Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

[explorer6]

That fast action style is partly inspired by Japanese motion picture/animation, i think.

Miller cited "Akira" specifically as having inspiration on what he wanted to do with the movie.

I haven't watched as much Japanese stuff as i use to but i use to be way into it and i've seen similar styles in a variety of things with the faster cuts and faster action except it's typically slow then fast action or reversed rather than fast and faster throughout.

Maybe something like "Run Lola Run" as well? I haven't seen that in a long time but i remember continuous "fast action", i can't remember if it was sped up to those levels though like seen here.

I'm noticing it a little more in western based movies [John Wick/Winter Soldier, etc] which i welcome with open arms, i'm a fan of that faster style as basic regular paced action scenes over and over tend to bore me.

I read that it was stated around 80 percent of the stunts and action wasn't done with CGI which shocked me, i thought most of it was CGI after watching.

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by explorer6

That fast action style is partly inspired by Japanese motion picture/animation, i think.

Miller cited "Akira" specifically as having inspiration on what he wanted to do with the movie.

I haven't watched as much Japanese stuff as i used to but i use to be way into it and i've seen similar styles in a variety of things with the faster cuts and faster action except it's typically slow then fast action or reversed rather than fast and faster throughout.

Maybe something like "Run Lola Run" as well? I haven't seen that in a long time but i remember continuous "fast action", i can't remember if it was sped up to those levels though like seen here.

I'm noticing it a little more in western based movies [John Wick/Winter Soldier, etc] which i welcome with open arms, i'm a fan of that faster style as basic regular paced action scenes over and over tend to bore me.

I read that it was stated around 80 percent of the stunts and action wasn't done with CGI which shocked me, i thought most of it was CGI after watching.

Some of the bonus features have some really good "raw" footage of what was being shot. One thing that really floored me was that GIGANTIC explosion of the people eater's car was real (though combined with a shot of the surrounding cars, for obvious reasons!!). That's one of the most outrageous looking explosions ever, the tendrils that come off it are great.

[explorer6]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

Some of the bonus features have some really good "raw" footage of what was being shot. One thing that really floored me was that GIGANTIC explosion of the people eater's car was real (though combined with a shot of the surrounding cars, for obvious reasons!!). That's one of the most outrageous looking explosions ever, the tendrils that come off it are great.

Daaaang. That's crazy. If i didn't read that or it wasn't seen on special features i would've sworn up and down it was green screen/CGI. What a talented crew working on the movie!! To pull all of that off is something else.

[poke smot]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I had no idea that Lenny Kravitz had such a hot daughter.

...Zoe Kravitz is one of the most beautiful women in the world imo.

you didnt see her in xmen first class? she played angel. i didnt know she was lenny kravitzs' daughter until i watched the extras on fury road.

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by poke smot

you didnt see her in xmen first class? she played angel. i didnt know she was lenny kravitzs' daughter until i watched the extras on fury road.

Ugh, I didn't know that. That was the worst character in the movie by far!

[whitestang06]

Originally Posted by poke smot

you didnt see her in xmen first class? she played angel. i didnt know she was lenny kravitzs' daughter until i watched the extras on fury road.

Elvis Presley's granddaughter is the movie, as well. Wonder if that was an intentional trend? The hot kids of musicians.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2142336/?ref_=tt_cl_t9

[explorer6]

Originally Posted by poke smot

you didnt see her in xmen first class? she played angel. i didnt know she was lenny kravitzs' daughter until i watched the extras on fury road.

Yeah, she's Lenny Kravitz's daughter she was also in the Divergent series... and the cute red head is i think Elvis Presley's great grand daughter? I'm bad with lineage lol. Lisa Marie Presley's daughter.

The poster above beat me to it.

Was she the red head or nah?

[cakefactory]

The shot I meant was the one right AFTER Nux sees her vehicle through the window. There's also a VERY short shot that's actually his POV and is similar. Here's pictures. That whole scene is a work of art though, many more gratuitous screenshots in the spoiler!

[Show spoiler]

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by poke smot

you didnt see her in xmen first class? she played angel. i didnt know she was lenny kravitzs' daughter until i watched the extras on fury road.

She looks better in Mad Max than in anything else I've seen her in.

...she's simply stunning in this movie.

[Arawn]

Originally Posted by explorer6

Miller cited "Akira" specifically as having inspiration on what he wanted to do with the movie.

I don't think I get the connection.

If anything I feel like an obvious influence was Conan the Barbarian.

[Thomas Guycott]

Originally Posted by Arawn

I don't think I get the connection.

Composition of chase sequences.

[levcore]

Great screengrabs up there, i agree the storm sequence is amazing. Since i've got my blu on Friday i've had the urge to watch it every evening and i'm fighting the temptation to watch it again later on, it's just that kind of movie where i am desperate to get back into the world.

[Will.]

Originally Posted by levcore

Great screengrabs up there, i agree the storm sequence is amazing. Since i've got my blu on Friday i've had the urge to watch it every evening and i'm fighting the temptation to watch it again later on, it's just that kind of movie where i am desperate to get back into the world.

I'm with you. I'm scared to watch it too often in case I get tired of it, but the more I watch it the more I realize that's not gonna happen.

[poke smot]

Originally Posted by levcore

Great screengrabs up there, i agree the storm sequence is amazing. Since i've got my blu on Friday i've had the urge to watch it every evening and i'm fighting the temptation to watch it again later on, it's just that kind of movie where i am desperate to get back into the world.

