What a lovely revisit…

Okay, I know I promised myself I’d be making more posts about the Kickstarter experience while it’s still fresh in mind, but I feel this is more urgent. A public service message, even.

If you haven’t yet gotten out to a theater to see Mad Max: Fury Road, go. Go before you miss the opportunity.

I rarely feel the need to see movies on first release anymore, even big budget spectaculars. I’m old and don’t have a lot of disposable income, and can wait until a flick comes around on cable or Netflix or such and just watch at home. Even the thought of a new entry in the Mad Max pantheon, a franchise that is arguably one of the largest looming influences of all modern post-apocalyptic fiction, much less cinema, wasn’t enough to get my blood stirring overmuch. Even knowing it was being helmed and directed by its original overseer, George Miller, met with mixed feelings in my soul. I’d been hurt on that score before.

I remember still being dubious on watching a first trailer and hearing rumors of those twin demons bedeviling modern blockbusters: over-reliance on CGI and a PG-13 rating. It wasn’t until the second trailer released at the end of March that I began to dare to hope. Somewhere along the line as well, both the CGI and PG-13 rumors were dispelled. As a huge fan of the sort of grandiose, imaginative insanity George Miller injected into his earlier visits to Max’s world, I had already decided at that point I was in. Then the positive reviews began rolling in, and they haven’t stopped, even from sources you wouldn’t expect. I suppose one of the best ways to illustrate how widespread the appeal of the film is would be to direct you to the fact that this is a film receiving glowing, in-depth praise from both Chud.com and The New Yorker.

I am here to tell you it deserves every precious, precious drop of that praise. I am here to tell you that, even though between March 31st and my first viewing last week I consumed just about every piece of preview and behind-the-scenes footage I could get my hands on (and there was a lot), even though I devoured the early reviews, I still found myself shocked, surprised, and thrilled beyond my wildest expectations. Now that I’ve seen it, I can’t stop thinking about it, talking about it, even analyzing it. Yes, analyzing a film where a mutant in a red onesie is bungee strapped to a giant truck made of speakers, shredding on a guitar which is also a flamethrower. This is what George Miller’s peculiar alchemy did to me back in the day, and this is what he’s done again. This is a movie that sears itself onto your ears and eyeballs, but also spikes deep into your brain, even if you may not realize it right away.

There is so much out there already about what an unexpectedly positive piece the film is in terms of its women characters, I won’t mention it again here, except to say that I’ve convinced my mild-mannered mom to go see it with me this Friday. I don’t know how she’ll react, honestly, but hey, at least one woman of her age has given a thumbs up. For an ‘R’ rated movie it’s actually quite tame, and I think it was more just for the convenience of George Miller not wanting an often clueless and frustratingly arbitrary MPAA board dictating to him what he could and couldn’t do.

My dad didn’t need any convincing, he just had to hear “car chase”… but honestly, it’s so much more than that, and that’s why I’m also in for a second go. Even twice won’t likely be enough, but it might at least tide me over until the Blu-Ray release.

If there’s any movie to gleefully throw money at in 2015, it’s this one. It delivers. If you find it didn’t deliver, see the previous sentence. Just see.

P.S. the flamethrower guitar in the movie is a real thing that works. So are every last one of the insane vehicles. What a lovely day.