To be honest, I thought this movie was weird. I came away with this impression likely from a combination of not having seen the prequels (apparently, this Mad Max was third in the original series) and not being able to discern the dialogue at times. However, I appreciated some parts.

I don’t think I could contribute any meaningful comments on the plot or its role in the series as a whole, so I’ll discuss what I thought about the aesthetic of the movie. As I was watching it, I was reminded of ‘Rango’, the 2011 western-esque animation starring Jack Sparrow as a chameleon. Back when I first saw it, I absolutely enjoyed it, maybe partly because I was going through a spaghetti-western phase at the time. A distinct memory I have is the discussion about the movie with a close friend. For him, he said he hated the movie because it was ‘ugly’. I argued that it was an intentional ugliness that was central to the movie’s identity, as the movie wouldn’t be as effective with ‘Finding Nemo’ textures and palettes. Anyhow, I was reminded of his point throughout the Bartertown scenes in ‘Beyond Thunderdome’, as everything about the town was ugly. It felt stifling at times, and although this was definitely intentional, I can understand how my friend might have felt when he watched ‘Rango’. Although, the rusty steampunk (?) look of the vehicles in the chase scenes towards the end of ‘Beyond Thunderdome’ was pretty great, and I can see why they stuck with that look in the most recent Mad Max film (I haven’t seen it, but similar chase scenes with similar vehicles were shown in the trailers for it).

Now that I think about it, ‘Beyond Thunderdome’ and ‘Rango’ share a theme: an outsider shows up in some established community, he’s mistaken for someone else, he’s expected to save the day, he disappoints everyone, and then he ends up saving the day. Interesting~