cognitron
Joined Jun 2014
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I watched Fury Road and Avengers 2 within a week of each other, and the difference was like night and day. Fury Road is an exemplar of what action movies ought to be like, and Avengers 2 is an exemplar of what they're like instead. I'd written off action movies completely because of the trend toward roller-coaster-ride visual spectacles with huge displays of senseless violence and asinine plots. I'm glad I took a chance on Fury Road, because I got the exact opposite.
The balance of show and tell in Fury Road is just about perfect. Miller does a fantastic job as always portraying a lived-in world where we don't need to have the intricacies explained to us in order to make sense of them. The plot is a bit thin, but it's also straightforward and makes sense. Max, the titular wanderer, blows into town just as he did in Mad Max 2 and 3, bringing just enough motivation to get him embroiled in the sympathetic-group-of-the-week's struggles with the villain-of-the-week. Anyone who thinks Max's role in this was too small ought to consider it in the context of the formula established by the earlier movies.
Where most contemporary action movies rest on spectacle, however, Fury Road takes its cue from the better action movies of the seventies and eighties. Spectacle is certainly an important element of the movie, but every blow matters; every fight carries a serious risk of wounding or killing a character or causing permanent damage to the escaping "war rig" the action centers on. The villain's forces are visibly depleted over the course of the movie, in stark contrast to the endless waves of throwaway henchmen in movies such as Avengers 2. Where we've been trained to accept thrown-together plots that simply give a context to action scenes, Fury Road gives us a plot completely interwoven with the action scenes that drive it.
The practical effects were a breath of fresh air from an industry infatuated with CGI, the visual design was imaginative and entertaining, and the actors fit their roles wonderfully, but all of those factors are simply bonuses. The real strength of Fury Road is that it shows that action movies do not have to be monotonous, you do not have to turn your brain off to enjoy a good action movie, and it is not nitpicking to criticize the plot of a summer blockbuster. Fury Road is what action movies ought to be like, and we do not have to accept what we've been shoveled instead for the past two decades.
(As an aside, apparently some people didn't like the movie because they perceived the message as feminist. Some other people say, "you're wrong; it's not feminist at all, and therefore it's acceptable." I'm not going to bother addressing that point, because if you avoid watching movies because they might promote equality between the sexes, then you and I have no common ground.)
The balance of show and tell in Fury Road is just about perfect. Miller does a fantastic job as always portraying a lived-in world where we don't need to have the intricacies explained to us in order to make sense of them. The plot is a bit thin, but it's also straightforward and makes sense. Max, the titular wanderer, blows into town just as he did in Mad Max 2 and 3, bringing just enough motivation to get him embroiled in the sympathetic-group-of-the-week's struggles with the villain-of-the-week. Anyone who thinks Max's role in this was too small ought to consider it in the context of the formula established by the earlier movies.
Where most contemporary action movies rest on spectacle, however, Fury Road takes its cue from the better action movies of the seventies and eighties. Spectacle is certainly an important element of the movie, but every blow matters; every fight carries a serious risk of wounding or killing a character or causing permanent damage to the escaping "war rig" the action centers on. The villain's forces are visibly depleted over the course of the movie, in stark contrast to the endless waves of throwaway henchmen in movies such as Avengers 2. Where we've been trained to accept thrown-together plots that simply give a context to action scenes, Fury Road gives us a plot completely interwoven with the action scenes that drive it.
The practical effects were a breath of fresh air from an industry infatuated with CGI, the visual design was imaginative and entertaining, and the actors fit their roles wonderfully, but all of those factors are simply bonuses. The real strength of Fury Road is that it shows that action movies do not have to be monotonous, you do not have to turn your brain off to enjoy a good action movie, and it is not nitpicking to criticize the plot of a summer blockbuster. Fury Road is what action movies ought to be like, and we do not have to accept what we've been shoveled instead for the past two decades.
(As an aside, apparently some people didn't like the movie because they perceived the message as feminist. Some other people say, "you're wrong; it's not feminist at all, and therefore it's acceptable." I'm not going to bother addressing that point, because if you avoid watching movies because they might promote equality between the sexes, then you and I have no common ground.)
Avengers 2: Age of Ultron is a two-and-a-half-hour light and sound show with something resembling a plot. A lot of CGI robots get beat up, with no lasting effects on anything. Black Widow and Hulk have been ordered by the screenwriter to have a relationship, and they dutifully comply. Alan Shore from Boston Legal has robot lips and says a bunch of awful one-liners. Actually, everybody says a bunch of awful one-liners. Teamwork is the only way to save the day from whatever, and even though they've all been through this before, they decide to stop working as a team, in order to keep the movie going. Iron Man and the Hulk punch each other forever in a CGI sequence that could have been over in two minutes for all the effect it has on the plot. An establishing shot of the previous shot's location happens about halfway through the movie to allow for commercial breaks, just in case cable still exists by the time this movie leaves theaters.
As a light-and-sound show, Avengers 2: Age of Ultron is acceptable. I did not feel too bored looking at the screen for two and a half hours, and sometimes, I would see something on the screen that will probably make a pretty cool toy for someone who is into that. Me, I'd spend that money watching Fury Road again instead.
As a light-and-sound show, Avengers 2: Age of Ultron is acceptable. I did not feel too bored looking at the screen for two and a half hours, and sometimes, I would see something on the screen that will probably make a pretty cool toy for someone who is into that. Me, I'd spend that money watching Fury Road again instead.