According to the IMDb, Mad Max 4 is in the works. While I loved the first two movies in the series (especially the second one), I thought the third one was kind of pointless, and I don’t really see the necessity for a fourth part.
The first two movies work. In the first one, Max is shattered and becomes a destroyed man. In the second one, he rises up and becomes a human again. I think the Feral Kid sums it up perfectly:
After this, did we really want another part? And yet it came, and eighteen years have passed since. Isn’t it time to lay this to rest now?
Then again, there is one really cool aspect they could pursue with the fourth movie. Mad Max is quite unique in that there is a substantial change in its background world between the movies, and that is hardly addressed at all. In the first movie, society is breaking down, but it is still functional. In the second, the apocalypse has happened, but we never see exactly how. It’s a moot point: society has collapsed. What they could do in the fourth movie is rebuild society, show how humanity rises back up. We know the Feral Kid survived until old age and remembered the time of the black fuel while few others did; perhaps we could get to see the new society, adapted to the new circumstances? The cheesy part of me would like to see an old, settled-down Max, perhaps as protector to a small village, telling tales of his younger years to the kids.
But I’m not sure that would work, and maybe we’re better off never seeing the fourth part. What do other Mad Max fans (I’m sure there are a few here) think?
To be hinest I am not sure we needed a 3. The first one I loved, quirky, the second one nearly as much. The third I thought fairly awful. Overproduced and in terms of storyline (and that edginess that made the first two such classics) rather bland.
No, we didn’t need the third. Someone should have been shot for that one.
A fourth? As long as Tina Turner & Mel Gibson aren’t in it, why not? You can never have too many rock 'em sock 'em speeding car chase/crash random post-apocalyptic mutant steroid punk rocker rape burn pillage movies. Just depends on which director gets the job & what they’re allowed to do with it.
I thought the first two movies were a bit shocking for their time, which is what they set out to do. The fourth should also be shocking but in this day & age, I shudder to think what they’d come up with.
I really don’t see a need for a fourth one. The franchise has been dead for a long time. I don’t know if a fourth one would be that successful box-office wise.
What is it with all these older guys wanting to do action? It’s not as if Mel Gibson hasn’t a couple of semi trucks full of $'s anyway. T3, Indy4 and MadMax4. Are they afraid that the age will make them less attractive for Hollywood Bimbos™ half their age? Can’t they grow old with dignity, fer chrisake.
Now hold on there is always potential so long as it is done right.
An older Max forced to take up the fight again isn’t a bad story. Think of Unforgiven, that worked on a dramatic level and it dealt with an old has been villian who had settled down and given up his evil past only to be drawn back into his old life and all of his old regrets.
Gibson can act so I can’t see it a problem there. Sure there will be high octane action, After all Max is older but that doesn’t mean he can’t drive still!
Years ago, I read an interview in which Gibson stated he thought, if there was a fourth film, Max should die (sacrificed or martyred trying to rebuild society, or something like that).
Though I didn’t like the third film as much as the first two, I don’t hate it as much as most of you do. I thought it went a good ways in giving Max back his humanity (which he had started to reclaim in “Road Warrior.”).
I kinda liked the third one, which did go a little ways into the idea of rebuilding society. I thought the design behind Bartertown was great. Plot needed more work, and Tina Turner was a bad call, but over all, a decent flick. I’d watch a fourth one.
I think he’d already finished reclaiming it in Road Warrior. The Feral Kid says he “learned to live again”, and when he offers to drive the tanker there are no ulterior motives; it’s just altruism. I really can’t see the need for the third part.
Yeah, great. What we really don’t need is another Christ figure. Mad Max must disappear again into the wasteland after saving what he cannot be a part of–that’s his hackneyed gig, dagnabbit. The martyr-act hackneyed gig is for another union entirely.
I haven’t seen “RW” in a while, but didn’t he first refuse to drive the tanker, then change his mind and want to drive it after he got his ass kicked trying to get away on his own? I recall his motives being solely personal, but I could well be misremembering.
And to me, the scenes with the kids in “Thunderdome” recalled his lost son, Sprog, (if I remember the name correctly).
But again, in essence, I agree with you that it was not up to the first two.
And yes, so true, I do recall that Gibson’s thrust in the interview hinged on the “Christ-like” figure he cut wondering off, silhouetted, robed, at the end of “Thunderdome.” The man likes his religious imagery.
