Saw Mad Max 4.
Meh…. very marginal thumbs up.
I think the screenplay needed a few more runs through the typewriter. Can anyone tell me what the Charlize Theron character’s motivation was? She wanted to get back to “green world” or whatever after she’s climbed the ranks to be a bad ass commander? Really? What was going on with the “gas” town and some other town that were trading partners with the “water” town? Etc etc…. Not to mention for a world supposedly short on gas they seem to be using A LOT of gas. Plus the grannies on bikes was slapstick dumb. No reason for it. Also the ending was… well a non-ending. I guess it’s a set up for the next movie. But I don’t really care, for the fact is this movie is basically a reboot that negates all the other films but the first one narrative wise.
That all being said, I did like the action. No question it was well done. The bad guys were original if their motivations/originations were incomprehensible/unexplained.
I think George Miller flirted with the “George Lucas Syndrome” of losing control/sight of the underlying story when a director finally gets enough money to cram in every special effect/crazy character he’s always dreamed about. Also one gets the impression he was reaching too far to try to out do his prior work. The Road Warrior kicked ass from beginning to end–real people, real cars, real stunts. Thunderdome was a true mixed bag with the Barter Town stuff being great but the saving the kids stuff nose diving the film. The first film is a little more hard to quantify given it still had one foot in the civilized world.
I think this one ranks in between Thunderdome (the worst) and the first and second.