Australia Deserves A Better Apocalypse: 19
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- čas přidán 12. 07. 2024
- / @terrytalksmovies
George Miller's fifth story in the Mad Max Universe is out. It stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth and it's entertaining... but I have questions. The worldbuilding and some choices made put me in nitpicking mode.
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00:00 Intro - The Sun Cinema- An Easter Egg
02:43 Nitpicks 1-5
08:07 Nitpicks 6-9
11:39 Nitpicks 10-15
14:48 Nitpicks 16-19
20:23 Where Is Cinema Going?
24:20 Outro
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I really do not agree with regard to continuity. Miller is clearly saying that this franchise is a bunch of tales about this folk hero called Mad Max. Complaining now after two different actors have played two different characters is crazy, man.
I have no issue with two actors playing the same character. I'm not sure where you got that idea.
Terry, you asked, "Why use gas-guzzlers when they have wind-powered land yachts?" For the same reason ships at sea switched to steam, and later diesel, and still later nuclear power (at least for military vessels)-it's far more reliable than the wind.
Prior to steamships, boats either had to haul out oars (all those slaves rowing boats in Biblical and Viking movies), haul out rowboats to literally drag the ship out to where the wind (or a sea current) was, or trust to knowing the currents in well-traveled routes so the ship moved even when there was no wind. Since there's no currents that you can travel on on land (yes, there are hills you can travel down, but you have travel up first or it's a one-way trip), the only option to a becalmed land yacht is to get out and either have a draft animal to pull it-or drag it yourself (which would look ridiculous in a battle scene).
If you want worldbuilding in a world with limited or no gasoline, you could imagine that military vehicles like warwagons, and smaller vehicles for the rich and powerful, are somehow self-powered (either using what gas is left, a substitute like methane as MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME did, or using electric batteries if you wanted to be all environmental or futuristic), while for trade and/or the less well-to-do land yachts and/or animal-powered vehicles would do the hauling. George Miller's extremely smart, but he's also in love with his B-Movie universe built for speed and cheap thrills-so his vehicles are going to be gas-guzzlers because they can GO! And they can have flames coming out of them as they do so, too....
The Mad Max films are basically westerns anyway.
An actual post-apocalyptic wasteland would have more bicycles and wood gas powered cars anyway.
When you mentioned the Google Earth shot, I immediately thought Coober Pedy, and you're right the landscape is nothing like the movie depicts. It did get me thinking of another post-apocalyptic show from the late 80s that was filmed there, “Salute of the Jugger/Blood of heroes” Which had some well-known character actors from Australia in addition to Rutger Hauer, Joan Chen, Vincent d’onfario. I haven't watched it in years though, it might be best left in my teenage memories.
I haven't seen it since VHS days myself. Miller makes that common mistake that deserts don't have complex ecosystems. They do.
I love the Mad Max universe. And yes, even with nit picking going back to Mad Max 2. If you ever owned a muscle car, they tend to get 10 to 14 MPG on a good day, not an ideal cross country option. But damn they look cool and sound mean!
My beef with Furiosa is its deja vu story. This is the 1982 Conan The Barbarian movie 1) Child of a warrior is captured by cult leader 2) Parent warrior is killed by cult leader 3) Child grows up strong but vengeful 4) Vengeance is given to the cult leader.
The Mad Max movies are basically Westerns. Looked at through that lens, they're explicable.
Interesting as I am a massive fan of Mad Max and Conan, defiantly a little cross over there, that said There's still enough difference between the two movies, I wouldn't call it a copy. And as Terry said Mad Max movies especially the original feel like Westerns.
@nowhere529 didn't say copy, it's a very similar theme. Mad Max films are still great revenge epics. I just wanted a more original story to match the action. Speaking of Conan, we're due a King Conan with Arnold.
@@captlazer5509 King Conan with Arnie has potential no doubt, heres hoping.
Hi Terry. I've just seen Furiosa and thought it was great. Wild, and bombastic story telling. The sound is incredible! Tim Burns has a small part, playing a character called Hungry Eyes.. of course he played Johnny the Boy from the original Mad Max..
Fair enough. We can agree to disagree. But that opening fifteen minutes was killer.
