Welcome back to another edition of Adam's Reviews!! **queue intro music**
Tonight's movie flick is the dystopian threequel, Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome (1985) which brings back filmmaker George Miller and the masterful Mel Gibson who for the fina time returns as Max Rockatansky, a man who is out in the desert with camels and a cart which may be his old V8 Interceptor in tow, his long hair sporting streaks of grey down his temples. This Max isn't the vengeful killer from the first film nor is he the scavenger Max from the second film. This Max is a merciful saviour of forgotten children.
After traveling across the desert barefoot to get a hold of his possessions, Max finds himself a pair of leather boots and a whistle and soon comes across Bartertown which is currently in the middle of a power struggle. One faction is Master Blaster, literally a version of Krang, where you have a guy with the brains latched onto another guy who is the muscle. Both these men are the framework of the town, who work underneath the town by looking after pigs and pig excrement which fuels the energy and supplies the gas. On the top side is Tina Turner's Aunt Entity who remains at the mercy of the subterranean world beneath Bartertown and wants to take power away from Master Blaster. Aunty Entity makes a deal with Max to take out Master Blaster however just at the very end of the deal, Max backs out of it and is banished to the wastelands where he encounters a group of children who view him as their saviour Captain Walker.
I will stay this from the get go, this film has the visuals of a Mad Max entry however it doesn't feel like one. The film is also either not connected to the second Road Warrior film which may confused movie goers. For instance, Max has his cart, camels and other possessions stolen from what looks like the Gyro Captain from the second film but in this film the character's is name Jebediah who clearly does not know Max and doesn't have the same quirks as he did in the previous entry. Which leads to whether this film is narrated by someone else, as in from their point of view which may make it look like that each Max film is indeed a legend and a mythological story.
The action is very tame and at times comedic, for instance when Max lays out all of his weapons in the beginning is more cartoonish then apocalyptic. The end chase scene is also too draining where there is one character who keeps surviving near death scenes, like how many chances does a character like Angry Anderson's need to survive? His screams are enough to kill off the character straight away!! The stunts are nowhere near as impressive as the previous films and the chase just loses the dramatic edge on your seat feel.
The midpoint of the film suffers due to the kids feeling like their lifted from Hook or Lord of the Flies.
Gibson's character as Max is underwritten in this one, again he barely speaks however it seems like the character is a void at the centre of the film. There's no sense of his desperation, his survival or his primal nature here, he's just a stock standard hero character. Tina Turner's visually looks apocalyptic, holds her own with only a few lines given to her including 'he is just a raggedy man" and "death is listening and it will take the first man who screams." Personally, I would have liked to see more of her presence in the movie to find out her real intentions other than taking out Master Blaster or the reasons of her real intentions. Is it power or the love of Bartertown?
The standout to me was the introduction to Thunderdome, from the start we hear Dr. Dealgood explaining the rules in a carnival barker like manner mixed with a boxing MC announcer, where in the arena "Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves." This is where Max fights with the ruling champion Blaster (the muscle with no brains from Master Blaster), both men are suspended on an elastic harness from the vaults of a giant dome ready for battle in a style similar to gladiator combat. Both leap around each other, bouncing, reaching for weapons such as a spear or chainsaw, in what Aunty Entity and the other spectators hope will be a battle to the death. From the start where Dr. Dealgood starts off with the "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls... Dyin' time's here", to the end of the fight - is the highlight of the film which didn't belong at the beginning of the film.
Now the children - I actually liked how the kids spoke in their modified English, which resembled the Lost Kids from Peter Pan/Hook. I guess the filmmakers used this plot to enable Max to protect the children as they help him regain a bit of humanity and the future of the nation. However due to not fully developing their characters, other than waiting to see the tomorrow-tomorrow land, the children just seem as an annoying group of a subplot this includes the upbeat score.
Overall, the Tina Turner songs are a blast however the story just misses the dystopian adrenaline rush 6/10.
