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Everyone is obsessed with a new movie and here I have just finally gotten around to watching Mad Max: Fury Road.

It was a good movie. I see why so many people liked it.

A few random thoughts:

• This movie was really beautifully shot. Kudos to John Seale and Margaret Sixel.
• I was very aware that George Miller used to be a doctor through a lot of this film, because a lot of that stuff was portrayed a lot more accurately than I'm used to seeing.
• I'm usually so bored by action scenes, but most of this movie had me on the edge of my seat. Apparently all the stunts were real (as opposed to computer generated).
• So like I guess the ocean is just gone? Maybe this was addressed in a previous Mad Max movie?
• This movie had a lot of really interesting things to say about religion and spirituality.
• I was eating while I watched it. Learn from my mistakes. Don't be me.

The best movies are the ones where the actors break a few of their own bones (why LOTR is so good). Tom Hardy is apparently scared of heights and bit where he's on the swinging arm was terrifying.

I don't think the oceans are gone, they're just so far inland that any attempt to get to the coast would be suicidal. I was really hoping they'd keep heading on to find a new home, but of course they had to defeat the bad dude. I think the slow revealing of what unfurled is the best part of post-apocalyptic/dystopian literature and film. The earlier Mad Max films already filled all that in though.

I like that it doesn't even need to be post-apocalyptic. They could just be living in the middle of Australia and be lost.

Liriodendron_fagotti wrote:I don't think the oceans are gone, they're just so far inland that any attempt to get to the coast would be suicidal. I was really hoping they'd keep heading on to find a new home, but of course they had to defeat the bad dude. I think the slow revealing of what unfurled is the best part of post-apocalyptic/dystopian literature and film. The earlier Mad Max films already filled all that in though.

I mean I could be wrong, but I thought that s.alt flat Furiosa was planning on crossing with her old tribe was the ocean. Australia's only what? Like 4 000 km across? You can drive that entire length in less than 70 hours, but Max told her that he guarantees if she drove for over 160 days it'd just be more of the same. And then you can assume the Green Place was the former coast.
But who knows. Maybe Max was wrong or something?

Kimra wrote:I like that it doesn't even need to be post-apocalyptic. They could just be living in the middle of Australia and be lost.

I really love this headcanon.

Man I forgot the 160 days bit. How the hell would he know, though? It does seem oddly precise for an exaggeration.

Okay, 160 seems like a bit of an exaggeration. I'll admit. I think the oceans are gone. But I just assumed the Nackle flats were actually just Lake Eyre or something similar?

Either way driving with good roads, convenience stores, petrol (gas), and no war lords to worry about would probably take less time than what the Mad Max universe has to deal with. i.e. hunting and gathering, stealing, avoiding tribes or murderous hoards, finding magical petrol, and not having any real roads anymore. So it would take longer (and no maps! those things are super useful) than it would for us. But probably only 160 days. My thought is maybe he sort of came that way, and it took him about 160 days to get that far, with all the hazards involved so he's just going off that. Or, more likely: he's crazy and can't judge time anyway.

I like the Lake Eyre theory, that makes sense, even outside the context of some ecological catastrophe.

Liriodendron_fagotti wrote:I like the Lake Eyre theory, that makes sense, even outside the context of some ecological catastrophe.

See? It's not even fiction. This is just how people in the middle of Australia live right now.

Yesterday I watched Terminator: Genisys. I was surprised. Really, really surprised. I'm on the verge of saying it is the best of the Terminator franchise. And I'm definitely saying that it was the best written of the Terminator franchise.
Terminator 1-3 got increasingly convoluted, confusing and even incomprehensible when you try to understand the time-travel of it all. Judgment Day made up for it's time-travel-related flaws by being amazingly executed. 3 was just generally terrible, from what I recall (it's been a long time since I saw it).
Terminator: Salvation kind of got a pass. It was a very good movie and it was wholly set in the future with time-travel only as a reference point and not plot-integral. I liked it quite a bit, but parts fell a bit flat.
Terminator Genisys somehow integrated clear and direct references to the films that came before (most clearly the first), had even more time travel (and associated paradoxes) and maintained a pretty great, intriguing plot. The time-travel aspect actually got more convoluted and confusing but they managed to explain it more clearly and understandably (even with oversimplification at points) which somehow made the whole thing seem more plausible? Plus it had some funny moments and Arnie actually managed to get in some acting (it was pretty good, even)!