The theory is that Max in Fury Road is the Feral Child grown up and taking the mantle of the hero he met in his youth.
It's a fan theory. If it was, why did he ditch the steel boomerang?
Mad Max was a very good film, especially considering its budget. Mad Max 2 was a great film, period. That was all I needed. So many new movies are too expensive, have far too much going on to register while you are watching them and are so overstuffed with CGI that they stop seeming to be real. The studios should try making five $50,000,000 movies instead of $250,000,000 blockbusters that fizzle out. Their odds would be better, and would likely end up making more money, especially considering they would have more product for the extended money making cycle of streaming.
Yep. The economics of monstrously big films no longer work.
BTW, I can drive for ten minutes from my home and be on the roads they drove along in Mad Max. Between here and Little River there are a lot of them.
Speaking for myself, all the nitpicks of illogical and annoying details are what make Mad Max movies so much fun. Especially the central premise of huge gas guzzling motors, as referenced by petrol being called guzzoline in a few of the earlier movies.PS … went to the pox-eclipse festival in WA last year where several hundred people had a lot of fun revelling in the absurdity of the Mad Max
world and aesthetic.
The series would lose nothing and gain a lot from having consistency between the movies. It seems lazy not to do continuity correctly.
I had a flashback to when my wife and I walked out of the theatre after watching Shoot ‘Em Up and I pointed out all the reality holes in an otherwise highly entertaining movie. She responded in that patronizing tone wives reserve for their brain addled spouses saying, “Well dear. Just make believe it’s a Jorge Luis Borges story. You like those.”
LOL. But sometimes it's fun to nitpick a movie apart! You gotta go with the joy of it.
My son sees the Mad Max films as fables or folklore; the kind of stories you'd tell around the hearth or campfire at the end of the day. If treated as such, continuity, logistics (or even common sense) become far less important. The opening pursuit and Furiosa's early acts to survive up through "The Stowaway" were the better parts of the movie for me.
The opening really is something special, like the final boss battle in Prey.
Another thought (using up my quota fast this week!) -- maybe the moat of oil is a last-ditch defense? Horde of raiders, or gas-starved soccer moms, are heading to gas city to fill their tanks, and you light the moat of oil on fire to keep them out??? Sort of like biting (burning!) the hand that feeds you, but it would be a deterrent for sure. In fact, why does that ring a bell -- was that used in some other movie?
Apparently it's oil waste but still flammable AF.
I agree with your nitpicks by and large although most of them I take as part of the grindhousey charm of this series, like all the dumb character names. The continuity does bother me a bit. I didn't think the location of the peach seed was meant to be ambiguous at all and I think you nailed it 🤘🤣
Yep. Chocolate starfish.
I totally agree with all you spoke about. Especially the wasteful use of recourses. The fact that the cars maintainance and creation of bullets, spray cans etc was ignored. I as a Brit also see these films as Australian and I prefer to see and hear mostly Ausdies in it. The first part of the film was definitely the best and the ending very drawn out and saggy for me. Did I enjoy it, yes. But only if I view it as a non Mad Max film.
I think it's a Mad Max universe movie but the spectacle overwhelms the characters and story.
@@terrytalksmovies Yes indeed. I just don't think it fits, well into the universe of the original 3. There is so much happening it like so much is too much. In the old films the action was just as furious but it was cut back pure action. There wasn't the fat around the edges likes the new.
Gotta give a shout-out to Richard Norton (playing one of Immortan's lieutenants) - he's 74! Norton has been a character actor, bodyguard, stunt co-ordinator, stunt-man, fight choreographer, martial artist (with a fistful of black-belts) who never made a top billing but has always been contributing to action cinema.
As for a critique... I think the apocryphal nature of the stories (shifting timelines, continuity etc) are an innate part of the narrative. Furiosa's vengeance was kind of a pyrrhic victory as Dementus was basically a man-child who lost anything he cared about and channeled it all into things that didn't satisfy him because THAT was the nature of this new world - he kind of hated what he'd become and saw his punishment as penance. I think this made him an incredible antagonist.
Hemsworth brought something new to Dementus. A manic energy that worked. I want to see him in more character roles.
