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[jason10mm]

I only slightly disagree here because I don't like the idea lately that creative ideas must be neatly put into different boxes. "Women must act this way, men must act that way" is a very rigid approach towards creativity.

Yeah, and we get good examples like Alien where none of the characters were written with a specific gender so we don't have "man moments" or "woman emoting" scenes, though I suspect some stuff, like Lambert just crying as the alien approaches, may have been tweaked to take advantage of the actresses capabilities.

I'm more thinking about the typical girl boss character that really feels like a dude in a shapeless dress given bad setup to "defeat misogyny" rather than any actual character growth.

Consider Tom Hank's character in Saving Private Ryan. His big emotional break is something he does in private and tries to hide from his men. This FEELS very real and generates a TON of empathy, from men and women, because I think it resonates with a lot of men on how we deal with extreme grief/stress and it opens him up just a little for women that he does have vulnerability and does care. It's not "toxic masculinity" as many might say today, but rather a reflection on the price of leadership in war and the sacrifices leaders make to maintain moral for their soldiers. Now maybe a female combat unit (or WAC, competitive knitting team, or whatever the situation) might have the leader emote in front of her team and they all share in it, but that's a feminine thing to do (maybe, never really been in that situation myself) but I know VERY few men who would cry outside of a small circle of close confidants or family (other than that one guy who gets weepy over everything, we all know one

Anyway, not to get too into the weeds with action hero screenwriting, it's just how I approach these things as a viewer.

 

[March Climber]

Yeah, and we get good examples like Alien where none of the characters were written with a specific gender so we don't have "man moments" or "woman emoting" scenes, though I suspect some stuff, like Lambert just crying as the alien approaches, may have been tweaked to take advantage of the actresses capabilities.

I'm more thinking about the typical girl boss character that really feels like a dude in a shapeless dress given bad setup to "defeat misogyny" rather than any actual character growth.

Consider Tom Hank's character in Saving Private Ryan. His big emotional break is something he does in private and tries to hide from his men. This FEELS very real and generates a TON of empathy, from men and women, because I think it resonates with a lot of men on how we deal with extreme grief/stress and it opens him up just a little for women that he does have vulnerability and does care. It's not "toxic masculinity" as many might say today, but rather a reflection on the price of leadership in war and the sacrifices leaders make to maintain moral for their soldiers. Now maybe a female combat unit (or WAC, competitive knitting team, or whatever the situation) might have the leader emote in front of her team and they all share in it, but that's a feminine thing to do (maybe, never really been in that situation myself) but I know VERY few men who would cry outside of a small circle of close confidants or family (other than that one guy who gets weepy over everything, we all know one

Anyway, not to get too into the weeds with action hero screenwriting, it's just how I approach these things as a viewer.

I think there’s a small misunderstanding. To clarify, I’m alright with everything you’ve just listed and used as examples, but where we differ is that I’m also okay with the opposite.

I’d rather creatives just create what they want, whether good, mediocre, or bad, and let their vision speak for itself. I just want it to be a creative vision in the first place.

Regardless of complaints regarding this movie, it’s a movie that George Miller wanted to create. So even if he has a slight weak point where he didn’t write his stoic female protagonist as good as the best ones out there, I’m fine with that. In his own mind maybe he feels that he excels at it.

It doesn’t feel right when there’s pressure from people telling a creative to make something according to an agreed upon defacto pattern, or to simply not create. Even if it’s offensive to some, I want to see how they came up with that offensive vision.

 

[jason10mm]

I think there’s a small misunderstanding. To clarify, I’m alright with everything you’ve just listed and used as examples, but where we differ is that I’m also okay with the opposite.

I’d rather creatives just create what they want, whether good, mediocre, or bad, and let their vision speak for itself. I just want it to be a creative vision in the first place.

Regardless of complaints regarding this movie, it’s a movie that George Miller wanted to create. So even if he has a slight weak point where he didn’t write his stoic female protagonist as good as the best ones out there, I’m fine with that. In his own mind maybe he feels that he excels at it.

It doesn’t feel right when there’s pressure from people telling a creative to make something according to an agreed upon defacto pattern, or to simply not create. Even if it’s offensive to some, I want to see how they came up with that offensive vision.

I dunno, there ARE established "rules" for how these things have been shown to work. An "anything goes" attitude can be DISASTEROUS for creatives as they often do need some left/right limits and constraints to really do their best work. We have 100+ years of cinema as a medium, if you are gonna throw that ball out the window you had better be SOLID on the fundamentals to know where you can push things. I don't want checklists dictating the film but nor do I think totally ignoring the accumulated weight of film and what works/doesn't work is necessarily the best idea either.