I'm actually a little confused about how and why they managed to pull off this movie as well as they did. But that just makes it better still.

Interesting, that's the most positive opinion I have heard of the movie by far. Haven't watched it myself yet, but I am vaguely planning to at some point.

On another movie, I saw The Witch with my sister last week, and holy hell did I find it to be an effective horror movie. It was the kind of horror I like, namely based on a slow building of dread and atmosphere rather than jump scares and gore. I watch a fair few horror movies, and even I found myself extremely uncomfortable and with a very elevated heartbeat at some points during the film.
However I'm imagining mileage may vary for different people, as I spoke to my brother who had also seen it and he said he was not scared by it at all, as well as feeling annoyed and uncomfortable rather than affected by the building of dead throughout the film.

Terminator 1 and 2 are two of my most favourite movies in the world. Any Terminator movie that happens after them I ignore. I'm struggling with the idea that Genisys could be anywhere near as good as them.

Apocalyptus wrote:On another movie, I saw The Witch with my sister last week, and holy hell did I find it to be an effective horror movie. It was the kind of horror I like, namely based on a slow building of dread and atmosphere rather than jump scares and gore. I watch a fair few horror movies, and even I found myself extremely uncomfortable and with a very elevated heartbeat at some points during the film.
However I'm imagining mileage may vary for different people, as I spoke to my brother who had also seen it and he said he was not scared by it at all, as well as feeling annoyed and uncomfortable rather than affected by the building of dead throughout the film.

I saw The Witch with my dad a couple months ago! I think I'm between you and your brother - went into it expecting The Scariest Movie, so that's a lot to live up to, but I totally agree that it was super effective at making you tense as hell. The one bloody scene in the beginning sets you on edge for the rest of the movie, and the whole thing seems so real. It was also gorgeously shot and directed and the music was wonderful.

One of my friends looks like the dad (Ralph Ineson) and I couldn't stop thinking about it the whole time.

Kimra wrote:Terminator 1 and 2 are two of my most favourite movies in the world. Any Terminator movie that happens after them I ignore. I'm struggling with the idea that Genisys could be anywhere near as good as them.

Fair enough. I do recommend you give it a go, though I wouldn't say you'll like it as much as those if they are your faves. But the story kind of runs as a parallel universe to T1 at one point, with a few references/throwbacks that I thought were done just superbly. So you might at least get a kick out of that.

Lethal Interjection wrote:Fair enough. I do recommend you give it a go, though I wouldn't say you'll like it as much as those if they are your faves. But the story kind of runs as a parallel universe to T1 at one point, with a few references/throwbacks that I thought were done just superbly. So you might at least get a kick out of that.

I managed to sit through the third terminator movie, and one day I will watch the Christian Bale one and then Genesis... but it's not very high up on the list of things I need to watch so it'll be a while. But I do have a vague plan to watch them one day. (You're recommendation kicked it a little higher on the list, I'll admit.)

Kimra wrote:

Lethal Interjection wrote:Fair enough. I do recommend you give it a go, though I wouldn't say you'll like it as much as those if they are your faves. But the story kind of runs as a parallel universe to T1 at one point, with a few references/throwbacks that I thought were done just superbly. So you might at least get a kick out of that.

I managed to sit through the third terminator movie, and one day I will watch the Christian Bale one and then Genesis... but it's not very high up on the list of things I need to watch so it'll be a while. But I do have a vague plan to watch them one day. (You're recommendation kicked it a little higher on the list, I'll admit.)

I'd recommend the Christian Bale one more strongly, as I did really like it, but it mostly feels like a stand-alone film within the Terminator universe. Time-travel is only important as an aspect of character development. So for someone who has an admiration for 1 and 2, it's not exactly required viewing.