Mad Max Fury Road: Feminism and Movie Review

Yesterday Holly reviewed one of the things that stood out most starkly and surprised us most when we got to (finally) watch Mad Max: Fury Road. That is, the post-apocalyptic religion. I guess that kind of leaves me to do a review of “everything else,” but there’s one main thing I want to talk about.

For one thing, and as I’ve said before, this was a movie we were really excited for, and were sad that we missed in theaters. We were literally in the hospital when it came out: it just wasn’t in the cards for us. In the cars?… Anyway, when we heard it was out digitally, we jumped, set aside time, even had people over.

And we always knew we were going to like it because, if nothing else, Borderlands. Neither of us have actually seen any of the original Mad Max movies, but we know that a large part of the aesthetic of the Borderlands video games is based on these movies. And then we saw the trailer, and we could see it: we could see Borderlands, and it was glorious in its ridiculous. I could be heard saying “if you’re going to make an action movie, make a movie like that.”

So let me first talk about what few expectations we had going into the movie, then discuss the number one thing we heard once the movie came out: feminism. This somehow managed to pique our already high interest even more… So join me for the review, then head off to buy yourself a digital copy of Mad Max: Fury Road!

Movies We’re Sad We’re Missing in Theaters: Mad Max: Fury Road

Wow. That trailer. I pretty much have this to say: if you’re going to make an action movie, make one like this. Make one so over-the-top, so ridiculous, that every explosion, slow motion moment, or whatever, seems like it belongs with some classical music as well. This trailer has made us laugh out loud, made us smile, made us want to see this movie.

Due to the Geek Baby, we will sadly not be seeing the movie in theaters. Will definitely have to be rented at some point, though, if not bought! I have actually never seen any of the Mad Max movies that I can remember (though I think Holly has), but I do know that they are a major influence on one of our favorite video game franchises: Borderlands.

I watch that trailer, and I see Borderlands in movie form. For instance, I see Borderlands 2:

If you end up going to see Mad Max: Fury Road, opening today, let us know what you think – but no spoilers, please!

Science Fiction Today: The Weather

So yesterday David and I watched Snowpiercer and the movie was fantastic, but it got me thinking about how we deal with weather and climate change in science fiction stories. From what I can find there seems to be two different story telling methods to deal with the environment in stories. One is that basically nature tries to overcompensate for what has happened and there is an apocalyptic environmental event of some sort or a dystopic turn in the weather, usually causing a great deal of problem for any people. The other is that we try and control the weather in some way and that either goes well or goes very, very poorly. There are numerous examples of all these scenarios throughout various science fiction stories.

Nine Movies I Apparently Need to See – And One I Now Have

I often run into a wall of not having seen the “classic” movies of geekdom. In my mind, geekdom is large, and can contain many things. In high school, my group of friends considered only a couple of things to be our baseline: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (the book), and The Princess Bride (the movie). Solid foundations for geekdom.

Oh, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Obviously.

Some of the most fun you can have with fantasy, science fiction, and parody, this is indeed a good start. From there, I have gifted some of my favorites, like Dune, and The Killing of Worlds. We loan people things or watch them together, like Doctor Who and Game of Thrones. We share our passion for geeky things.

And in some circles, I was known as an expert in cult classic movies. And in other circles, I am left decidedly wanting. We finally started working on the list of movies I hadn’t seen (or don’t remember seeing as a child, one of the two) recently, and my friends and family led with a winner. Here we have a list of nine movies I need to see that I haven’t, classics and cult classics and then one movie I just recently saw.