Furiosa as a film coulda used some more work. Maybe George just wanted to get as many ideas out there as possible while he had time left to do it, but the film was over stuffed and suffered for it. If he had 30% less budget and more folks yelling at him to "just get it done!" I think it could have been a leaner, meaner, more raw experience that would have, for me, been a closer experience to Road Warrior which is what I wanted. Zero in on Furiosa, her journey, and less time myth building around Dementus, Immortal Joe, peach pits, and wild eyed mommies.

 

[March Climber]

I dunno, there ARE established "rules" for how these things have been shown to work. An "anything goes" attitude can be DISASTEROUS for creatives as they often do need some left/right limits and constraints to really do their best work. We have 100+ years of cinema as a medium, if you are gonna throw that ball out the window you had better be SOLID on the fundamentals to know where you can push things. I don't want checklists dictating the film but nor do I think totally ignoring the accumulated weight of film and what works/doesn't work is necessarily the best idea either.

On the other hand, I feel like there are so many, many movies releasing on a regular basis and so many that have released in the past 100 years, that I think it's fine at this point for people to forgo certain rules to attempt to make what they truly want to make. Again though, both what you suggest and what you don't are fine to do in my opinion.

This doesn't invalidate the idea criticisms or critique. For example I agree with the fact that the movie could have been slightly better in certain regards as the next part of your post pointed out. My main hope going forward is that creatives like him aren't pressured to change characters or writing based on public sway, online discourse, and things happening outside of their control.

 

[jason10mm]

On the other hand, I feel like there are so many, many movies releasing on a regular basis and so many that have released in the past 100 years, that I think it's fine at this point for people to forgo certain rules to attempt to make what they truly want to make. Again though, both what you suggest and what you don't are fine to do in my opinion.

This doesn't invalidate the idea criticisms or critique. For example I agree with the fact that the movie could have been slightly better in certain regards as the next part of your post pointed out. My main hope going forward is that creatives like him aren't pressured to change characters or writing based on public sway, online discourse, and things happening outside of their control.

I'm with you on ignoring the social media circus. This relates to the checklist as death to creativity. The only thing the internet has ever done in a positive light was give us the Ryan Reynolds Deadpool movie.

 

[SirKicksalot]

‘It's like a constantly evolving three-dimensional puzzle’ - befores & afters

The visual effects of ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’, including those crazy War Rig scenes, impressive wasteland environments, immense rotoscoping, and how Anya Taylor-Joy’s facial features were translated onto the young Furiosa.

beforesandafters.com

This confirms the Bullet Farmer is CGI and talks about one of the controversial trailer scenes:

At one point, the War Rig hurtles around the various levels of the mine before pushing a Kombi-Van into the depths below. “There were live-action plates for both vehicles up until the point where the Kombi-Van leaves the ground,”

It's a very comprehensive breakdown.

 

[Chuck Berry]

You all are getting soft

Couldn’t imagine liking let alone paying to see this tripe

 

[Facism]

k

 

[cormack12]

It's a popcorn action film. It's good for what it is. Anya clearly is hotter with darker hair too.

I did watch Fury Road prior to this just to refresh the story. And I don't think it's like on another clearly distinct level in terms of quality.

The story was carried a lot by Praetorian Jack's performance I felt. And we could have done more seeing the deterioration of gastown under Dementus.

I wasn't expecting anything groundbreaking or new, and got a solid action film. Kind of what I expected

 

[Darkmakaimura]

lulz.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

We went and saw this yesterday as an excuse to get out of the house - We'd have seen this or The Fall Guy, but this one was on at a more convenient time.

I didn't really get the acclaim that Fury Road got, or this one.
It's OK, but I thought the best stuff was all in the first half hour or so.

Also, I know the film's been out a while, but the screening we saw it in had a capacity of nearly 300 people and there were 4 of us in there. Sunday evening 5pm. However, lots of people were coming out of Bad Boys.

 

[EviLore]

It's OK, but I thought the best stuff was all in the first half hour or so.

Th first half hour doesn’t have the war rig chase…

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Th first half hour doesn’t have the war rig chase…

Yeah, I think I enjoyed the pursuit across the desert with sniper mum trying to stop the bad guys getting back to the boss with Furiosa and news of the place of abundance more. I know the most popular images of these films is a convoy of vehicles, and fire and so on, but that stuff doesn't really grabs me. I'm not knocking it though, I think these are probably just not the films for me.