I remember in the film Waterworld the villians had an unlimited amount of bullets, cigarettes , and speedboats. The problem was that humans haven't been on land in centuries. How were they able to manufacture and maintain those resources. Looks like George Miller borrowed from a movie that basically copied from him.
There is a phenomenon whereby people who suffered neurological trauma developed an entirely different accent. Maybe Furiosa took a blow to the head in adolescence.
I think that's a stretch. It's more likely that George Miller doesn't give a shit about consistency.
I know a group of fangirls who wanted Furiosa to be made. But the last film was successful so it just made sense to support a prequel. Where else was Max heading to? As you pointed he's stuck in the middle of desolation so nothing else to see. I'm lucky to have played the Metro video games and managed to reach Vladivostok. Terrible weather, btw.
Who names their kids that way? I'd say some bogans who never grew out of their adolescents. But I suspect it's mental degradation.
I still haven't watched any new movies since January. But someone said superhero flicks have a lifeline in streaming. It's absurd and it doesn't bode well for the future of actual cinema releases. If there is to be a reformation in cinema it's going to have to start at the budget because they are spending far too much money. And guys like Jerry Seinfeld don't deserve a big paycheck.
Another good idea for wind powered engines would be Theo Jansen´s wind powered sculptures.
Agreed. They're miraculously beautiful, too.
#5 pretty sure there is no coast... the oceans dried up.... that is why it is called the great white, it is the dried up Pacific ocean, and why Max discourages them from heading to find the next land in Fury Road and convinced them to go back to the citadel. They all would of died. There is nothing there, even in the game you see the ruins of coral and ships / light houses because there is no more water. It is uninhabitable cause it is just 100s of miles of salt. Dont know if the Pacific Ocean drying up is plausible but that is how it is told in the story. Enjoyed the video
How does the ocean dry up? Either it evaporates and the air is full of moisture which falls as rain and re-fills the oceans or there's a LOT of hydrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere which means the moment someone starts a fire, the planet burns. That's just silly.
@@terrytalksmovies lol yes, Pure suspension of disbelief is probably the only way. I do still love the Mad Max universe🌝
The people in Road Warrior were heading to the coast at the end.
IKR? There's no consistency in the narrative.
My special power, as a Scandi, not really being able to tell what english accent is being spoken. Not unless it is really over the top. I hear complaints all the time "why does he have a Boston accent..." and I am just blessedly free from these concerns 😀
Fair enough. I probably have the same thing with Scandi accents. 😀
Pretty keen to see it. I love the franchise and certainly leave my nit-picking tools at home. The Mad Max world has been completely illogical since 2, but both 2 and 3 paid at least lip service to limited resources and included a lot of cross bows and reusable weapons. Especially 2 did the limited availability of bullets a strong presence and was important to that movie’s storyline. Humungus’s use of his few remaining bullets to shoot at Max in the prime mover or at the helicopter spoke to his desperation- he knew he HAD to be victorious as if capturing the oil refinery and the gas was his last hope of keeping his band of outlaws together…
I thought Fury Road was terribly let down by the poor performance of Tom Hardy (a shock, he’s a stellar actor normally) and apparently he and Charlize got along badly off camera, and I think that shows in their lack of chemistry throughout.
I only hope Furiosa is better than Fury Road. I’m not expecting the simple brilliance of the first2…
Tom Hardy really phoned in the role, which is a pity.
Would love to see a TTM episode highlighting the 'peak' of James Coburn tongue-in-cheek movies -- The President's Analyst, the Flint movies -- more????
Done czcams.com/video/kt_GrjuyYxI/video.html
@@terrytalksmovies -- Ahh -- great overview of The President's Analyst and Coburn! I have worked for a number of the US 'alphabet soup' agencies and consulted with 'Ma Bell' back in the day -- and that movie has a lot more truth buried in the satire than anyone would like to admit -- especially about 'TPC'!!!! But I miss seeing your hat and cat in that video!!! Did you hit the Flint movies at some point?
