[2015] Mad Max: Fury Road [2015-06-04]
Jun. 5th, 2015 11:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hermionesviolinThis movie is darker than I was expecting -- which I think is due to my non-familiarity with the franchise. There are also way more dudes than I was expecting. I thought the "Mad Max" in the title was just a franchise nod, and it was only recently that I realized the titular character actually shows up in the movie and like, survives to the end and stuff.
I'm willing to grant for franchise purposes that we start with Max's perspective -- but why does he have to be such a jerk at the beginning? (Okay, I've since read some meta about how Max is SCARED.)
I was expecting the movie to be Charlize Theron and the wives against the patriarchy -- and yes I know Max and (eventually) Nux are battling the patriarchy in their own way, and I'm not actually a lesbian separatist, but we could have had zero dudes on their side and that would have been fine. I think I would have been more okay with the dudes if (a) Max had not been such a jerk to the women when he first encounters them (WHY DID YOU RANDOMLY SHOOT ONE OF THEM IN THE LEGS BEFORE DRIVING OFF WITH THE RIG?!), and (b) I was clearer about when/why they started to trust Max and Nux, but mostly (c) this movie hadn't gotten so much hype about being super-hella feminist (like really MRAs, this is what you're getting bent out of shape about?).
One of the posts I've seen says, "If you took our two good male characters Max and Nux out of the movie, Furiosa and the girls (and to a lesser extent the Vuvalini) would still have motivations and character development and narrative arcs. But if you took the women out of the movie, the men aren’t left with a plot of their own. THIS IS INCREDIBLE TO COMPREHEND. I have spent complete minutes lost in wonder at how rare this is to find in any movie, especially a big explosiony one. Without Furiosa, without the women she is freeing and the women she is returning to, who raised her to be the woman she is, this movie just does not exist." And yes, it's totally true. But Max gets to be the one who, for example, has the idea to go back to the Citadel, and while I can understand people being upset that it wasn't his movie (though one meta I read commented, "the Mad Max films have never really revolved around Max himself, have they? They’ve always been about the people he encounters.") but I was expecting it to be Furiosa's movie even more than it already is.
Even though I was uncomfortable and/or confused through much of the movie, I did end feeling, "Yes. Good."
I'm enjoying the meta (and ~fic) I'm reading, I think more than I enjoyed the movie itself.
!fic:
* serial-ficcing about Furiosa not ruling the Citadel (she's its General instead) but she and Max becoming legends
* AU where Max stays at the Citadel with Furiosa (outline)
Quick image gude to the names of all the Wives: http://maxvimoff.tumblr.com/post/119626071343/we-are-not-things
meta posts:
* "I am turning 30 years old next week. I’ve been a fan of action film my entire life. And I have NEVER seen a physically disabled, kickass, female lead character in a Hollywood movie EVER – not once, until yesterday."
* (and some science about the robot arm for good measure)
* Mad Max: Fury Road's feminism ["I have spent my whole life being told my gender is treacherous. {...} I am not a poisoner. I am not poison. // We are not things"]
Tumblrs:
http://minim-calibre.tumblr.com/tagged/mad-max%3A-fury-road
http://cacchieressa.tumblr.com/tagged/mad-max%3A-fury-road
I'm willing to grant for franchise purposes that we start with Max's perspective -- but why does he have to be such a jerk at the beginning? (Okay, I've since read some meta about how Max is SCARED.)
I was expecting the movie to be Charlize Theron and the wives against the patriarchy -- and yes I know Max and (eventually) Nux are battling the patriarchy in their own way, and I'm not actually a lesbian separatist, but we could have had zero dudes on their side and that would have been fine. I think I would have been more okay with the dudes if (a) Max had not been such a jerk to the women when he first encounters them (WHY DID YOU RANDOMLY SHOOT ONE OF THEM IN THE LEGS BEFORE DRIVING OFF WITH THE RIG?!), and (b) I was clearer about when/why they started to trust Max and Nux, but mostly (c) this movie hadn't gotten so much hype about being super-hella feminist (like really MRAs, this is what you're getting bent out of shape about?).
One of the posts I've seen says, "If you took our two good male characters Max and Nux out of the movie, Furiosa and the girls (and to a lesser extent the Vuvalini) would still have motivations and character development and narrative arcs. But if you took the women out of the movie, the men aren’t left with a plot of their own. THIS IS INCREDIBLE TO COMPREHEND. I have spent complete minutes lost in wonder at how rare this is to find in any movie, especially a big explosiony one. Without Furiosa, without the women she is freeing and the women she is returning to, who raised her to be the woman she is, this movie just does not exist." And yes, it's totally true. But Max gets to be the one who, for example, has the idea to go back to the Citadel, and while I can understand people being upset that it wasn't his movie (though one meta I read commented, "the Mad Max films have never really revolved around Max himself, have they? They’ve always been about the people he encounters.") but I was expecting it to be Furiosa's movie even more than it already is.
Even though I was uncomfortable and/or confused through much of the movie, I did end feeling, "Yes. Good."
I'm enjoying the meta (and ~fic) I'm reading, I think more than I enjoyed the movie itself.
!fic:
* serial-ficcing about Furiosa not ruling the Citadel (she's its General instead) but she and Max becoming legends
* AU where Max stays at the Citadel with Furiosa (outline)
Quick image gude to the names of all the Wives: http://maxvimoff.tumblr.com/post/119626071343/we-are-not-things
meta posts:
* "I am turning 30 years old next week. I’ve been a fan of action film my entire life. And I have NEVER seen a physically disabled, kickass, female lead character in a Hollywood movie EVER – not once, until yesterday."
* (and some science about the robot arm for good measure)
* Mad Max: Fury Road's feminism ["I have spent my whole life being told my gender is treacherous. {...} I am not a poisoner. I am not poison. // We are not things"]
Tumblrs:
http://minim-calibre.tumblr.com/tagged/mad-max%3A-fury-road
http://cacchieressa.tumblr.com/tagged/mad-max%3A-fury-road