Support NeoGAF

[inm8num2]

Nice! I'm reasonably excited for this one.

 

[zulfate]

A whole fucking year away!? Porque!!!!

 

[Simo]

More thoughts from a couple of folks on the Chud forums who caught the screening. The first guy goes by the name Sebastian OB and is a big MM fan.

So thanks to Dark Shape (thanks again Shape!) I also got to see this. Non spoilery thoughts from an uber Mad Max fan:

Tom Hardy is as good as you are hoping he is as Max. More primal and physical than Mel. For a Bond comparison, if Mel is Connery, they jumped right to Craig with Hardy.

Charlize Theron as Furiosa is every bit Hardy's equal and a great new addition to the Mad Max canon. She almost steals the movie.

FX weren't totally finished, but most of them seemed background/scope related. The car stuff seemed totally real. Maybe there was some finished FX work in the car stunts but I could not tell.

The plot does a good job of telling a new story but with most of the Mad Max tropes. Story wise I'd break it down as 50% Road Warrior, 15% Thunderdome, 5% OG Mad Max and 30% its own thing.

The movie is fucking bugnuts, especially in regards to Immortan Joe and the villains. Total George Miller craziness. So much so that I wonder if non fans will "get it", but Shape seemed to like it, so that's a good sign.

Im sequel/reboot terms, it's akin to SUPERMAN RETURNS where you could take it as a sequel but there are minor continuity issues. For the function of the franchise, it works as a reboot.

Even in it's unfinished form, I am secure in awarding this the honor of being the second best MAD MAX movie, after ROAD WARRIOR.

Oh, and rating wise it's PG-13. Plenty violent, no real gore.

When asked how close in quality it was to MM2...

Pretty damn close. I think if the younger generation latches on to it, they will prefer it to ROAD WARRIOR

I am very curious to see how this takes with people who weren't Mad Max fans already. I believe it has the power to convert, but I readily admit to being blinded by my own fanboyism on this one.

He did have a problem with the voiceover.

This cut had a bunch of voice over in the beginning and end, and as Shape said, a lot of it was bad. At one point Max referred to himself as the man "watching in the shadows", which is dumb because he's in the desert and there are hardly any shadows. But the producers (or whoever they were) warned us that the voice over was very much a work in progress. The voice Hardy uses as Max is good and not Bane-y.

Oh, and there were flashes of "apocalypse" footage, really quick cut news reel stuff, in the credits.

ROAD WARRIOR is the clear model here, which you can tell from the trailer. They're trying to give you a sense of who Max is and what his backstory might be, and they haven't quite nailed it yet. But I'm confident they will.

When asked about where it stands in the trilogy...

There is actually very little reference to anything that could be construed as referring to any of the past films, aside from extremely brief "flashes" that are frankly confusing and that I imagine will be cut. But if I wanted to place it in continuity, it would be post ROAD WARRIOR, pre THUNDERDOME.

FURY ROAD feels very much of the same world as the original trilogy, which frees you to take it however you want in terms of sequel or reboot. If you want to imagine the events of MAD MAX or THE ROAD WARRIOR taking place in this Max's backstory, it's pretty easy to do. If you want to see it as a reboot, that's even easier. But it's not like trying to reconcile the Tim Burton Batman continuity with the Nolan one or anything. Like Miller says, it's very much grown from the same material.

On box office potential...

There's no way FURY ROAD is going to compete with the big names, but if the marketing is strong I can see it making RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES numbers. Good enough to rekindle interest in the franchise, which is all I think the studio is hoping for. The attitude in the screening (and likeley coming off Comic Con) seemed like they knew they had a decent movie on their hands.

The other guy goes by The Dark Shape and FR was his first MM movie. He liked it but didn't say much citing the NDA he signed.

On the voiceover...

Biggest issue is that they need to drop the voice-over. It's completely unnecessary and -- at the end -- distracting in its awfulness.

On the flashbacks...

