Fury Road Screening Discussion (WARNING! HEAVY SPOILERS!)

[Uncle Entity]

There was no need for that shit turning up right in the middle of a fuckin battle AND at one stage causing him to have a bolt pinning his hand to his head.

Max 2 is psychotic. I love this new twist.

[Artemis Flow]

The flashbacks were just that , flashbacks nightmares there's even a skull in one of them and various people , its an Aussie movie so the Aboriginal is not out of place ? also when the war parties are camped Immortan Joe is looking at his staff and there is Aboriginal type music playing , HKB is part Aboriginal ...
I think there was a hell of a lot of stuff cut from the movie , bring on the 3 hour directors cut

[decosabute]

***Heavy Spoilers***
Just got back from seeing it. Was exciting no doubt, but I must say I'm probably more in the minority of those who'll be disappointed with it.

Right away the intro's voice over (a road warrior searching for a righteous cause') and radio exposition ('it's the oil, stupid ') were poorly-written and silly respectively. I felt as though the film would genuinely have been better without any of it.

The flashbacks were simply awful. I couldn't believe that shot that seriz posted earlier in this thread was actually in the film - looks like an absolutely dreadful photoshop job - and then they use the same shot without the girl later in the film. They were overused and came in at inappropriate moments too. If you really must go down the road of flashbacks to give back story, why not just use footage from MM1 or BT?

Also, despite the chase scenes being mostly excellent, there was slightly too much CGI and compositing used for my liking. That one shot with the guitar and steering wheel flying in the aftermath of the War Rig crashing looked really poor and something not even Fast and Furious would do. Like something an 11 year old would suggest looks cool. Totally needless.

The last scene was also a disappointment for me. I thought the way immortan was revealed on the hood of the gigahorse and then kicked off by Max was clumsy and cheesy, as was the way max walked off into the crowd with that annoying 'nod of respect' to Furiosa. The whole moment felt rushed.

Despite how some on here have held it up, I also thought the soundtrack was too bland and faceless. Yeah sure it pounds along and sounds big and weighty throughout, but almost all of it is pretty unmemorable. Not a patch on Brian May's MM2 score, which was beautifully haunting and ominous when it needed to be, minimalist in some moments and then percussive and exciting when things sped up. Essentially, I own MM2's score, but I have no need to hear this one again.

I don't want to come across as trolling and I don't want to simply dump on the film, as much of it was very good. The performances were all really strong, Hardy was a pleasant surprise after what some have said, and it's genuinely imaginative. Also, when it comes down to it, the things that I didn't like possibly only took up a couple of minutes of total screen time, but unfortunately that was enough to spoil it at least somewhat. I guess as a huge fan who has waited for this for decades (as most of us have) I just want to offer an alternative, slightly tempered viewpoint to the overwhelming positivity.

I'm very thankful Fury Road wasn't a turkey, but I'm struggling to see how critics have rated this the movie of the year so far.

[Yok]

Reading the 'reasons' people didn't like certain parts of the movie make me appreciate the parts more.

Seriously, I wasn't sure until I read the amount of baseless whinging here.

Thanks everyone!

A few things people noted and didn't like:

"who the hell is the Aboriginal guy? Someone he couldn't save? Who is he?"

Uh, duh, obviously! Sorry they didn't spend ten minutes explaining his back story for you, between the apocalypse and Fury Road, nothing must have happened and Max's PTSD is completely for attention then?

The brutally handled and non-glorious disposal of Immortan Joe in a show of reality and defiance to a belief structure? I think it was handled quit well! "Here's your god, or what's left of him!" (Possible reference to the uncerimonial death and disposal of Osama Bin Laden perhaps? Wait, War Boys/Suicide Bombers?! Death for glory? Ooooh, I get it now.)

Flashbacks: Ok, they looked shitty, but they were jarring and out of place. But how is a negative flashback supposed to feel? Right at home? how does the minds eye memorise things over extended periods of time? things stop looking real, they get mixed up with what you know now, I can see what they were going for, even if they didn't have to be there.

