Review of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) by Liam C — 19 Apr 2015

'Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome' is a very odd sequel that takes our character in a very different direction. Miller lost interest in the project and only handled the action sequences in this film because of what happened to one of his friends, who is remembered at the end, and that might explain why the story is just so different in this film but even so, he co-wrote and co-directed it as well. The film is very much a tale of two halves but they actually manage to connect with one another, which I liked and, overall, thought it was pretty good. The world building continues to grow and we see just how much everything is continuing to change. Everything else is still as excellent as ever, the visuals and music are great and Tina Turner has a song because of course and the action still sizzles, when it actually gets to it, though; at about an hour and twenty minutes in we see a huge barrage of cars chase after Max and that made me smile quite a lot. It's not that I dislike films that aren't full of action; and this film does have some good action in the start of the film as well, it's just odd for a series renowned for its stunt work for it to be gone completely, pretty much, in this film.

The only problem I had with the children plot point is that I didn't really understand why Max cared so much, you could argue that he is finding humility but that seems to go against what his character has become, somewhat. You could argue that he helped in the previous film but that was just because he got something out of it, however, the way the scene in the Thunderdome ended fits his character well and was an excellent moment. The Thunderdome fight sequence is really fun to watch and the way that they fight is interesting also, even if I did expect it to look a little bigger and, for some reason, look like the fight scene in 'Escape from New York'. One thing I found odd was the addition of Bruce Spencer, we see him in the first few minutes in a more advanced flying machine so I wondered if he would be playing the same character or something but then we don't see him again for a while and then twice later on I thought Max recognised him but he didn't and overall he was in the film for a grand total of probably less than five minutes, it was just strange. I thought it would be like David Warner from 'Star Trek V' and 'VI' where he appeared in both but played very different characters but, no, it's still odd. I thought they could have added some humour in as well when they are doing the Thunderdome chant, like, someone doesn't finish when everyone else does, something like that. They call him the 'Man with No Name' and this film is a good, albeit, different story to tell with Max and there are a lot of very interesting things to read about how all of the films were made but overall, seeing another story about Max is never a bad thing and this is still a great film and it'd be almost impossible to top the last film, so that's probably another reason why they didn't even try and it's rare to find a trilogy of films where all three films are highly regarded. Whether or not it is considered the high point or the low point of the trilogy, just look at that audience score, 'Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome' is a solid film and a great send off to this iconic character.