Personally I take these films as allegory and fairy tale rather than speculative documentary. It is not realistic to explain every detail to it's logical conclusion unless you want a film which takes 20 hours to explain everything away. Suspension of belief needs to be earned but it can't always satisfy everyone. Some people are more interested in the dramatic character arcs but everyone has their own preferences. I can understand the nitpicking when the storytelling isn't strong enough to hold the film up.
The storytelling isn't strong in the Mad Max films. They're rebadged westerns.
Terry -- I hope that you wear that hat out in public -- I'd love to hear about any reactions to it. Of course most of us actually live that most of the time, but most people won't have the 'bronzes' to admit it.
I do wear my hats in public. You gotta let your freak flag fly!
@@terrytalksmovies -- I have a collection of -- wow -- well over 100 t-shirts now with off-kilter, snarky, mildly inappropriate sayings on them -- definitely worth the doubletakes that I get....
Where are movies going? Entertainment is the business of collaring consumer attention spans. Movies, the greatest electronic storytelling medium, are having trouble competing with something else for our attention span: phones. Phone media like CZcams, tiktok, and the rest might not offer the most powerful or refined presentation, but their game of "what comes next" is frequent, and keeps us engaged
Storytelling is changing. Console and PC games are becoming new forms of interactive storytelling and they're slowly overtaking cinema. Cinema will always exist, just as radio and theatre do, but they'll shift position in the zeitgeist.
Great video, Terry. This is kind of tangential, but I was reminded of a nitpick I always had about the original Planet of the Apes: Where did the apes get their guns when they appear to be a pre-industrial society?
Yep. That takes a solid technological materiel flow.
Pre-industrial societies had guns, though not the kind of Twentieth Century-style assault rifles the movies used, certainly! Part of that could be chalked up to "Well, yes, it WOULD be more accurate if the talking apes in a preindustrial society had smoothbore muzzleloaders, but we're already spending most of the budget on ape makeup! So the Ape Military somehow has lightly-modified M1s, because we have a shitton of those in Props thanks to all the WWII movies we've done."
It would also be more accurate if the talking apes had fewer stairs to walk up and more bars to swing from, but they couldn't easily build an Ape City that most of the cast and crew were unable to get around in. So they have stairs, because Maurice Evans and James Gregory can't be expected to get their Nadia Comăneci on....
Originally the apes were supposed to have a technology base that was close to Twentieth Century Earth's as a way to explain why they had repeating assault rifles-they also had ape cities with skyscrapers and motor vehicles, as well as airplanes and office machines. But that was so far beyond the movies' budgets that they went with a preindustrial society that looked closer to THE FLINTSTONES' Bedrock than a modern-day city built for apes.
Fargo, N. D. Was filmed in Minnesota cause they didn’t have enough snow that year in N Dakota
It's just down the road anyway. 😉😀
Thanks Terry, I loved the movie. As for the names of the characters, these were in the best tradition of zany Mad Max names, Toecutter anyone? I’m glad I don’t have a mind to nitpick like you, as I’d criticise everything!
Shame it’s not doing so well as I’d love to see another entry in the series 👍
oh, I think she planted the nut in his nether regions, not sure on the science of that - hope I never find out either!
I think she jammed it up his chocolate starfish.
another good one terry.
i might be a bit irrelevant in this
discussion as a mid fifties guy.
the first two movies are very dear to my heart.
the first because of the familiar locations, brando jackets and v8 falcons.
the second because seeing it at the cinema as a teenager was an experience that hasn’t been surpassed, movie wise.
you can nit pick mad max 2 over the cars and petrol but they were post nuclear scavengers.
these new movies don’t work for me. shouldn’t have put tom hardy in fury road.
should’ve just made a new “universe”
Hardy basically phoned in the role. There was no character there, which is why Charlize Theron stole the movie. She put in the hard work.
@@terrytalksmovies hardy had no real role to play. nothing against him.
should’ve left mad max off the title altogether.
it was like a dirty harry movie with clint eastwood playing the cleaner.