I'm fifty-fifty on the brief flashes of his family. I think the quick frames actually work well during big action scenes, but you spend the whole movie expecting some sort of pay-off that never arrives.

http://www.chud.com/community/t/146538/mad-max-fury-road-pre-release-discussion

 

[Discotheque]

At one point Max referred to himself as the man "watching in the shadows", which is dumb because he's in the desert and there are hardly any shadows.

lmao ffs, it's an expression.

 

[SJRB]

lmao ffs, it's an expression.

Even as a metaphor it's a pretty silly thing to say, given the setting. Hardly earth-shattering though, I agree.

 

[Simo]

This popped up that I thought was cool, somebody took the Comic Con first look and mashed it together with footage and dialog from the original trilogy and it works really well!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0hW_HQAUC0

Another review did crop up online too:

How about one more test screening review of MAD MAX: FURY ROAD!?!
Published at: Aug. 14, 2014, 3:16 p.m. CST by Draven Share On Facebook Twitter

Hey Yo, Draven here.

After we ran the test screening review for MAD MAX: FURY ROAD last week, I heard from several other people who had also seen the film and offered their thoughts on it. Most of the comments I received were overwhelmingly positive but admitted that the film will be a tough sell for mainstream audiences.

I did pick one of the better reviews I was e-mailed, to share with you guys, and while it is very positive, it is not quite as much of a rave review as the one I ran last week. Please keep in mind that this is a review of a work in progress and not the final product. There doesn't seem to be any real specific spoilers, but if you are sensitive to anything being revealed, turn back now.

(Also, if anybody who attends a test screening of any highly anticipated upcoming film wants to share their thoughts on whatever they saw, please feel free to e-mail here.)

Call me TheAyatollahOfRock'n'Rollah,


I was at the Fury Road screening Wed the 30th in Burbank, as well. I felt the movie was a mixed bag. There's definitely more to like than not. God knows what the public will make of it.

Some random thoughts:

So, it's not RW (ROAD WARRIOR) but it comes very close in places (and rest assured, it's also not Thunderdome). It's not from a lack of effort on Miller's part. The same energy and quirkiness is there as the previous ones. There's not a younger director who could have pulled this off. It's a beautiful looking movie.

It's a more obvious sci-fi bent than the previous ones. It doesn't fit into the original timeline but I had no problem with that. Seemed like it was set way after Thunderdome, which would make sense were Mel here but creates an anomaly with Hardy, who's younger than Theron. (EDITOR'S NOTE: FURY ROAD does reportedly take place shortly after THUNDERDOME and Gibson was 29 when that came out and Tom Hardy is 36 now so it does fit into the timeline.)

Hardy's a weird one. He looks the part but he makes some weird choices, acting wise. It's a pretty different take than Gibson. He won't be for everyone but I was okay with him. Nobody complains Daniel Craig's Bond-verse doesn't fit with any of his predecessors so it'll require a leap from the purists - of which I'd consider myself one.

The car chase/stuntwork stuff is breathtaking. There's some stuff here that will have you gasping in terms of the power and scale. Nothing like seeing real cars get battered and smashed, to make you realize CG can't convince you of some things. Remarkable. No joke.

The first third is a powerhouse. That it had the most f/x work to finish up did nothing to diminish how awesome it's going to be when it's done. Rest of the movie can't quite match those heights once it settles into a chase. Final sequence is great though.

Charlize Theron can do no wrong. She's awesome in this. The story is primarily Furiosa's (Theron's character) and Max gets dragged into it. I didn't have a problem with it. Max is as much a spectator to the first third as we are but as that first third is so fucking great, I had no complaints.

It's got a few issues:

There's some truly awful narration bookending the movie. Doesn't fit at all. Hopefully that gets changed.

The backbone of the movie's solid but the movie is so focused on the chase and the visuals that the characters feel thin. Maybe that'll be enough to carry it, though.

Left the theater really liking it more than loving it but since the screening, I can't stop thinking about it. Very eager to see it again. Make of that what you will.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/6838...=feed&utm_term=coolnews&utm_campaign=1310_RSS

 

[Aβydoς]

It's going to be outstanding isn't it. Please don't disappoint me.

 

[Simo]

Brendan McCarthy talked about his involvement with Fury Road to CBR:

CBR News: Brendan, how exactly did you come to be involved with "Mad Max: Fury Road" and what's the journey been like to get it to the screen?

