Mad Max :Fury Road

       The eighties were the era of the cult indy films.  There were many classics that became instant guilty pleasures and lasted longer in our collective psyche than they should have.  Pulp movies like the Highlander and Robocop still are discussed and remembered fondly to this day and have spawned their own franchises beyond the movies.  However, the one that started it all (and Mel Gibson’s career pre-Lethal Weapon) was George Miller’s  ‘The Road Warrior’ (actually a sequel to 1979’s ‘Mad Max’, but that did not have the mainstream success of ‘The Road Warrior’).  When I heard that they were going to reboot Mad Max after almost 30 years, I felt an almost collective shoulder shrugging across the internet.  Reboots are the norm now and the various reboots of nostalgic movies have met with limited success (the respectable, yet forgettable Robocop reboot being a prime example).  However; then I saw the first trailer and the names attached to the project and my interest was piqued.  ‘Mad Max:Fury Road’ breaks the typical blockbuster formula and delivers an unapologetic R-rated orgy of destruction and mayhem while offering a confusingly beautiful visual opera of a post-apocalyptic future that continues the story of Max, the Road Warrior.

Believe it or not, an argument could be made that Max (played this time around by the flawless Tom Hardy) wasn’t even the main character of this film, rather he was just along for the ride.  The film focuses on Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), a high ranking warrior in one of the last surviving despotic enclaves of humanity, who seeks to smuggle the harem of a ruthless dictator named Immortan Joe to freedom. I doubt too many other actresses could make a ragged, crippled, head shaven character appear seductive, but Chalize pulls it off.  Her gaze is hypnotic with steely determination to deliver oppressed women from the masculine evil, embodied in Immortan Joe, that she feels destroyed the world.  She seeks to transport the harem to the ‘Green Place’ she was taken from as a child.  Immortan Joe marshals his force of white men (literally white colored men, not a political race statement) to track down Furiosa and bring back his harem.  That’s the plot in a nutshell.  Nothing complex.

What is complex is the incredible visual feast that George Miller creates. The dialogue is minimalist almost to the point where speech surprises us when it is heard.  Miller also destroys the cinematic myth of the lone wolf hero.  In life, lone wolves are quickly squashed by the collectives and Max is dispatched early in the film.  As Max himself states, he has been reduced to a single instinct; Survival. His escape from Immortan Joe and teaming up with Furiosa’s band is an act of self preservation rather than any heroic act of nobility.  As Immortan Joe sets out in pursuit, a 2 hour opera of death and destruction commences with only minor interludes.  It does have moments of tedium in the non-stop carnage, but the visuals are so stunning at times, the monotony of violence is forgiven.

One could also make an argument that this is a feminist film.  Chalize’s Furiosa is the central character.  She is a woman and while that is embraced by her, it is not her overriding defining characteristic.  I haven’t seen a character this strongly explored since Ripley from the ‘Aliens’ franchise. Furiosa is strong and determined to deliver innocents from the evil of male oppression, but she takes the world as it is and pushes no other agenda than the freeing of innocents.  Her gaze and resolve are unwavering and she is the true hero of the film while Max struggles to keep up in order to find his own ride to freedom.

Nicholas Hoult plays Nux, one of Immortan Joe’s warriors who seeks to prove himself worthy before death.  He provides welcome insight into the seemingly generic white warriors in pursuit of Furiosa.  Nux and his fellow warriors have been convinced by the megalomaniacal Immortan Joe that the key to happiness is in dying for their leader and waking up in Valhalla (warrior heaven).  How else can one explain the absurd lengths in which these warriors flail themselves to almost certain destruction in their attacks?  Having grown jaded by a lifetime of action movies, I still found myself breathless by the scope of the action sequences.  Far outpacing anything seen in the previous Mad Max movies, the action rises to a level of abstraction and, as I stated earlier, confusingly beautiful.  

This film is something we see less and less in the modern blockbusters.  Studios these days try to appeal to the largest audience possible in order to maximize the box office dollar.  They strive for some edge, but nothing that would alienate the family’s 8 or 80 yr olds. ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ is action and mayhem  in undiluted hard ‘R’ rated scope and glory.  Characters as odd as anything found in a Fellini or Burton film and with no agenda to appeal to Puritan mass audience sensibilities.  Dialogue takes a backseat to the stunningly beautiful and grotesque vision of a post apocalyptic landscape.  A worthy compliment to the Mad Max franchise even if Max is merely along for the ride.  A film not for everyone, but definitely an impressive piece of artistic achievement. This trailer gives an accurate insight into the flavor of the film.