Tonight's movie flick is the dystopian threequel, Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome (1985) which brings back filmmaker George Miller and the masterful Mel Gibson who for the fina time returns as Max Rockatansky, a man who is out in the desert with camels and a cart which may be his old V8 Interceptor in tow, his long hair sporting streaks of grey down his temples. This Max isn't the vengeful killer from the first film nor is he the scavenger Max from the second film. This Max is a merciful saviour of forgotten children.
After traveling across the desert barefoot to get a hold of his possessions, Max finds himself a pair of leather boots and a whistle and soon comes across Bartertown which is currently in the middle of a power struggle. One faction is Master Blaster, literally a version of Krang, where you have a guy with the brains latched onto another guy who is the muscle. Both these men are the framework of the town, who work underneath the town by looking after pigs and pig excrement which fuels the energy and supplies the gas. On the top side is Tina Turner's Aunt Entity who remains at the mercy of the subterranean world beneath Bartertown and wants to take power away from Master Blaster. Aunty Entity makes a deal with Max to take out Master Blaster however just at the very end of the deal, Max backs out of it and is banished to the wastelands where he encounters a group of children who view him as their saviour Captain Walker.
I will stay this from the get go, this film has the visuals of a Mad Max entry however it doesn't feel like one. The film is also either not connected to the second Road Warrior film which may confused movie goers. For instance, Max has his cart, camels and other possessions stolen from what looks like the Gyro Captain from the second film but in this film the character's is name Jebediah who clearly does not know Max and doesn't have the same quirks as he did in the previous entry. Which leads to whether this film is narrated by someone else, as in from their point of view which may make it look like that each Max film is indeed a legend and a mythological story.
The action is very tame and at times comedic, for instance when Max lays out all of his weapons in the beginning is more cartoonish then apocalyptic. The end chase scene is also too draining where there is one character who keeps surviving near death scenes, like how many chances does a character like Angry Anderson's need to survive? His screams are enough to kill off the character straight away!! The stunts are nowhere near as impressive as the previous films and the chase just loses the dramatic edge on your seat feel.
The midpoint of the film suffers due to the kids feeling like their lifted from Hook or Lord of the Flies.
Gibson's character as Max is underwritten in this one, again he barely speaks however it seems like the character is a void at the centre of the film. There's no sense of his desperation, his survival or his primal nature here, he's just a stock standard hero character. Tina Turner's visually looks apocalyptic, holds her own with only a few lines given to her including 'he is just a raggedy man" and "death is listening and it will take the first man who screams." Personally, I would have liked to see more of her presence in the movie to find out her real intentions other than taking out Master Blaster or the reasons of her real intentions. Is it power or the love of Bartertown?
The standout to me was the introduction to Thunderdome, from the start we hear Dr. Dealgood explaining the rules in a carnival barker like manner mixed with a boxing MC announcer, where in the arena "Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves." This is where Max fights with the ruling champion Blaster (the muscle with no brains from Master Blaster), both men are suspended on an elastic harness from the vaults of a giant dome ready for battle in a style similar to gladiator combat. Both leap around each other, bouncing, reaching for weapons such as a spear or chainsaw, in what Aunty Entity and the other spectators hope will be a battle to the death. From the start where Dr. Dealgood starts off with the "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls... Dyin' time's here", to the end of the fight - is the highlight of the film which didn't belong at the beginning of the film.
Now the children - I actually liked how the kids spoke in their modified English, which resembled the Lost Kids from Peter Pan/Hook. I guess the filmmakers used this plot to enable Max to protect the children as they help him regain a bit of humanity and the future of the nation. However due to not fully developing their characters, other than waiting to see the tomorrow-tomorrow land, the children just seem as an annoying group of a subplot this includes the upbeat score.
Overall, the Tina Turner songs are a blast however the story just misses the dystopian adrenaline rush 6/10.