"Methane? Your Inthane!!" hehe but yeah while i haven't seen it yet "Furiosa" does sound like a house of cards where just the slightest breeze of inconsistency and incongruity (the accent!!) brings the whole thing tumbling down. And there's really not a lot of excuses given the combined talents involved. You can make a film that plays it dumb (just a lot of grunt, effects, chases macho stuff) and STILL make some sense of it, and do it without a load of exposition to slow it down. I know suspending belief is a necessary part of enjoying these things, but with that big a budget wouldn't it have been better spending little more on the writing...just a tad? Anyway, it looks like this film will be two cones and a 6-pack type fun, but like WilliamWilson5127 commented, 5 x 50 mil could be a better investment and give us more variety, different, new talent, hell even if each was itself a "Mad Max saga", but putting everything on one big tentpole film seems pointlessly risky. I do get the whole let's dumb it (way) down and make it an entirely visceral live action version of a Heavy Metal album cover aesthetic, but after the unexpected WOW factor of Fury Road and that we know George Miller is an intelligent film maker, it all seems like it's running on empty.
George Miller's going to be known for two things. Cars in a dystopian desert and animated penguin movies.
I loved Furiosa. It got such a drubbing from the critics that I was anticipating something far worse than Dune Part Deux! But I loved every frame! I thought the dialog was sharp and concise, and the action was the absolute definition of cinematic. I don't know if you've tried nit-picking Dune Part D'oh! lately, but I don't think it will hold up nearly as well. And, BTW Terry, it's not called Twitter anymore! 🙂 Great channel, BTW.
I'm calling it Twitter forever. Elon Musk is a self-medicating bumpkin with the poor judgement of a drunken child.
A LOT of people have nitpicked Dune Part Two. The market is flooded with those videos. Furiosa, for me, had so many dumb choices made that I had to squeeze the pus out of the wound for myself.
Also, thanks so much for liking the channel. 😉😉
I always felt that at least in the original Mad Max/Road Warrior movie there had not been a global 'apocalypse' event -- like a nuclear war, but more like the not-so-slow breakdown of society and infrastructure that already seems to be happening a bit here and there -- which left minimal government/law-enforcement (MFP)/"civilization" across Australia (and presumably the rest of the globe). But as the movies continued it definitely morphed into more of a post-apocalyptic feel....
There's no worldbuilding consistency to this series which annoys me as a science fiction fan.
@@terrytalksmovies -- Yup!
The names sound like lost members of the band GWAR.
They're pretty woeful.
Young Furiosa must've wasted her life watching Hollywood movies. Oh, and don't forget the Scrotus.
Young Furiosa had an honest Australian accent.
Nitpick No. 167
The apocalypse started in the 1980s. Why does Dementus have a 2016 HD VRod in his chariot ensemble ?? 🤔
He found a time portal in a sand pit and swapped three of his brides for a new whip. 😀
Nice hat. Man wears a hat like that and he's gonna be admired.
I liked the movie but purely as a fun action movie. Nothing cultural or intellectually stimulating. I think the first three movies had a thematic arc. Desperation in 1, to desolation in 2, to redemption/hope in 3.
You're right that the world is inconsistent and silly. An excuse for extreme violence, loud cars and guns in the desert.
Disappointed at the watering down of the Australian character of the series. Nice to see lots of familiar actors.
You're right about the lack of representation of native Australians. Also women. But if they were included as background characters they would need to be portrayed as villains, cannon fodder or peasants to fit the overall story. Or prize objects as in the previous movie. There aren't many other roles. That would be a modern day sin. The idea that Furiosa's original family might be a surviving indigenous Australian family would make a lot of sense.
I would love to see a believable post apocalyptic movie that does realistically focus on the struggles and technology of a re-emergent society. Something more uplifting. However, the genre seems to focus on the bleakness, lack of safety, bad behavior, toughness of life and desert environments. A post apocalyptic world and society would be harsh but would humans remain in a state of anarchy and violent tribalism or would we see some sort of social reformation.
In real life catastrophes, people bond together and form new cultures and communities. The 'everyone for themselves' stuff is so extraordinary because it's the exception, not the rule.