*** 1/2 stars

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392190/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Avengers: Age of Ultron

       I always try to be up front about my biases when it comes to film.  Given the role that comic books in my childhood played, I have a particular excitement when it comes to super hero movies and I have been a great admirer of the Marvel machine that has not only produced quality work, but has also revolutionized the movie franchise system.  I find it hard to separate my excitement for seeing my childhood heroes come to life with honest and hopefully objective assessments of the films and how they stand on their own merit.  I will attempt to convey both viewpoints here.

For those who follow such things, ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ is the culmination of Phase 2 of the Marvel plan to role out their comic book Universe onto the big screen.  The first phase introduced us to various characters through their own films then brought them all together in the epic ‘The Avengers’.  This was one of the highest grossing films of all times and a whole lot of fun for everyone. Now, at the end of the current Phase 2, we are at a crossroads where we visit our old friends from the past films, but are also introduced to new characters and plot lines that will be instrumental in the Phase 3 portion.  As a result, there is a lot of super hero goodness stuffed into a finite amount of time.  This could have ended up a colossal and convoluted mess, but Joss Whedon’s talent of orchestrating multiple characters and storylines is put to the test here and he produces an action packed storyline that does all that it sets out to do. He entertains with blockbuster action while at the same time developing characters which has been the hallmark of Marvel heroes up until now.  I won’t say that this film didn’t try to tackle too many things, but given what it tried to do, I doubt anyone could have done it much better

The film starts off with a bang with all the old familiar Avengers attacking a Hydra base in the fictional Eastern European country of Sokovia to retrieve Loki’s scepter from the first Avengers.  The action starts off fast and furious as we are immediately introduced to two new Marvel Characters; Wanda and Pietro Maximoff (aka Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver).  They were a very faithful adaptation despite having to avoid mentioning that Magneto is their father due to studio licensing agreements.  Quicksilver was a much more faithful interpretation than his character in ‘X-men: Days of Future Past’.  Despite the glaring omissions and altering of their history they were central to the story and well introduced.

         Of course this is an action film, however; even though there is action (and a lot of it), some of the films best moments are the interplay between characters.  The interplay of personalities from entirely different worlds (in some cases literally) is what makes these movies a step above mindless popcorn fare.  These are characters we care about and want to know more about.  The unlikely attraction of Black Widow to Bruce Banner has it’s humorous moments but is moving at the same time.  We discover more about the mysterious Black Widow, but not nearly enough. The underutilized Hawkeye from the first film takes center stage this time around as we learn about his life.  All welcome respites from the immense action scenes.

And then there is Ultron, the titular villain of this film, voiced by the wonderfully evil James Spader.  He is a creation of Tony Stark’s attempt to save the world.  While this has super hero purists up in arms because Ultron was created by Hank Pym in the comics, it fits nicely into the film’s narrative of humans being the creators of our own destruction.  Tony is becoming more and more obsessed with protecting the world (fueled in part by the Scarlet Witch induced hallucination).  His drive blinds him to the possible consequences of his actions and thus Ultron is born with the epiphany that the only way to save the world is to rid it of the human race.  While this story unfolds, Marvel attempts to set up plot lines for its’ Phase 3 series of films with seeds planted for the Black Panther movie as well as the next Avengers sequels featuring the Infinity Gauntlet.   All of which the layman will be unaware of as they watch the spectacle unfold.

From an avid critical film goer’s point of view, this film felt overwhelming with the mass of characters it tried to introduce and old ones it tried to wedge into the storyline.  None of which were developed to the extent they should have been.  The quiet moments were drowned out by the extravaganza of frequent and epic battle scenes.  However; as a former comic geek, the excitement was continuous as we were introduced to new characters that we never imagined we would see on the big screen.  The introduction of Paul Bettany’s The Vision was one of the highlights of the film and as perfectly done as I could have hoped for in a film.  Supremely powerful and intelligent, yet naive and pure.  This character is unheard of in the general population, but has been a fixture in the Avengers comic world since 1967.  

As the contracts of all the actors who portrayed the original Avengers are coming to an end, Marvel needs to bring in new characters who are equally engaging.  Ultimately, I believe this is a good thing to keep the franchise fresh as seeing the same actors play the same characters over and over again will begin to wear thin.  This way there is a constant influx of fresh blood to keep the viewers engaged.  My fear is that the Marvel cinematic universe will become so large and so complex that newcomers will begin to shy away due to the overwhelming magnitude.  Still, Marvel has been very adept at having each film stand on its’ own while being part of a larger narrative.  I hope so, as I eagerly await each installment.

I give this film *** 1/2 stars

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395427/?ref_=nv_sr_1