I saw Mad Max: Fury Road last weekend, writing this on Facebook about it:
“MAN! That Fury Road. Was. The BOMB! Maybe even better than The Road Warrior.”
So, William D. Jackson, one of my oldest friends, sent an unsolicited lonnnnng text about the latest Mad Max movie (SPOILERS ENSUE):
“I think with Mad Max the amount of senseless (albeit very artistic) violence in my opinion overwhelmed the nobility of the plot. It was very late in the movie that I sympathized with the purpose of the protagonists’ actions. Even stranger, to me the Everyman was the young minion who sacrificed(?) himself at the end. Very strange for a big action film that the audience identifies most with a minor character, and even stranger for that character to have the greatest arc in the whole story. Max was still himself, if a bit deeper and more sympathetic. But the young man who craved greatness and achieved it in ignominious (yet ultimately the most impactful) fashion is the one who changed the most and was on further extremes either way. In a way, I find the idea of this being a “feminist” movie insulting; feminism should mean more than symbolic female heroism. But if I’m wrong about that, then feminism is just like all isms; a canard of epic proportions. (I’m also cynical enough to believe that the protests from so-called male rights activists is a marketing ploy to get more people to watch. The critics panned another movie with a group of female leads that supposedly knocked Mad Max off the top of the box office in its first weekend, though that could say more about the lack of depth of the average American moviegoer. All said, I liked Mad Max, but didn’t love it. I was more moved by The Book of Eli; its intent was deeper, its plot less dense, yet more sophisticated. Heck, Children of Men was the best of these type of movies for its sense of purpose and edgy cinematic direction. Mad Max was a great popcorn flick with respect for gender equality and great set pieces, but it’s no classic. However, I would greatly look forward to a George Miller-directed live action movie franchise of Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Hope!”
My reply:
“I disagree.
That is all
Actually, no, of COURSE that’s not all. How long you known me?
Mad Max Fury Road may well be an instant classic for me, at least upon initial viewing, in a way that Book of Eli didn’t quite manage (though I liked that one a lot)
Five points follow
OK, six”
Next entry will share the six points in conjunction with Will’s replies.
Bridge Over Troubled Opinions 