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Forums - Movies & TV - Best Mad Max film?

 

I think the best is...

Mad Max 4 9.76%
 
Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior 11 26.83%
 
Beyond Thunderdome 3 7.32%
 
Fury Road 23 56.10%
 
Total:41

I watched Beyond the Thunderdome as a kid and I hated it so much that it turned me off from the post-apocalyptic genre as a whole. The only reason I watched Fury Road was because I went with my two brothers and they both wanted to see it so I had no choice. I had no idea I was going to enjoy it that much. Definitely my favorite movie that year and one of my favorite action movies ever.



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I absolutely loved Fury Road so it sparked interest in watching the original movies. I watched Mad Max and was very disappointed and gave up on watching the others. From the comments here, it seems I should have endured and watched The Road Warrior.



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1 - Fury Road
2 - Road Warrior
3 - MadMax
4 - Beyond Thunderdome

Fury Road is my favorite, its the best directed, has the best soundtrack and the cinematography is just amazing. The mix of special and practical effects its just mindblowing and its arguably also the best acted, because I dont think anyone has been as good and compelling as Charlize Theron in the entire franchise, not that the acting matters much tbh. 

Road Warrior was THE Mad Max film for me befoe Fury Road. Whenever someone thinks/brings up Mad Max theyre usually thinking about the Road Warrior, the setting, ambience, wacky over the top characters and car chases basically makes the franchise what it is and im all here for it. I simply think Fury Road took each of those elements and made them the best version they can be. Its tacky at time but that just add to its charm I guess. Sadly I cant say that about the following movies. 

Mad Max is fine, a bit underrated, it is a decent revenge flick but doesnt feel post apocalyptic at all, the editing has aged badly tbh, gives the vibe of a B-movie, which I guess its exactly what it is. 

I dont have much respect for Thunderdome, I think its has an good setting, the thunderdome scenes are cool (but have weird sound effects) yet the whole film has a dumb tone to it, like it doesnt take itself serious enough. To me that brings the whole film down a lot because there no tension or excitement, its just big B-movie joy, and I get a lot of people like that, memorable quotes there, but I personally dont care much for it.  And Tina Turner is just awful. Just awful. Her music is alright. 

Last edited by Jpcc86 - on 25 November 2020

Jpcc86 said:

[...]not that the acting matters much tbh.[...]

Acting always matters, even for an action film. =P Even if there's only one character in the whole movie and that character has only five seconds of footage with only one line of text, the way that line is delivered, the facial expression, the body language... All that can make a difference.

OT, I saw Fury Road not too long ago and it made want to watch the original trilogy, but I haven't yet. After reading this thread, I'm more curious.



I'm mostly a lurker now.

Fury road by a huge margin. The others vary from very good to mediocre. But fury road is a masterpiece and probably the greatest action film ever made.



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I always thought the original trilogy was fine, but Fury Road to me was epic. That gets my vote.



If I had to rank them I guess I'd go:

1) Fury Road. An monstrous masterclass in adrenaline-soaked action, bursting at the seam with nitroglycerine bite and the raw, terrifying beauty of a tornado in an ammunition depot. One of my top 10 films of the 2010s.

2) Mad Max 2. A little light on characterization but terrific action and style.

3) Beyond Thunderdome. The story and setting are more developed here than in any of the others, and while it doesn't quite match the intensity of 2 or Fury Road it's still a fun romp.

4) Mad Max. It's low budget shows and the pacing could be tighter, but its still an admirably ambitious and scrappy little B movie; the fact it was filmed around where I live kinda makes it feel more relatable to me too.



Fury Road>Mad Mad X 2>Mad Max>>>>Beyond Thunderdome

Beyond Thunderdome sucks, it's the sole bad one. There's one other outlier on this list, too, they almost-universally go hand-in-hand.

Last edited by KManX89 - on 29 November 2020

I have to say, I'm honestly very disappointed that so many people would vote for Fury Road. Even though I had a feeling that was going to be the case, because it's the most recent, and the one most (younger) people have likely seen.

I can't speak for Fury Road as a movie on its own merits, but as a "Mad Max" film....it isn't. They should have just made it a spinoff, without any character that was supposed to be "Max". Mel Gibson was Max. The new guy wasn't. And the movie was about Furiosa anyway, "Max" was just there as window dressing.

So ignoring Fury Road, I think Road Warrior is obviously the best one. Mad Max 1 is important, because it shows us Max's early life as a cop, and it shows society still in the early stages of breaking down after whatever war/cataclysm occurred. The sequels are obviously years after that. In fact MM3 is supposed to be showing us "Old Max", basically, which is why he kinda disappears off into the sunset at the end.

But yeah as far as I'm concerned, Fury Road is a spinoff, and nothing more. The original trilogy is great, and I really don't know why people think Thunderdome is "bad". It isn't. It's a fun movie, and it's important, because it shows Max reconnecting to his humanity again. He's an antihero in MM2, but he's still distant/separate from humanity after the death of his family, for the most part.



DevilRising said:

The original trilogy is great, and I really don't know why people think Thunderdome is "bad". It isn't. It's a fun movie, and it's important, because it shows Max reconnecting to his humanity again. He's an antihero in MM2, but he's still distant/separate from humanity after the death of his family, for the most part.

Thats just the 80s in general man. It became popular to hate on sequels. Rambo III, Rocky III/IV, Beverly Hills Cop II, Thunderdome are all better than the reviews would have had you believe.