Marval Movie

"It's not suppose to happen this way. Sequels are not suppose to be better than the movies that inspired them. The third movie in a series isn't suppose to create a world more complex, more visionary and more entertaining than the first two. Sequels are suppose to be creative voids."
- Roger Ebert, his review for Beyond Thunderdome

Through the watching of the Mad Max movies you can see the refinement and increasing fulfillment of the vision that George Miller has for this dystopian, but very colorful world.

The movie picks up over a vast barren desert where a crazed pilot played by Bruce Spence (who may or may not be the same character from Road Warrior) spots a lone caravan crossing the wasteland. He shoots down the rider so he and his son are able to take the caravan for themselves. The driver is Max (Mel Gibson) finding himself in another predicament (even sporting a mullet!). He makes it to Bartertown, a seedy rag-tag community formed through greed, trading, and cut-throatery. It is built on trading, Max has lost everything, therefore, has nothing to trade, except his own physical fighting skills.

Once again this leads Max to get wrapped up in things that he would much rather avoid if he could but chance and dumb-luck force him to become entwined in other peoples stories. He is taken to the queen of Bartertown, the crazed and ruling Aunty Entity played by rock-star Tina Turner.

Tina Turner is quite good as this larger than life character. She is able to channel her stage presence and project to a whole crowd of people. It's understandable how they all gravitate towards her leadership.

This is clearly the biggest movie in the franchise (at the time). This has the most images going on at one time, the largest cast of characters and most plot points.

Eventually, things in Baretertown go badly for Max so he is exiled to the wasteland. He almost dies but is saved by a group of children that think he is the one to save them. They are like the Lost Boys of Peter Pan, living in an Oasis. This shows what has happened to the youth of this world and expands it to give us new imagery. We also get some creatively written obrolan about how these children misinterpret how to speak and put sentences together.

This has the most obrolan of all the Max movies. That's OK because it still has the bold imagery, moments of silence and is the longest movie. However, what helps it is its memorable dialog. These are punchy, witty lines that are the kinds of things that people would have written on T-shirts. Lines like "Master Blaster", "Bust a deal, face the wheel ", "Death is listening and will take the first man that screams" and "Ain't we a pair, Raggedy man."

Though it may go on too long and may lack the brilliant simplicity that Road Warrior had this shows that three movies in Miller was not running short on ideas and images, but had plenty left to add to this world and give Max more stories to get wrapped up in. Even though the landscape may be dry and barren this world that Max survives in is so rich and full of life.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 4