 

[SlimySnake]

Yeah, I think I enjoyed the pursuit across the desert with sniper mum trying to stop the bad guys getting back to the boss with Furiosa and news of the place of abundance more. I know the most popular images of these films is a convoy of vehicles, and fire and so on, but that stuff doesn't really grabs me. I'm not knocking it though, I think these are probably just not the films for me.

The mom chase was awesome. I enjoyed it far more than i thought i would. Especially after my friend said that the first half lacks Anya Taylor Joy so i figured it would be shit. So many cool Sniper shots.

But the big war rig sequence is the best action scene ive seen since the finale of the first movie. The bulletfarm setepiece was also awesome if a bit too CG heavy. I do think the movie needed one more scene like that towards the end. Dementus goes out like a chump.

 

[SlimySnake]

lulz.

Yeah, Gen z isnt particularly smart. They grew up eating tide pods and chasing viral trends and they believe anything that goes viral. Tiktok only exacerbated this.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

The mom chase was awesome. I enjoyed it far more than i thought i would. Especially after my friend said that the first half lacks Anya Taylor Joy so i figured it would be shit. So many cool Sniper shots.

But the big war rig sequence is the best action scene ive seen since the finale of the first movie. The bulletfarm setepiece was also awesome if a bit too CG heavy. I do think the movie needed one more scene like that towards the end. Dementus goes out like a chump.

I think I liked the Bulletfarm stuff best as far as that sort of thing goes, but agree the CGI was too obvious. Shame, it's obviously getting better and better, and I'm sure some bits that I didn't clock were CGI, but it snapped me out a few times in this film.

 

[jason10mm]

I think I liked the Bulletfarm stuff best as far as that sort of thing goes, but agree the CGI was too obvious. Shame, it's obviously getting better and better, and I'm sure some bits that I didn't clock were CGI, but it snapped me out a few times in this film.

I think the issue with CG is that production houses are slammed and its very time sensitive. I think a lot of the bad CG we see are because of release schedules that CAN NOT be moved so its all rush jobs. The marvel films seem especially prone to this since they are all mapped out years in advance. Practical stuff has to be done before the cameras roll so its the problem in reverse, but the film can't be made without the stunts and effects. The worst conflagration of the 2 is a shoddy on set experience with a "we'll fix it in post" attitude, then a rushed CG schedule leading to crap all around.

 

[SlimySnake]

I think the issue with CG is that production houses are slammed and its very time sensitive. I think a lot of the bad CG we see are because of release schedules that CAN NOT be moved so its all rush jobs. The marvel films seem especially prone to this since they are all mapped out years in advance. Practical stuff has to be done before the cameras roll so its the problem in reverse, but the film can't be made without the stunts and effects. The worst conflagration of the 2 is a shoddy on set experience with a "we'll fix it in post" attitude, then a rushed CG schedule leading to crap all around.

This is probably very true because those early trailers looked full of CG but those same shots in the final version were cleaned up. There are still some shots that look CG like the tanker driving down the bullet farm canyons but other than that i was very surprised by just how real the movie looked 90% of the time. I was expecting a CG fest after the trailers.

They shouldve delayed the movie if only to give trailers time to showcase the finished CG work. That doomed the movie to me.

I still appreciate what they managed to do during covid with all those guidelines and all the insanity thats plaguing the CG studios right now. Shooting a movie like this with so many stunts and practical effects is impossible and they did it during covid while game studios were complaining about working from home. Hollywood is just on another level. The fact that it cost $170 million while game budgets are going past $200 million for what are ubisoft style copy pasta games is crazy. The sheer level of craftmanship on display in Mad Max, Dune Part 2, The Batman, Planet of the Apes, Avatar 2, Top Gun and Mission Impossible is nothing short of a miracle.

 

[drganon]

lulz.

Next you're going to tell me the shark from jaws wasn't real.

 

[March Climber]

Yeah, Gen z isnt particularly smart. They grew up eating tide pods and chasing viral trends and they believe anything that goes viral. Tiktok only exacerbated this.

I have some bad news for you. There’s a much higher likelihood that these are milennials and not Gen Z.

I find it funny that history is starting to repeat itself and Gen Z is getting blamed for every random bad thing that happens online though.

 

[Woggleman]

I am spreading the good word and recommending this to everybody I know.

