George Lucas epitomizes the old joke:
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Stealing from another one of your selves is distributed being.
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I loved everything about it: the imaginative world building and backstory created for the cult of cars/Immortan Joe, the visuals, the sheer audacity of the filmmaking and creativity involved. Iâm a little baffled by people who donât think it has a plot or characterization; Iâm assuming they werenât paying attention. Iâd say the 97% freshness rating is a good representation of the tiny number of people Iâve heard from who dislike it.
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Meh.
I could see what it was trying to do, and that it did it fairly well. But I found it boring; pure spectacle doesnât do much for me.
The audio and lighting mix was irritating and the plot was shallow and implausible. Iâd rather watch Mad Max II or Salute of the Jugger.
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I donât recall seeing any world-building or backstory, at least in the film. If theyâve done it elsewhere then thatâs nice but it doesnât make the movie any better.
Thanks @wanderfound for reminding me about Salute of the Jugger, Iâd forgotten about that one. Of course, Iâve just realised that Immortan Joe is using his ruthless control of water to assert his power, which makes Tank Girl better than it as well.
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Thatâs a shame. I really had the feeling while watching it that theyâd put a lot of work into the backstory of this world, without explicitly stating it â things like the automotive decor and graffiti in Immortal Joeâs chambers, the weird slang, the religion, the design of the cars, or having a guy on bungee cords in a bizarre mask playing a flaming guitar. Or guys on four-legged stilts roaming the desert. The movie was full of weird, unexplained things like that that, to me, were clues to the culture and backstory going on there.
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To me it felt cartoonish, full of the random ideas of a 12 year old with no care taken to explain anything or place it in context. It feels a lot like they accidentally used the video game script instead of the film script.
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That would be unfortunate, but I didnât find it quite that frivolous.
This I think is a strength, rather than a weakness. Explaining your movie so that people can feel they are connecting to it better I find terribly lazy. But that is - for better or worse - narrative convention. I find it both more realistic and interesting to simply show the world building details as if I were thrown into the scenario myself, instead of spoon feeding what is happening and why for dramatic purposes. I know that it is heresy, but I think that dramatic conventions in cinema are over-rated. The same thing happens in music, where âstructureâ is only recognized and perceived as legitimate if it is of a very specific type, and anything else (no matter how well planned and justified) gets dismissed as ârandomâ.
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I donât mind working for a story and I donât mind things being unresolved, in fact I actually like that sort of thing. But I donât think this film is failing to explain things because it wants you to work at it, I think itâs because there is no reason other than they think itâs cool.
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Agreed. My thought while watching it was, âwow, all those 80s heavy metal videos really did just rip off Mad Maxâ quickly followed by, âwow, this aesthetic is totally stuck in the 80s.â
Resources are scarce, notably food and water, but weâre supposed to believe that petrol, a resource which needs both refining and a reasonably established distribution system, can be had easily enough that a days-long multi-vehicle chase is possible?
You canât scavenge petrol easily long-term if production and distribution are destroyed. The stuff will turn to kerosene in months.
Resources are scarce but the chemicals for the War Boysâ âchromeâ spray paint drugs can be had, despite no evidence of laboratories/factories/higher education.
Resources are scarce but Immortan Joeâs custom-moulded corset/body armour can be manufactured â where? How?
Too much of the world seemed to not fit with the rest of it
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For all the wackiness in the original three Mad Max films, they were trying to present a near future that seemed plausible at the time. It wasnât supposed to be cool. That wasnât the point.
The events in The Road Warrior did not represent an ongoing situation. It was the last fight over the last oil refinery. After that everybody was going to run out of petrol and have to walk home. There wouldnât be time for anybody to create a new religion based on people fighting over fuel.
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Add this to your netflix queue, Baahubali, the beggining.
Iâve enjoyed several movies from India for several reasons, a few for the characters, others for the over the top sequences that put kung fu movies to shame (<a hre="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nPN1M9zVcI"f>Dabangg 2). Baahubali is a movie that contains some of these elements but with a more serious epic feel. A definite must watch.
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How I ended this summer (oddly mistranslated - the Russian title is âHow I spent this summerâ which is correct) was, I think, a total flop in the US but it might be worth a look. Poetry is for me one of the most memorable films Iâve seen.
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OT but if the end of civilisation happens Iâm going to survive on my knowledge of Diesel technology. Give me rapeseed oil, castor oil, and enough wood to burn and I can make Diesel fuel. Gasoline is going to be the first major fuel to disappear.
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was it this?
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Or possibly:
Was it from the US or UK?
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The recent âreturnâ of Mondo 2000 inspired me to revisit The Lawnmower Man. (Mondo 2000 gets thanked in the end credits, by the way.)
This film got no respect way back when, and I canât imagine it getting any now, what with its now very dated computer graphics. I hadnât seen it since the mid-90s, when I enjoyed it for the way it pretended to be about the hippest of modern concepts, when it was really a throw-back to the sort of thing that seemed to happen every other week at Universal Studios or The Outer Limits. Scientist takes simpleton, increases his intelligence, creates monster. 25 years later, the film is doubly dated; besides the CGI, its synth score, faceless settings, and bland corporate baddies (all working for Stephen Kingâs The Shop) fix it quite firmly in its era.
And you know what? I still loved it. Of course, itâs utterly ridiculous, but once it gets moving, thatâs part of the fun. One of the last films produced by former Amicus head Milton Subotsky, it would make an interesting double feature with The Mind of Mr. Soames. On the other hand, perhaps Road House would be a more apposite pairing. Now, dare I watch Matt Frewer in Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace?
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While it was indeed absurd and dumb⌠it wasnât worth the admission price⌠yes I paid money to see that when it first came out. I guess I should watch it again for free and see if it holds up better for the price point.
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I only paid a buck to see it originally, and 'twas free this time.
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