I'm never quite sure where this film stands with fans. It remains well known but doesn't seem to be as beloved.
It is a lot more Hollywood, with more gags, a lighter feel. Angry Anderson's bodyguard is cartoony. Tina Turner rock plays on the opening soundtrack, not booming Brian May. There's lots more saxophone - mind you Mad max's wife played that in the first film.
It reprises stuff from the earlier films: Bruce Spence in a plane (different character, has a kid, but still in a plane), some of the outfits, feral kids, man with Down Syndrome.
But it also does try to deepen the mythology: there's Bartertown (fabulous), run by Tina Turner (great) in conjunction with Master-Blaster. The Thunderdome sequence is electric. (Though are we went to have that much sympathy for Blaster who has been killing people and tried to smash Max's head off like ten seconds earlier?)
There's some marvellous hams on display, notably Frank Thring, little person Angelo Rossitto and Ted Hodgeman as the MC of Thunderdome. Hodgemen is heaps of fun - he should've been used more in Oz cinema.
A lot of familiar TV faces like Mark Kounnas, Mark Spain, Justine Clarke, Adam Wilits, Rod Zuanic, Rebekah Elmaloglou, Tom Jennings. The kids make it seem like a Steven Spielberg film - there's more wacky gags, Angry Anderson as Will-e-Coyote, Max is kinder and less selfish. And there's actually not much wrong with that. At least it's different.
The big flaw is structural. After Max is sent to gulag he just sort of stumbles along, finds these kids, some kids run away and Max goes to get them. Then they sort of stumble into Bartertown and decide to capture Master and it leads to a chase, but they have no idea of where they're going, they just head on the train tracks til it runs out and they're only saved via luck (running into Bruce Spence).
I think this could've easily been fixed. After seeing Max free Auntie could have chased after him to kill him, so when the kids find Max she finds them and goes "great a new slave population" so now Max has to lead all the kids to safety and he figures "the only way to do that is grab Master" so he heads back to Bartertown... which actually isn't that different to Mad Max Fury Road. Anyway, that's my two cents.
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