Brendan McCarthy: I used to write to George Miller when I was much younger, as I was totally enthralled by "Mad Max 2: Road Warrior." It absolutely blew me away when I saw it for the first time in 1981. It mangled my mind -- it was "The Matrix" for a previous generation, in that it was highly influential and trend setting. I think I had one of those religious experiences you hear so much about when I walked out of the cinema! I was literally shaking... For most people it was the "Star Wars" trilogy...but for me, it was always "Mad Max." I couldn't believe how damn good it was. And still is.

Inspired by ["Road Warrior"], I cooked up the comic series "Freakwave" with Peter Milligan, a sort of "Mad Max goes surfing" strip which came out in the early '80s, many years before the wretched "Waterworld," I hasten to add.

I met George Miller in Hollywood and we just hit it off. I knew almost everything he had done and I counted him as one of my favorite directors, even though he was strangely below the radar in those days. We yakked about "Mad Max" trilogy for hours, and I even pitched him a totally bonkers "Mad Max 4" storyline! But I didn't think a new "Mad Max" movie was ever on his agenda at the time.

Anyway, a few months later he asked me over to Sydney to bounce around some story ideas he had. I think he saw the benefits of working with a comic book artist and writer in that you can get a script written and elements visually designed as you go along. And I was steeped in the mythology of the series and had a million new ideas to express. I took the task of co-creating a new "Mad Max" movie as a serious, sacred artistic duty, frankly.

As for the amount of time it's taken to get "Fury Road" onto the screen, George has outlined the long and winding road in his recent interviews. Back then, it was to be the fourth installment of the Mel Gibson "Max," but it took so long to get going that Mel eventually dropped out. Thankfully an actor with the required raw talent, Tom Hardy, appeared on the scene. Later, another screenwriter, Nico Lathouris, was brought in to recalibrate the script with George so it would work for the younger Tom Hardy. And as far as I can tell, the long gestation time has only done wonders for the story and design work. I saw quite a bit of a rough cut over a year ago, and it looked sensational even then. The trailer was fantastic and really did steal Comic Con this year. Warners has done a terrific job in getting the "Mad Max" brand back into people's heads and I'd say this is now one of the most anticipated movies of next year. If the actual movie is half as good as the trailer, then we're in for a treat.

I am hopeful that the characters of the Five Wives, the teenage girls, will get hordes of young women going to see the movie too, as well as the expected motley mob of petrol heads, punks, freaks and adrenaline junkies! I'm really confident that this film will not disappoint those of us who hold "Road Warrior" in such high esteem. When I was co-writing this with George, we had an informal agreement that if "Fury Road" wasn't going to be absolutely the f**king bee's knees, he would flush it and forget about it.

What sorts of designs did you come up with for the characters and vehicles in the film? What inspired your style?

I did the first pass designs on pretty much everything in the movie as we wrote it, working off an electroboard and printing out bits of script and designs as we went along. These were then added to the illustrated script until the story was completed. It went through many radical changes as we went along. Then we started on the storyboards which were edited together to form an animatic/storyreel.

As the years rolled by and different creative teams came and went, the designs evolved into what they look like now. Some of my original vision is intact, and other parts of it have grown into a new visual solution, far better than what was first proposed. The retro-gangster hotrod style of the vehicles was a design philosophy that has remained, as we wanted to move on from the dune buggy look of the trilogy. The Australian comic strip and horror artist Peter Pound in particular, made a brilliant contribution to specific car designs and some new characters. I'd love to see him do some American horror strips.

The first period of writing a movie is always the most wild and creatively loose, before everything gets locked down by dramatic requirements. It's the brainstorming time and there are lots of drawings of really out there characters and vehicles that were tried out, just for the hell of it, but which didn't make it. I remember sitting George down and watching segments of the Sex Pistols' movie "The Filth and The Fury," for the crazed energy that we'd want for the War Boys sequences.

What was it like co-writing the script with George Miller?