 

[Redneckerz]

Saw it a few weeks ago. Having seen all Mad Max, this was a pretty solid release. The first hour or so was too lengthy though. Definitely felt i was still in the prologue when the break hit.

Other than that, it has those epic vista's, those imaginative designs, all marred to a somewhat worse story than Fury Road.

Nothing beats the originals though. They were... grittier.

 

[SJRB]

This movie was super weak and another prime example on why prequel movies are generally a bad idea.

It's slow, meandering and honestly insanely boring with a couple of exceptions. The War Rig sequence was easily the best part because it had the same energy as Fury Road, unfortunately almost everything else was a huge step back. If Fury Road is a 10/10, this movie is a 6/10 tops. Literally the entire first half feels like a prologue. Anna Taylor-Joy can't carry a movie like this but honestly also didn't really had much to work with. Movie's energy got a huge boost once Praetorian Jack came into play, that dude was awesome and him taking in and partnering with Furiosa was great. I would've liked to see more of the training and supply runs that they did. Also really, REALLY happy it didn't turn into a cliche love story.

Seeing Furiosa's backstory just sucks because you already know where she's going to end up so there is zero tension. You know she's going to be abducted, you know she's going to be with Dementus and you know she'll end up with the Immortan and you know she's gonna kill Dementus. This movie tells nothing you couldn't figure out yourself by watching Fury Road. Her story really isn't that interesting.

It was neat seeing the Bullet Farm and Gas Town and a lot of the desert shorts were incredible. But man, what a step back from Fury Road.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

This movie was super weak and another prime example on why prequel movies are generally a bad idea.

It's slow, meandering and honestly insanely boring with a couple of exceptions. The War Rig sequence was easily the best part because it had the same energy as Fury Road, unfortunately almost everything else was a huge step back. If Fury Road is a 10/10, this movie is a 6/10 tops. Literally the entire first half feels like a prologue. Anna Taylor-Joy can't carry a movie like this but honestly also didn't really had much to work with. Movie's energy got a huge boost once Praetorian Jack came into play, that dude was awesome and him taking in and partnering with Furiosa was great. I would've liked to see more of the training and supply runs that they did. Also really, REALLY happy it didn't turn into a cliche love story.

Seeing Furiosa's backstory just sucks because you already know where she's going to end up so there is zero tension. You know she's going to be abducted, you know she's going to be with Dementus and you know she'll end up with the Immortan and you know she's gonna kill Dementus. This movie tells nothing you couldn't figure out yourself by watching Fury Road. Her story really isn't that interesting.

It was neat seeing the Bullet Farm and Gas Town and a lot of the desert shorts were incredible. But man, what a step back from Fury Road.

I heard the movie is good but I'm waiting till it comes to Streaming/VOD or just sail the Seven Seas

But the movie bombing is not a surprise and that's due to the normies especially being tired of the Strong Independent Female Protag being everywhere in movies and shows nowadays. Even if it's good, people get turned off

 

[Hip Hop]

I was gonna go see it but my local movie theatre took it off rotation already.

 

[Arsic]

I watched fury road for the first time ever due to the hype from this.

Found it a snooze fest. 6/10.

Don’t get the hype at all. Maybe watch this on a flight when I’m bored.

 

[YCoCg]

 

[FunkMiller]

 

[FunkMiller]

Jesus, there's an awful lot of denial going on on social media about this one. Entire articles being written trying to justify this film's utter failure, without bringing up the fact it's a Mad Max movie without Mad Max in it.

You can't simply replace the central attraction of a film series with something else, and expect people to still come out for it. The post-apocalyptic setting is not the draw. And the car crashes have to have a character at the centre of them you care about, to make them exciting.

Film criticism is going to look back on this time period in the future when things are little more level headed, and despair at the prism through which everything is being analysed at the moment.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Jesus, there's an awful lot of denial going on on social media about this one. Entire articles being written trying to justify this film's utter failure, without bringing up the fact it's a Mad Max movie without Mad Max in it.

You can't simply replace the central attraction of a film series with something else, and expect people to still come out for it. The post-apocalyptic setting is not the draw. And the car crashes have to have a character at the centre of them you care about, to make them exciting.

Film criticism is going to look back on this time period in the future when things are little more level headed, and despair at the prism through which everything is being analysed at the moment.

It will be known as "The Clown Era"

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

I was going to see it this Saturday, but I remembered that it is a Warner Bros. production... And I lost my desire to go.

