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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Mad Max /Fury Road

Took an nearly 80 year old freind to see it Vmax in 3D on a good field of view, he loved it and even tried to pluck the steering wheel out of the air. Fortunately I advised him to bring ear plugs.

This might be the best film of its type and from that his best Mad Max film. I liked it but found it unrealistic. It was different from what I expected, but still a filmicly quality story. Pity it moved to South Africa but great landscapes.
 
George Miller walks in the room, says, "Alright boys, you've had your fun. Now stand aside, let me show you how it's done". The grandaddy of action flicks.
 
I must be too easygoing or too uncritical. I found the 3D version fine, except maybe one shot in the early stages in which people looked a bit paper cutout flat, no worse than in Avatar.

I carefully pick my viewer position though, about three or four seats to right-of-centre to balance the around about -5db hearing loss on my right side and for best natural field-of-view to about three-quarters of the screen which brings a bit of peripheral vision into the mix. This may degrade the experience for some but works for me.

Interestingly, the audience in the mid-afternoon session I attended was comprised mostly of wrinklies - as in my older age. They would of course have been engaged by the first three Mad Max films.
 
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He, he Rome. Waiting to see it, but the series is known for its wide shots, they were said to be attractive to Japanese audiences in the 1980's I think, and the characters (the mad ones), look like the typical old style Australian fair used in the previouse two films. They are just like some of the real people you see in the capital cities but put in a costume (we hope) and told to act mad. Actually if you look at American 1980's movies you can see American versions. I think the RoboCop and police academy movies used them. The other ones I'll have to see, but after 12 years I'm hoping this film will be a triumph. Visually it looks stunning and the its a good day to die shows what he was aiming for. It is just a pity that this wasn't a Mel Gibson swan song where Maxeets his end.

Re-edit: I forgot, if you look at Sam Newman's Street Talk on the Footy Show (AFL version) you can see him interviewing some of these city folk that mad Max characters were like. Having lived in Victoria I can say it is incredible the amount of lower intelligence you find around. It is even like intellectuals live in a murky haze.

Awesome insight Wayne...I love the Police Academy movies (I tried so hard to be the sound effects guy as a kid lol!)...I do wish Hardy had more of a speaking role though...but I understand why it couldn't be that type of role right now...he's one of my favorite actors and isn't afraid to hide his face if the scene calls for it (I've heard some actors demand face time, but as Bane, he ripped it! and I can't imagine another actor laying that part). Oh fyi, I CAN do a mean Bane impression =)

Thanks for the info!
 
For me, the Road Warrior is still the best film of the lot.

As much as I appreciate the masterful filmmaking, many shots looked green screened after the colouring process.
 
I can't even remember Mad Max 2 (Road warrior) but yeah, it was cool.

Rome. Unfortunately the characters proved to be slightly more intellectual than I anticipated. Police Academy was pretty well done. I.understand they are doing a new one with crowd funding. We can only hope the wild red head one is captain of his own Police District by now (that would be fun :)
 
Enjoyed the film, loved the cinematography, stunts, and car design. Was not impressed by CG flame throwers. Still prefer the 1st two of the series (not a fan of "Beyond Thunderdome")
Hat's off to Charlize Theron for creating a memorable female action character, every bit at tough as Sigourney Weaver's 'Ripley' from the Alien(s) films.

I'd like to comment on Thomas Hardy but there wasn't enough Max in this Mad Max film for me. Maybe in the next one.

BTW, that was an amazing color grade, and I kind of like the 90's era "blue for night" look.
 
Ha, ha Bill, he was more the swinging from the hood of a car thinking everybody else is mad, Max. :)
 
Wow, what a landmark film! Loved every second of it. What a testament to strong character development being enough to carry a film and give it depth. Something that has annoyed me for a number of years now is that film makers keep trying to add more and more complexity to their story (I'm look at you pirates of the Caribbean 3) in order to give the illusion of depth but usually what happens is that it just gets out of hand and loses focus. Mad Max just gives 3 characters 3 simple conflicting goals and pulls the trigger. The only thing I didn't completely love was *Spoilers*:
Them turning around and going back the way they came. It made sense for the story, it just was a case Halo-itis where you play a level and then the next level is you playing it backwards. Thankfully it was extremely brief and well motivated (however how did they rebuild that rock arch so fast?).
Ps now having seen it a 2nd time it appears the under cranking was only used at the start because I didn't notice it in the later scenes.
There's a pretty iconic undercranked shot later in the film too when the camera cranes down and then is run over by the caravan. It looks like it was shot around 4-5 fps. Quite a bit of mild undercranking in the later fight sequences too it just looks like he went with something in the 20+ fps range and wasn't as in your face as the beginning.
 