George is a very formidable talent, a hugely intelligent man. He's got a surreal sense of humor too, which I share, and which percolates all his movies. Just think of Max with a giant clown's head on in "Beyond Thunderdome," the bizarre flavour of "Pig in the City," or Jack Nicholson puking up millions of cherries in "Witches of Eastwick." He's a unique Aussie mixture of Terry Gilliam, Spielberg and Kubrick. A major director.

We had a great deal of fun knocking our heads together and building the story and visuals. We both had so many ideas; it was possible to have a great game of creative tennis with him.

He's mentioned elsewhere that he enjoyed the storyboarding part of the process, where much of the "real writing" gets done. It's pretty much the way animated movies are put together, which I was very familiar with: Loose first draft, then storyboard to storyreel. The whole thing is one big feedback loop, with the written script continually mutating in tune with the boards. In fact, the final screenplay was more like a hybrid comic book, with images and text running alongside each other. I really hope Warner Bros. will put out a book of this document. I think it's pretty unique and will be of great interest to other writers and storytellers.

When I went to Namibia to watch the shoot a while back, I saw George in his element, surrounded by monstrous vehicles and insane tribal warriors in a post-apocalyptic scenario. What's great about it is that he actually created this genre and is its prime exponent. His producing partner, Doug Mitchell who does all his movies, had marshaled what looked like the entire country to achieve the shots needed for the story. They're a very efficient and successful team.

Is there anything you can tell us about what challenges Mad Max faces in the film?

I don't want to get into specific sequences and spoil it for viewers, so let me say that thematically, the film deals with human beings as commodities and control over the future of the human race; patriarchy and the emergence of a new matriarchal order; the manipulation of youth by war propaganda and religious cult brainwashing.

One of the most chilling developments was creating a group of kamikaze suicide warriors well before that became a staple of the nightly news after 9/11.

George's desire that the film be in continuous motion, "one long chase" as he called it, was an exciting hook to hang the drama over and came with its own challenges.

You're sharing a cover for a never-produced "Mad Max" comic book for this interview. What's the story behind it? Was "Fury Road" ever going to become a comic instead of a film?

No, "Fury Road" was always created to be a live action feature. The comic book cover was just a mock-up to keep a graphic novel or series in the mix. The idea was that I might adapt the script/boards that I wrote with George into a comic book in its own right. It was never used or seen -- until now! I assume at some point DC or whoever, will get some "Mad Max" comics out there. It's a great opportunity to expand on the "Mad Max" universe.

There is also a big computer game coming out, concurrently developed with the movie over the last few years. George had a big hand in its conception and took the gaming narrative seriously. I had nothing to do with it, as it happened well after my time on the film.

As I haven't seen the completed movie myself, I can assure you that I am looking forward to it as much as anybody else! It will please me if we have delivered a movie that does justice to the wonderful films that preceded it.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=54991

Also a couple of new stills:

 

[Simo]

Figured I'd post this here but the BBFC has rated a new trailer for FURY ROAD:
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/mad-max-fury-road-filmtrailer

It should be dropping in the next two weeks so maybe attached with Inherent Vice or Exodus?

 

[SJRB]

OMG new trailer would be awesome!

 

[Simo]

OMG new trailer would be awesome!

Looking in to it and with the BBFC rating the trailer along with other WB flicks like San Andreas and PAN that it'll likely be attached with The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies which is released in the UK on December 12th and December 18th in the US.

It'd be interesting to see if we get any new posters or info from WB this week or next.

 

[Simo]

So as expected the new trailer got rated for the US/Canada:

Mad Max: Fury Road (trailer #1) 12/04/2014 2:21 Warner Bros. Entertainment

http://www.albertafilmratings.ca/recentclasstrailers.aspx

So it should be online next week and with The Hobbit.

Also a buddy of mine just got invited to see the movie... for the 3rd fucking time...next week.

 

[jmdajr]

hot damn wtf

looks great!

 

[SJRB]

Also a buddy of mine just got invited to see the movie... for the 3rd fucking time...next week.

...what. Why?

 

[Totaly a Duder]

Finally a trailer released that actually looks good!

 

[Simo]

...what. Why?

