the world of Mad Max feels a little to clean for the dystopian feel that it’s trying to go for, and it just looks like it was set in a very poor part of the continent. Touches like the trashy look of the police station and the officer’s rugged leather-jacket uniforms are a wonderful touch, but it still doesn’t strongly give off a “world-gone-to-hell” look. However, the action scenes, whenever they come around, are fantastic, even with the minimal budget. The camerawork is flawless and is really what elevates the tension in each shot, and really prove George Miller’s aptitude in directing.

Mad Max is a fine movie, but it leaves the feeling that it could have been a lot, lot more. Thankfully, the film was a resounding success and earned Miller the ability to make two more films over the next five years, along with Fury Road coming this summer. Mad Max did exactly what it needed to do: make me beg for more.

Final Verdict:

Talk about a complete change in tone. The Road Warrior completely forsakes the gradual breakdown of society and completely destroys it to create a world of sheer anarchy and insanity. With a studio-backed budget, The Road Warrior lets George Miller soar high on a flights of frenzy, creating not just one of the best action films of the 80’s but one of the best action films of all time.

Max Rockatansky is back and badder than ever. With the events of Mad Max reducing him to a shell of his former self, he’s far more willing to fight, and it makes for a better action hero. He’s not without his faults either, being more concerned for his own safety and at doing whatever he needs to do in order to continue on his lonesome journey, even if it means forging alliances and breaking them just as quickly. With the world reduced to what it has become and with food and supplies direly scarce, you can still empathize with his decisions. Other characters include the Gyro Captain, who starts off seemingly as a throwaway and quickly becomes a crucial part of Max’s survival, and the Humungus, who is a great villain with a fearsome appearance and uncanny charisma, along with a rag-tag army of crazed, violent psychopaths.

The story is very plot-driven, and it’s easy to spot the usual plot-points, but it’s still aided by a well-designed world that delivers a fresh sense of urgency to the hero-walks-into-town-type story. Unlike the last film where the plot felt like it meandered in and out of focus, the direction for the story is much tighter, and it gives the audience a chance to really breathe in the desolation of the ruined outback where Max’s journey is set.

With an added budget, George Miller’s action scenes become far greater and more massive, making use of a variety of high speed ground and aerial cinematography that gives the audience a much bigger scope to view the carnage in full, glorious detail. The final escape and chase with the oil rig and the Humungus’s army is quite possibly one of the best action scenes ever put on film. Every shot and cut is on point, the stunts are out of this world, and the wretched design of the cars and the fortress-like conversion of the rig only serves to make the stakes that much higher and the enemy that more fearsome. It’s breathtaking sequence that you never want to end.

Yes, The Road Warrior in theory is much like any other plot-based film, but with Mel Gibson at the reigns, a fabulously manic world, and a monster climax, who even cares? It’s a marvelous film and easily one of the best sequels ever made. It seems as if each film is getting me more excited for the other films to come, and it’s only going to make the next month that more excruciating.

Final Verdict:

With The Road Warrior blowing Mad Max out of the water in terms of scope and grandeur, George Miller seems to have outdone himself further with Beyond Thunderdome, the formally-final film in the Mad Max saga. With Road Warrior having set the bar colossally high, how does this one compare?

Max is pretty much the same person we saw in Road Warrior, including all the badassery that it would entail. Newly added to this film is Aunty Entity played by Tina Turner, and her performance is actually something to experience. She really is a rival for Max in terms of screen presence, and she’s clearly loving every moment she has onscreen. And while not as daunting as the Humungus, the camaraderie that is Master Blaster is also quite interesting, and they function oddly well as a single character while having their own as well. Admittedly, I feel as though the addition of Savannah and the tribe of children that Max meets along the way is quite grating, but their post-apocalyptic mythology is actually very inventive and wondrous.