 

[MaestroMike]

 

[FunkMiller]

And that’s when I’ll watch it, because my interest level in a Mad Max film without Mad Max is right about at ‘watch it on demand’ level.

Pretty sure that’s how most people felt.

 

[SJRB]

Jesus, there's an awful lot of denial going on on social media about this one. Entire articles being written trying to justify this film's utter failure, without bringing up the fact it's a Mad Max movie without Mad Max in it.

You can't simply replace the central attraction of a film series with something else, and expect people to still come out for it. The post-apocalyptic setting is not the draw. And the car crashes have to have a character at the centre of them you care about, to make them exciting.

Film criticism is going to look back on this time period in the future when things are little more level headed, and despair at the prism through which everything is being analysed at the moment.

Worst part is that Max actually is in the movie but he's shown for 3 seconds AND he saves Furiosa AND he delivers her to the Citadel and all of this happens offscreen and the implications are ridiculous because that means Max already met Furiosa and knows about the Citadel before the events of Fury Road.

 

[FunkMiller]

Worst part is that Max actually is in the movie but he's shown for 3 seconds AND he saves Furiosa AND he delivers her to the Citadel and all of this happens offscreen and the implications are ridiculous because that means Max already knows Furiosa and about the Citadel before the events of Fury Road.

Yeah, I saw that. All that tells me is Miller probably knew damn well he'd made the wrong movie, and tried to crowbar in the dude everyone wants to see at the last second.

 

[ManaByte]

It's out on the 25th. The 24th is a Monday.

That account is run by a teenager in the UK who makes up fake SXSW credentials.

 

[SJRB]

A heads-up: it is available digitally right now.

 

[SirKicksalot]

Yeah, I saw that. All that tells me is Miller probably knew damn well he'd made the wrong movie, and tried to crowbar in the dude everyone wants to see at the last second.

Imagine taking it at face value when the movie is a history man's word-burger.
It's like some of you culture warriors missed all the mythical storytelling that started with Mad Max 2 because you're too busy masturbating to Max.
He's not LITERALLY Max you dumb fucks. It's the history man going "dude she made it because the uh roaming road warrior helped her haha, isn't that crazy lol".

 

[Sleepwalker]

And that’s when I’ll watch it, because my interest level in a Mad Max film without Mad Max is right about at ‘watch it on demand’ level.

Pretty sure that’s how most people felt.

I watched it recently, it's barely worth the streaming watch tbh.

Absolutely no stakes because you know how the story pans out going forward.

 

[SirKicksalot]

Absolutely no stakes because you know how the story pans out going forward.

Why live when you know you'll die?

 

[FunkMiller]

Imagine taking it at face value when the movie is a history man's word-burger.
It's like some of you culture warriors missed all the mythical storytelling that started with Mad Max 2 because you're too busy masturbating to Max.
He's not LITERALLY Max you dumb fucks. It's the history man going "dude she made it because the uh roaming road warrior helped her haha, isn't that crazy lol".

I haven’t seen it as yet, but if you’re right and it’s not Max then fair enough… but everyone seems to have the impression that it is him. I’ll watch it at some point now it’s on streaming and make my own mind up.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

That soundtrack and action scenes were great

And I loved the CGI especially

I loved the look of the whole world, character etc

Preatorian Jack looked like Solid Snake

Chris Hemsworth brought his A Game but wish he showed up more

Chris Hemsworth I always knew he had range

He was a good heel

 

[Bulletzen72]

Just saw the digital version of this and I really enjoyed it!
It's no Fury Road but I liked that it tried to do something different.
Hemsworth was an absolute delight and the film has some really beautiful cinematography throughout.
Some aspects of the plot were nonsensical, but I had a blast!
Sad that we probably won't see any more movies from Miller in the Mad Max world

 

[SJRB]

I haven’t seen it as yet, but if you’re right and it’s not Max then fair enough… but everyone seems to have the impression that it is him. I’ll watch it at some point now it’s on streaming and make my own mind up.

I won’t post the screenshot but it’s literally a shot of a man with brown hair wearing a leather outfit standing right next to a jet black V8 Interceptor, looking at a wounded Furiosa in the distance.

There’s no chance it is not him.

 

[FunkMiller]

I won’t post the screenshot but it’s literally a shot of a man with brown hair wearing a leather outfit standing right next to a jet black V8 Interceptor, looking at a wounded Furiosa in the distance.

There’s no chance it is not him.

Yes. That's clearly meant to be Max. I saw a screen shot. Dumb as fuck.