Test screening again in Burbank. I'm pretty sure it'll be near the final cut with the finished score and they did the same thing with the second screening, e.g rolling out Comic Con and releasing the trailer online followed by a screening a few days later.

They were handing out passes at that AMC for the first 2 screenings so they could be doing the same thing now throughout the weekend...any Burbank gaffers wanna check? lol

 

[AbsolutBro]

Also a buddy of mine just got invited to see the movie... for the 3rd fucking time...next week.

A real Mad Max fan would wear his skin so they could see the movie.


Seriously though, super jealous of your friend and super excited for this movie.

 

[Simo]

A real Mad Max fan would wear his skin so they could see the movie.

I wouldn't have to. He can get me in the screening...except I'm in Michigan and thats a $1200 5+ hour flight for me. lol

Of course a real fan would drive there but I doubt it'll make it there by Monday.

 

[TheKaeptain]

So as expected the new trailer got rated for the US/Canada:

http://www.albertafilmratings.ca/recentclasstrailers.aspx

So it should be online next week and with The Hobbit.

Also a buddy of mine just got invited to see the movie... for the 3rd fucking time...next week.

Damn son. Burbank again?

 

[Simo]

Damn son. Burbank again?

Has to be. Pretty sure it's the same AMC theater too but I can check.

 

[TheKaeptain]

Has to be. Pretty sure it's the same AMC theater too but I can check.

Shit I never get invited to the screenings there.

 

[zulfate]

Fuck why don't I ever get lucky with these screenings

Yes! new trailer, not sure if I want to watch it that comic con one is perfect for me without spoiling too much.

 

[Simo]

So the new trailer will debut on Wednesday at 10am PST/1pm EST.

Worldwide Satellite Trailer Debut Mad Max: Fury Road
BY BUSINESS WIRE

DECEMBER 8, 2014 01:26 PM EST

Warner Bros. Pictures:
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
10:00 AM – 10:15 AM, PST
(1:00 PM – 1:15 PM, EST)

Coordinates for feed:
Satellite: Galaxy 17, Transponder 13 KU-Band Digital Slot D
9Mhz
Downlink Frequency: 11973.5000 H
Modulation: DVBS2 8PSK
Symbol: 7.000 M/S
Coding: Mpeg4
FEC: 2/3
Coding: Mpeg4 4:2:0
Pilots: OFF
Data: 13.864454 Mbps Mpeg 4
Format: 1080i/59
Trouble Number for Feed: 310-287-3800

From director George Miller, originator of the post-apocalyptic genre and mastermind behind the legendary “Mad Max” franchise, comes “Mad Max: Fury Road,” a return to the world of the Road Warrior, Max Rockatansky.
Haunted by his turbulent past, Mad Max believes the best way to survive is to wander alone. Nevertheless, he becomes swept up with a group fleeing across the Wasteland in a War Rig driven by an elite Imperator, Furiosa. They are escaping a Citadel tyrannized by the Immortan Joe, from whom something irreplaceable has been taken. Enraged, the Warlord marshals all his gangs and pursues the rebels ruthlessly in the high-octane Road War that follows.

Tom Hardy (“The Dark Knight Rises”) stars in the title role in “Mad Max: Fury Road”—the fourth in the franchise’s history. Oscar winner Charlize Theron (“Monster,” “Prometheus”) stars as the Imperator, Furiosa. The film also stars Nicholas Hoult (“X-Men: Days of Future Past”) as Nux; Hugh Keays-Byrne (“Mad Max,” “Sleeping Beauty”) as Immortan Joe; Nathan Jones (“Conan the Barbarian”) as Rictus Erectus; Josh Helman (“X-Men: Days of Future Past”) as Slit; collectively known as The Wives, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”) is Splendid, Riley Keough (“Magic Mike”) is Capable, Zoë Kravitz (“Divergent”) plays Toast, Abbey Lee is The Dag, and Courtney Eaton is Fragile. Also featured in the movie are John Howard, Richard Carter, singer/ songwriter/performer iOTA, Angus Sampson, Jennifer Hagan, Megan Gale, Melissa Jaffer, Melita Jurisic, Gillian Jones and Joy Smithers.

http://www.sys-con.com/node/3254716