I broke down and bought the 4 part comic book. The stories are prequels and the first one was good. Fills in all kinds of details, but I kind of like not knowing so much about the characters. Anyway it got me back into the wateland.

[Geoff D]

FINALLY seen this. Amazing piece of action cinema, absolutely amazing.

Couple of things: by the way that people kept banging on about practical SFX and this and that, colour me surprised when the movie I just saw has been digitally manipulated up the wazoo. I haven't seen that much CG in a major action blockbuster since, well, the last major action blockbuster that I saw. Is there some excellent practical stuff in there? ABSOLUTELY, I'm not saying that there isn't any, but there's also sooooo much digital trickery going on and much of it stood out like a sore thumb to me.

Second of all: that ****ed up frame rate, now I know what people were on about. It's not simple old-fashioned speed ramping because it also happens on dialogue scenes or wider shots, if anything the action itself is smoother because of the rapid cutting! I had no problem following the Max/Furiosa fight but when people simply walk across screen and their movement is so jerky it looks like every other frame is missing it's kinda distracting. What a weird thing to do.

Incredible film though, I think I'll try watching it in black and white next. You can see certain bits where Miller's really pushing the monochrome effect, like the all-blue night shots (how good does ye olde 'day for night' look there? Superb) or the lightning flashes in the sandstorm.

[DGilberts]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

FINALLY seen this. Amazing piece of action cinema, absolutely amazing.

Couple of things: by the way that people kept banging on about practical SFX and this and that, colour me surprised when the movie I just saw has been digitally manipulated up the wazoo. I haven't seen that much CG in a major action blockbuster since, well, the last major action blockbuster that I saw. Is there some excellent practical stuff in there? ABSOLUTELY, I'm not saying that there isn't any, but there's also sooooo much digital trickery going on and much of it stood out like a sore thumb to me.

Second of all: that ****ed up frame rate, now I know what people were on about. It's not simple old-fashioned speed ramping because it also happens on dialogue scenes or wider shots, if anything the action itself is smoother because of the rapid cutting! I had no problem following the Max/Furiosa fight but when people simply walk across screen and their movement is so jerky it looks like every other frame is missing it's kinda distracting. What a weird thing to do.

Incredible film though, I think I'll try watching it in black and white next. You can see certain bits where Miller's really pushing the monochrome effect, like the all-blue night shots (how good does ye olde 'day for night' look there? Superb) or the lightning flashes in the sandstorm.

Yes for sure the colours are heavily manipulated but it's far better than watching most of these action movies that just look like computer games! (Avengers cough cough, but I also love it).

I was the same throughout my first viewing. I was like what the hell is going on, is my player or TV having issues? But the second time of watching was far easier and enjoyable.

[Geoff D]

I didn't mind the colour at all mate! At least we know this movie is SUPPOSED to be teal and orange with those gorgeous blue night scenes, but seeing as Miller's also been talking about a B&W version I think it'll be fun to try at home.

I've got the German Blu-ray, pity there's some banding in a couple of shots, whereas Ken gave the US BD top marks. The US disc isn't the same as the German one either as the latter is a country-specific disc which includes German Atmos as well as English Atmos. Very unusual for Warners that, though I'm guessing that Atmos takes up so much room on the disc that they're having to abandon their policy of 'one size fits all' because there's simply not enough room left over to cram on loads of foreign tracks.

(Yes, Gravity had tons of extra audio tracks + Atmos but that was because Warners lowballed the 2D encode to begin with a couple years back, whereas newer releases seem to have better video bitrates.)

[StingingVelvet]

I think people like myself just dislike it when CGI looks like animation. Nothing in Fury Road made me think I was watching a cartoon or animated feature, whereas a ton of shots in Jurassic World made me feel that way. I'm not film-genius enough to explain why that is, but my gut instinct is that it has to do with balancing CGI with practical effects as well as using practical stuff for closeups and human interaction.

[Geoff D]

For me it's more the tell-tale signs of something having been composited together, e.g. the lighting doesn't quite match, the motion blur looks funky (separate from the choppy frame rate mentioned earlier), edges around people and objects have that characteristic smoothness where they've been rotoscoped in, people's faces carry the tinge of the greenscreen etc.

Do not get me wrong, this stuff is MUCH better than ye olde days of photochemical compositing but I can still see the joins. And because people couldn't do, say, 2000 shots using those old-school techniques (being far too clunky and time consuming and impractical) they got as much as they possibly could in camera before reverting to VFX, so you only got those artefacts (much the same as what I've outlined above) for a select few shots. Now, it seems like every damned shot in the average blockbuster these days has some sort of digital tomfoolery and I don't likes it, no sir. Sure, when you get an absolute perfectionist like David Fincher even I can't see the joins, but most blockbusters simply don't get that level of scrutiny afforded to them.

Anyhoo, I just watched the film again and the compositing seemed to stand out less this time, though if we're talking CG animation then the Citadel scenes and the sandstorm still looked wholly digital to me. It's an amazing ride of a film - Miller's technique of lining up the most important action in the middle of the frame allows the editing to reach a furious pace but you NEVER lose your sense of what's going on - but I just don't get all this fawning over the practical stuff in it because there's also enough ones and zeroes here to make George Lucas proud.

[dallywhitty]

I see what you're saying. It says a lot about how CGI-heavy today's blockbusters are when a film like Fury Road (which is still very reliant on computer effects) is heralded for being 'authentic looking'. I love the film, don't get me wrong, but I wasn't really wowed by the visual style the way everybody else was. Everything just looked a bit... off.