@@terrytalksmovies My thoughts exactly. An initial period of violence and lawlessness would no doubt exist but not be sustainable as life requires creation and management of food, water, energy and other resources. If there is an inability to produce those things then we get The Road and inevitable death of everyone. But if the ability to survive remains the only way to do it would be as groups working together cooperatively. I'm really struggling to think of a movie that covered that. Know any? Some old BBC TV shows like Survivors and Day of the Triffids did it. So called "soft-apocalypse". Hunger Games and similar modern teen apocalypse movies don't ever seem sustainable. Most everything seems to focus on scavenging off the dead society. PS Your comment abut why no land yachts really hits the mark. Sci fi Saturday topic perhaps?
yeah.. the timeline is a bit of a mess but , all in all.... I had a good time.. will see again.
I'll probably get the disk but I won't line up for it.
Read that interview Joy did, she had no idea what is was about.
She did okay regardless.
I am yet to see Furiosa, and judging by not only your review, but several others, I think I'm gonna pass.
The original 3 "MAD MAX" movies are stand alone, iconic, and part of my collection of essentials.
"Fury Road" was not needed, not asked for, and only made the Character of Max look weak. I don't think Fury Road, or Furiosa deserve to be considered to be part of that universe.
So the first thing is to take it out of the Mad Max Universe, and put it in it's own.
Then we can talk about good or bad movie.
Here's a hot take. Max Rockatansky isn't a very interesting character after the first film. He does his revenge thing and that's that.
But it's his universe.
Furiosa holds the record for the highest Rotten Tomatoes audience score debut in Mad Max history. Max:Fury Road was a critical hit that garnered awards recognition and has an 86% audience rating. George Miller made these films not because people ask for them, but because they're stories that he wanted to tell.
Nice one! Pedantry raised to a power!
I was in a mood. 😀📽
It was fine. The main problem was they spent too much money on it.
I still have a number of issues with a number of things. Might be an Australian thing.
@@terrytalksmovies Like the other Mad Max movies, except the first, this is largely a fantasy movie, not a realistic post apocalypse movie. But a little more realism would have made it easier to suspend disbelief. Some of the character names may seem silly, but these warlords are basically criminal thugs. Mobsters in real life often have silly names.
They require wind
There are also ways of generating non-electrical solar power. 😀
Thanks for review, I didn't like Fury road that much, I not going to see next one.
It's watchable but I was in a nitpicking mood yesterday.
.. and where are the mutant fanged kangaroos?
They ate them all in the third movie.
in "Tank Girl"? hehe
yeah I"ll be giving it a miss......didn"t watch the last one either.......
They aren't bad. The film making is rock solid but there are aspects I have issues with, as you know by now.
The movie was ok. Just dont over think it. I didn’t like the unrealistic “boss babe” storyline that has infested movies. My brain knows its not realistic and makes it harder to get into the movie.
History is full of female warriors who were terrifyingly effective. Russian WW2 fighter pilots, supernaturally good snipers. It's a legitimate narrative device.
Auhhh. You shouldn’t be watching these kind of movies if you are this picky about realism 😆
I'm gonna watch all kinds of movies. It's kinda my thing. 😉😀
Indigenous people: Thank you! The people who developed the means to survive in the deserts for thousands of years are somehow gone?
Timeline: There is an idea I came across that explains ALL of the Mad Max films as a cohesive unit (and why Max is different in Fury Road). The first three "actually happened" in universe. Fury Road and everything that will follow are legends, tall tales, stories told long after Max died. They're myths for a tortured world.
Coasts: What coasts? In Fury Road Furiosa and the last of the Man Mothers are set to ride across the Salt. The Salt is implied to be the dry oceans. The physical description of the world in Fury Road and Furiosa doesn't make sense. But if you subscribe to the timeline idea above, it doesn't have to.
There was a mythological aspect to the second and third movies. particularly when the Feral Kid narrates the story as an adult.
@@terrytalksmovies Even the first. It was a big movie across the world because it leaned (intentionally or not) into mythic story-telling. I think the "right" way to watch the Mad Max films is to excise certain higher critical functions of your brain or shunt their activities to focus on the masterful film making on display.
@@Jesus.the.Christ I've certainly gone for the "pro-lobotomy" take with a number of films in my collection, where i just revel in the technical aesthetics. being in the right mood for any number of different types of films is essential for getting the most out of each.