When Mad Max: Fury Road came out, the world melted at the greatness of it.Yes I wanted to see the movie, I’ve a soft spot for the first two in the series. Cars, grimness, explosions. Good stuff.
The movie is a great conversation starter. “Hey what did you think of the new Mad Max?”
Everyone chimes in on their favourite bits. Everyone but me.
“I didn’t like Mad Max: Fury Road.”
There. I said it. Yes I know. Look at me with the tilty-head all you want. I still didn’t like it.
Then after that awkward, double-take moment has passed, people naturally ask the question:
“OMG Why? How can you not like it?”
You know coz, like, I’m a woman it should be written in the stars that I immediately adore the film. Feminists love that movie. So do those that aren’t feminists. Just because I’m female, doesn’t mean I have to like the movie.*
Yes. Charlize Theron works some magic as Furiosa. Yes it’s a gloriously-good-visually-explosive-one-long-road-chase of a movie.
No I didn’t like the way the wives were represented. Yes I know why they were represented that way. But really, floaty white virginal Khalleesi-ness. This isn’t Game of Thrones. There are no dragons to eat the sacrifices.
Mad Max is admittedly a world in which things are amplified and over the top. But the cars … so close to great, and then, almost not. I still can’t put my finger on why I was so annoyed by them. Sure they wouldn’t have the resources and they made from what they had and what they took. I get that the mentality of the world in which they lived materialised around them in a subtly clever way. I admired the deft non-preachy undercurrents of Furiosa’s plot.
I wanted better, more, different. Not that. I wanted what the trailer promised. I’d bought into the hype even though I dodged the reviews, I saw the trailer.
I have come to the conclusion I was reacting the way I was because I felt cheated. Max grunts his way through the film, present but would the adventure have happened if he hadn’t shoved his nose in? Yes. This movie should have been entitled Furious Furiosa (no it shouldn’t, it would never have put as many bums on seats). It might have been set in Mad Max’s world, but it wasn’t his film.
So for all the greatness that this film is, I still don’t like it.
There’s no pleasing some people is there?
*Different topic entirely.
Actually, several very prominent feminists have said that while the movie was pretty good, it isn’t feminist. So, don’t worry, you don’t have to hand in your feminist or woman cards.
https://storify.com/wire2k/anita-sarkeesian-on-mad-max-fury-road