Was not impressed by CG flame throwers.
https://youtu.be/U9kK-CbqH0k?t=7m16s

The movie was packed full of CG. I chuckle at everyone who says "See movies are so much better without a lot of CG!" But the flame throwers? It's bad enough we get blamed for every bad camera move chosen by a director but now we're getting blamed for the practical effects too? :D

http://www.mtv.com/news/2161513/mad-max-fury-road-guitar-player-doof-warrior-colin-gibson/

Also a bit off topic but if anyone ever gets the opportunity to go to a Rammstein concert... go. Even if you don't care for the music go. They're all amazing.
http://www.captaintravel.ro/!res/fls/img_0350_1.jpg
 
In case you wondering, the practical effects of the movie carried over to the guitar — it actually shot flames. "...it was gas and it was controlled by the whammy bar," the performer told Noisey. Damn. Though he adds, perhaps not surprisingly, "...it wasn’t a great guitar. It spent a lot of time out in the desert, you wouldn’t want to record with it."

Google a little bit about the movie. If you knew anything about Miller, you wouldn't be surprised.

Nick
 
Ha, ha. They expect Australians to make a film like that with lots of CG flame throwers :). It's not a cartoon (just looks like one).

Gavin, were you being sarcastic, strong characters maybe rather then strong character development. We got one leads that decides eventually not to kill the other lead because he is not such a bad guy, and the male lead eventually decides not to leave them all to die as he becomes more sensitive. The amature war boy he probably saw the most development as his self belief was questioned and he changed his belief in others. It was just organised fast paced mayhem. Avengers saw more character development (note to George, keep it up don't get bogged down in long slow scenes of character development, but make sure non lead characters don't sound like they rehearsed one week for a stage production, all colloquial style).
 
What an awesome ride of a movie!!

That said, my showing looked MASSIVELY oversharpened. Like someone "unsharp masked" the whole thing too much. I saw a 2K Digital projection, anyone else notice or was it just my theater?

Saw it today in 4K, sat in the 5th row and it did look way oversharpened at the start, but my eyes adjusted to it about halfway through. It was really noticeable on wide shots, and there was especially bad aliasing on edges on parked cars fenders/exhaust pipes when the highlights were blown out.

Halfway through the movie there was a quick crash cam shot POV from a pile of boulders that I swear looked like SD upscaled to 4K.

All that said, it's a hell of an old school action flick and the creature design, make up effects, costumes, and art direction are next level cool. Not to mention the incredible stunts. There is so much awesome happening that I'll let the Benny Hill chase sequence and cringeworthy expositional scenes slide.
 
In case you wondering, the practical effects of the movie carried over to the guitar — it actually shot flames. "...it was gas and it was controlled by the whammy bar," the performer told Noisey. Damn. Though he adds, perhaps not surprisingly, "...it wasn’t a great guitar. It spent a lot of time out in the desert, you wouldn’t want to record with it."

Google a little bit about the movie. If you knew anything about Miller, you wouldn't be surprised.

Nick

Thanks for the update, Nick.
No one else noticed a few shots that felt like CG, just me?
I've been wrong before.

After watching the 2 hour John Seale interview, sounds like exposures were all over the map, and Miller did the color grade, so it's possible things went a little wonky in the grade.
 
Saw it today in 4K, sat in the 5th row and it did look way oversharpened at the start, but my eyes adjusted to it about halfway through. It was really noticeable on wide shots, and there was especially bad aliasing on edges on parked cars fenders/exhaust pipes when the highlights were blown out.

Halfway through the movie there was a quick crash cam shot POV from a pile of boulders that I swear looked like SD upscaled to 4K.

All that said, it's a hell of an old school action flick and the creature design, make up effects, costumes, and art direction are next level cool. Not to mention the incredible stunts. There is so much awesome happening that I'll let the Benny Hill chase sequence and cringeworthy expositional scenes slide.


Hey Doug, keep in mind they used 4 or 5 5Ds as additional angles to their Alexas.
 
Couldn't help but think about this scene during the tinted blue night shots


Hey Doug, keep in mind they used 4 or 5 5Ds as additional angles to their Alexas.

They must have used a wide angle on a 5D and really cropped in. It was only one shot and the rest of the 5D footage cut in rather seamlessly with Alexa stuff.
 
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