[blackmocco]

Reading the 'reasons' people didn't like certain parts of the movie make me appreciate the parts more.

Seriously, I wasn't sure until I read the amount of baseless whinging here.

It's not baseless just because some people have an opinion that differed from yours. There's no need to be so hostile. You liked the movie despite other people having problems with it. That's how discussion works.

[decosabute]

Reading the 'reasons' people didn't like certain parts of the movie make me appreciate the parts more.

Seriously, I wasn't sure until I read the amount of baseless whinging here.

It's not baseless just because some people have an opinion that differed from yours. There's no need to be so hostile. You liked the movie despite other people having problems with it. That's how discussion works.

Absolutely second this, it's a discussion forum, not just a parade of unanimous positivity. Some people are going to see huge flaws in the film, some aren't. You have to live with it if someone doesn't share your opinion.

Back on topic, Blackmocco, for what it's worth I'm very much in agreement with most of what you've written about it, aside perhaps from Hardy's performance, which I thought was fine if very different from Mel's.

[MWFV8]

PTSD is a strange and misunderstood condition. A friend of mine suffered for a long time, he was a prison guard who walked into a cell to find a prisoner who'd executed himself. He would be walking down the street having a normal day and suddenly every person around him had that dead guy's face.

I'm not saying Fury Road necessarily portrays PTSD accurately (I've not seen the movie nor had the condition) but it may be worth giving some benefit of the doubt.

I'm not too surprised to see a trend towards a new audience liking this more than the existing one. I don't know about anybody else, but it turns out a lot of my friends have been massive closet Mad Max fans for the past few decades - they just never felt the need to tell me until now.

[DGSimo]

PTSD is a strange and misunderstood condition. A friend of mine suffered for a long time, he was a prison guard who walked into a cell to find a prisoner who'd executed himself. He would be walking down the street having a normal day and suddenly every person around him had that dead guy's face.

I'm not saying Fury Road necessarily portrays PTSD accurately (I've not seen the movie nor had the condition) but it may be worth giving some benefit of the doubt.

I'm not too surprised to see a trend towards a new audience liking this more than the existing one. I don't know about anybody else, but it turns out a lot of my friends have been massive closet Mad Max fans for the past few decades - they just never felt the need to tell me until now.

I know Miller has said in an interview that what they now know about PTSD compared to 30 years ago he would of written Max differently, so it's pretty clear he's done just that for his iteration of Max Rockatansky and there's no Hollywood happy magic where he's "fixed" by the end either. I honestly had no issues with the flashbacks and was actually curious as to what the other ones depicted and got cut considering a Blue Heeler dog was featured in one of them.

[Ol' Coyote]

Wow, one of my friend who had never seen or even known there is a Madax movie before even knows that this is not the first film because she couldn't understand the beginning, but she said it was very thrilling.

[Uncle Entity]

PTSD is a strange and misunderstood condition. A friend of mine suffered for a long time, he was a prison guard who walked into a cell to find a prisoner who'd executed himself. He would be walking down the street having a normal day and suddenly every person around him had that dead guy's face.

I'm not saying Fury Road necessarily portrays PTSD accurately (I've not seen the movie nor had the condition) but it may be worth giving some benefit of the doubt.

I'm not too surprised to see a trend towards a new audience liking this more than the existing one. I don't know about anybody else, but it turns out a lot of my friends have been massive closet Mad Max fans for the past few decades - they just never felt the need to tell me until now.

I know Miller has said in an interview that what they now know about PTSD compared to 30 years ago he would of written Max differently, so it's pretty clear he's done just that for his iteration of Max Rockatansky and there's no Hollywood happy magic where he's "fixed" by the end either. I honestly had no issues with the flashbacks and was actually curious as to what the other ones depicted and got cut considering a Blue Heeler dog was featured in one of them.

Hallucinations and misplaced flashbacks are just GENIUS. It's an aspect which makes this "new" Max more characteristic and weird. I love it.