If Mad Max was guilty of an unfocused story, and The Road Warrior’s was too familiar, Beyond Thunderdome offers a very pleasant combination of both, feeling plot-driven while still taking risks and taking breaks to expand the world and culture of Mad Max as it has become after the second film. Sometimes, these breaks feel a bit overlong, but they didn’t feel nearly as glaring as Mad Max’s were. It’s clear that not only have Miller’s directing and world-building skills improved over the course of this series, but so has his storytelling (a fact that I cling to optimistically in anticipation for Fury Road, despite the thirty-year hiatus).

The design of Beyond Thunderdome is also quite spectacular. From the titular Thunderdome arena to the village where the tribe of children call their home, it all looks very authentic and grabbing. Perhaps it can get a bit extravagant at times, namely the entertainment aspect of the Thunderdome deathmatches, but it still shows evidence of a destroyed world trying to rebuld itself, and it’s at the very least commendable. This film is home to two great action sequences: the Thunderdome fight between Max and Blaster (Master Blaster’s stronger lower “half”), and the final escape from Bartertown, each of which features incredible and literally death-defying stunts that elevate themselves beyond The Road Warrior. I also feel that even though it’s no longer a series finale, the last ten minutes are a perfect capping of the trilogy, showing the full extent of the damage done to the world while still instilling hope for the characters and their futures.

Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome helps solidify the Mad Max series as one of the most unusual, but breathtaking series of films ever created. Each film continues to push the envelope of what it can accomplish, and while it perhaps oversteps its bounds quite often, it still delivers sufficiently and offers something a bit better than what came before. I can safely say that I fully welcome a fourth Mad Max film in this series, and cannot wait for its release.

Final Verdict:

YEAAAAH! MAD MAX!

I freakin' love Mad Max, for one because its great, but also because it's so different. Noone in their right mind would make movies like these (maybe the first one, but 'The Road Warrior' or 'Beyond Thunderdome?' nah), but thats why these movies need to be made. in my opionon, 'Mad Max' is basically the best independent film I've ever seen, when you consider the budget and the situation. issues, yes, but it is a movie that put everything it had on the screen, a real all or nothing gamble that would make or break Director George Millers career. It paid off too, Mad Max had the highest Budget to profit ratio from 1979 untill 'The Blair Witch Project.'

"The Road Warrior" Is one of my favorite movies ever, but I'm not as in awe of it as you are I think. See, I like two sorts of movies, really good ones, and really bad ones. 'The Road Warrior' is the only movie that I've ever seen that manages to be both. there are scenes that are breathtaking, scenes that are excellent, and there are shots that are masterfully well done. there are also shots where the film is clearly sped up and it looks horrible and crappy and incompetent and shots that should end far earlier than they do and end up being kinda awkward. these shots live side by side, often happening within a minute of eachother. And I love both of them, the great and the crap.

Thunderdome however is a little disappointing to be, mainly because it raised my expectations. at the beginning, I thought it was great. in fact, I thought it was better than "The Road Warrior" by the time of The Thunderdome fight I was convinced that this was going to be the one to beat. but then when he left bartertown, I thought that it lost some steam. the end action scene also I thought was a little lacking. but that beginning...

And now after 30 years, we'll get Fury Road. You wanted the last chase in the Road Warrior to never end. Well, this time it won't. The trailers so far have really sold me on watching this movie (I'm far more interested in watching 'Fury Road' than 'Age of Ultron.') honestly, It dosen't just look like a movie that no one in their right mind would make (which is why we need it), but it also looks like a movie that no one would make in 2015. It has real cars really crashing. What!? Now I know that I may be a little to hard on films and their use of CGI (for example the "Fast and Furious" movies actually do have a good amount of practical effects) but this movie seems to have the bare minimum that it could get away with in terms of CGI. it all looks real. It all is real, even it it's a pair of 50s's Cadillacs with twin V-8 engines on a monster truck chassis or a Military transport truck with amplifiers and a guy playing a flamethrower guitar on it. someone really made these, and odds are someone really unmade them on film. my only concern about 'Fury Road' now is will people watch it, or will they look at it and say "that looks weird, i'm gonna watch 'Pitch Perfect 2' instead."
God I hope it's successful