 

[SirKicksalot]

It's the history man's storytelling device of how Furiosa got out of a shit situation.
The final form of this:

https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/asset/99359-george-miller-mad-max-mythology

These last two movies are textbook Homeric epics. Furiosa even has a post-apocalyptic Homer playing the role of the Greek chorus, explaining the character's inner thoughts, conflict and moral of the story. What the movie shows is not meant to be taken at face value.
If you take the Max scene literally, then

Spoiler

you might as well believe that a goddamn peach tree is growing out of Dementus, lol.

In the old man's story, she is saved by another mythological figure of the Wasteland. This directly sets up the katabasis (maggot farm scene), which is immediately followed by anabasis (elevator to the leaders).

Miller is attracted to this kind of storytelling ever since he learned of how Max was perceived around the world.

3000 Years director George Miller on metaphors, mythmaking and Furiosa

The Aussie filmmaker talks about his time-spanning love story, how stories broker communication, and the ways films "insist on being made"

www.avclub.com

 

[Mohonky]

Jesus, there's an awful lot of denial going on on social media about this one. Entire articles being written trying to justify this film's utter failure, without bringing up the fact it's a Mad Max movie without Mad Max in it.

You can't simply replace the central attraction of a film series with something else, and expect people to still come out for it. The post-apocalyptic setting is not the draw. And the car crashes have to have a character at the centre of them you care about, to make them exciting.

Film criticism is going to look back on this time period in the future when things are little more level headed, and despair at the prism through which everything is being analysed at the moment.

To be fair Mad Max was barely in Fury Road either. There was a character on screen called Mad Max but Furiosa was far more the Mad Max of the pair so I don't really see your point. Tom Hardy's Max was a bit of a non-event after Gibson's but it didn't let the film down; as a film in the Mad Max universe, had Fury Road not even featured a Mad Max character it would still have been amazing.

This film though? I can't entirely tell why, but it almost feels like it was meant to be a low budget version of Fury Road. I actually had to look it up and find it had the same budget?!? I never looked at much in Fury Road and thought 'that's a lot of CG' but Furiosa is almost contstant with it. The choreography with the car chases also seems like everything got turned down or was somehow constrained.

Its a movie with a weird vibe. It's still a good movie (love the portrayal of Dementus) but it kind of feels half way there compared to Fury Road

 

[jason10mm]

I just find it hard to believe that getting a few chaps in post-apoc biker gear in the desert to drive around costs hundreds of millions. Just the vibe of post-apoc should be low budget, IMHO. Felt the same way about Fallout, it looked TOO GOOD when it didn't need to and not good enough when it mattered.

 

[YCoCg]

Watched it again tonight back to back with Fury Road and it actually works better that way, it feels like a 4 hour epic following Furiosa through her life and Max just joins in half way through, helps, then fucks off in true Max style. Actually getting to see the places name dropped in Fury Road and learning at least more background info of the Gas Town and Bullet Farm leaders, even Immorten Joe, and mentioning that I have to say props to the make up department, you'd be hard pushed to tell the returning characters are nine years apart filming wise, they look the same.

 

[FunkMiller]

To be fair Mad Max was barely in Fury Road either. There was a character on screen called Mad Max but Furiosa was far more the Mad Max of the pair so I don't really see your point. Tom Hardy's Max was a bit of a non-event after Gibson's but it didn't let the film down; as a film in the Mad Max universe, had Fury Road not even featured a Mad Max character it would still have been amazing.

This film though? I can't entirely tell why, but it almost feels like it was meant to be a low budget version of Fury Road. I actually had to look it up and find it had the same budget?!? I never looked at much in Fury Road and thought 'that's a lot of CG' but Furiosa is almost contstant with it. The choreography with the car chases also seems like everything got turned down or was somehow constrained.

Its a movie with a weird vibe. It's still a good movie (love the portrayal of Dementus) but it kind of feels half way there compared to Fury Road

I think it kinda back up my point really, because Fury Road didn't exactly blow the doors off the box office either. HR reported it came in at a loss for the company. With an ok opening weekend, you can argue that once people realised Hardy wasn't the main character, the interest petered out somewhat. But Hardy was front and centre of all the advertising for the film, and he's not barely in it. Come on. The emphasis in terms of character arc and agency is Furiosa, but Max is there pretty much the entire time.

Miller would have done far better to make a new Mad Max trilogy for a much smaller budget. That would likely have made a decent profit, but the man's got a bit too big for his boots, and chased that blockbuster money, with predictably bad results.