George Lucas had been working on The Phantom Menace since his original backstory and his heart wasn't in it, either. What's the passage of time to do with having your heart in it? I don't understand that. Max Max is simply George Miller's only claim to fame. Other sequels have taken decades to hit the screen and either sucked, or were otherwise overrated, like Ridley Scott's Prometheus. But you're a fan of Fury Road, I take it - that's cool. And yes, I am aware of your "Basically Just" thread, as well ...
This doesn't seem like the most exact comparison, though.
Star Wars is definitely Lucas's only claim to fame and one can definitely interpret the creation of characters like Jar Jar as attempts to pander to a whole new generation of merchandise-buying youngsters, thus makes the prequel trilogy seem less like a natural extension of the established story and more like a cynical marketing ploy.
Prometheus similarly has very little going for it beyond its reputation as a prequel to a beloved sci-fi classic; even then the elements that tie it to
Alien admittedly feel grafted on for the most part. I think most of the blame has to go to the vague and barely-coherent writing because on a visual level it's pretty good.
Fury Road feels different to those because it doesn't take the easy way out with gratuitous amounts of lazy CGI and convoluted yet empty plots. I use the word "refined" because it does take a bare-bones concept and, rather than try to embellish it with superficial factors, strips out everything that might weigh it down and provides a film that feels like pure action. It's a fairly ambitious thing to do in an age where he could have just given up or compromised with business-minded studios, which at least makes it more than just a director trading on his former glories like Scott or Lucas.
As for the Basically Just thread...well, to be fair, it's not like this exchange was the sole inspiration. I read some article recently which also laid out the logic I mentioned - namely, that it's like "pretentious" or "overrated" as in it's a word that does feel extremely simplistic and dismissive without reflecting exactly
why a person would come to such a conclusion (and this post clearly demonstrates that you can defend your opinion). In any case, I'm sorry if I've caused personal offence to you over starting the thread. It was supposed to be in good fun, but I guess that fun shouldn't come at the expense of anyone's feelings.
Max Max: Fury Road is overrated. Here are but a few reasons why, just off the top of my head ...
The Pointless Hunt
The movie's opener has Max being hunted, for no reason given, nor are we let in on how long this has been going on. His even being there isn't given explanation ... it's just in the script, which is already pretty thin.
I thought it was explained well enough without resorting to blatant exposition. Max has always been an aimless wanderer who just roams the wasteland without purpose - that is basically how he started
Road Warrior and
Thunderdome, and is even mentioned in his opening narration where he refers to himself as walking the earth looking for a purpose. He starts the film by apparently having wandered into the part of the wasteland that's dominated by Immortan Joe (he's apparently stopped at the start and only gets moving again when he realises he's being hunted), hence why the War-Boys start chasing him and eventually capture him. As for the reason, well, they plan to enslave him and use him as a blood donor.
The C-section
It wasn't even germane to the plot. And despite the wives lamenting how they weren't "things," once this pregnant character served her purpose of a Hollywood Moment gross-out, it was like she'd never been in it, or ever existed at all. So much for developing female characters, eh?
It served plenty of in-story purpose. Having at least one of the wives die (and not immediately, but after getting to know the characters first so that having one of them die actually meant something other than just shock value) was integral to generating the tension because there would be no telling who would die next and when they would. The rest of the heroes do have a couple of scenes to grieve (one of them even tries to surrender to the villains afterwards in order to save herself) but after that they have to suppress their sorrow and focus on getting moving again - it's not like the film could stay bogged down in these characters feeling sorry for the rest of the film, after all. As for the "gross-out" nature of the moment - yeah, that may have been a bit excessive, though it did work to cement Immortan Joe's status as a bloody-minded slaver who didn't care about his wife so much as whether or not her child was a) male and b) alive. Even then, his attitude is motivated less by paternal love than by thinking of the child as his "property".
Fast and Furiosa
Furiosa was also a very "thin" character, whose only claim to fame seemed to be that she was the only female warrior who somehow interacts with the wives, though they're locked-up. The other warriors escorting her and her tanker (!!!) respect this so much, though, that when she veers off course, it's not even questioned until Immotan Joe notices it and unloads. We're also witness to six women (plus Max) fighting against a hundred guys, all armed and all for overkill. This movie has absolutely no logic to it, but because the wives wear their clothes in the end, this flick's been lauded for its treatment of women.
This is another instance of everything being inferred rather than spelled out (which is different from being vague and empty). The implication seems to be that Furiosa had to do some horrible things in order to earn enough respect from Immortan Joe to become one of his most trusted warriors, hence why helping the wives is not only the right thing for her to do but also her way of redeeming herself for her apparently horrible past. As for the whole outnumbered fight - well, it is an action movie. Characters taking on improbable odds is part and parcel of watching the whole genre, plus it's not like they come out of it without a scratch. Also, the women do more than "wear clothes". They all get a fair bit of development that goes beyond "love interest" or "token female action hero" or "useless hostage", which puts it at least a cut above your average big-budget blockbuster in terms of character development.
Reasonless Blood-Letting
While a War Boy and they all have shortened lifespans, Nux's actual need for a blood transfer is never explained. It's just in the script.
Like so many other things in this film, does it really need an in-depth explanation spelled out? It's sort of a variation on the MacGuffin role - it doesn't really matter why something's happening so long as it is happening. At the very least, the fact that the first thing they do to Max after they lock him up is determine that he's a universal donor implies that the War-Boys must need a lot of blood anyway (and Nux just so happens to be the one who needs a transfusion on the day that Furiosa and the wives escape, hence why he decides to bring Max along in the first place).
The Meaningless Death of the Falcon
In the original trilogy, Max's Ford Falcon was so bad-assed and cool, that like the Enterprise in Star Trek, it was a character in its own right and when it finally got totaled, there was a point to it. In Fury Road, it's hardly given screen time and is just a disposable prop.
I feel like that was supposed to throw people off on purpose and just add to Max's initial sense of helplessness. It also establishes the villains as a serious threat - if they can chase down Max and his badass car in the space of a minute, then who knows what else they can do over the course of the rest of the film? It's sort of a variation on what TV Tropes calls "the Worf effect" - in order to establish a new character's power quickly, you have them overpower a character that the audience already knows is powerful in their own right.
So ... yeah ... I stand by my earlier opinion.
As do I.
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