Review of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) by Reece L — 10 May 2015

Not only does Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome take place 15 years after Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) and 20 years after the original Mad Max (1979), the entire tone and structure is different as opposed to its much bleaker siblings. Having little violence - possibly as sign of respect to the death of co-creator Byron Kennedy a couple of years prior to Beyond Thunderdome - or even to appeal to a wider demographic at the time of release, much of the movie hinges on campy storytelling and characters.

And for all intents and purposes, Tina Turner shows up as Aunty Entity, the hilariously costumed leader of Bartertown, a makeshift town that is powered by methane produced from pig feces. As the town relies on barter trade for operation, Max - ever the soldier of fortune - offers himself in service to Aunty Entity in exchange for his belongings, which the thief had bartered to the town. This begins a series of events which is littered by implied violence but never directly shown due to the PG-13 rating, with Max eventually entering the weird Peter Pan-esque second half of Beyond Thunderdome.

Beyond Thunderdome is, well, beyond understanding. Intentionally weird, especially for fans of the Mad Max series, it goes against what its predecessors had set up. Those expecting a much more violent Wasteland after The Road Warrior's insanity are in for a surprise, as there is none of that in exchange for more fantasy and comedic themed elements in the latter's place, which ranges from the Aunty Entity to the madcap extras which would make anyone sane raise their eyebrows in perplexity, even more so after seeing the extras in The Road Warrior.

For some odd reason, Max is now a much softer individual despite roaming the now completely desolate, harsh and barren Australia for the last 15 years. This change in creative direction for the character has Mel Gibson showing another side of him as an actor in an attempt to display the 'delicate' side of Max Rockatansky as he attempts to talk his way out of problems instead of resorting to repeatedly shooting off faces with his sawn-off shotgun as he does in The Road Warrior. With a PG-13 rating and a second act that is focused entirely on a group of children living in isolation, this move by George Miller makes sense and Beyond Thunderdome remains a good movie despite the jarring departure from its predecessors.