Monday, May 25, 2015

Singing in Perfect Harmony? Avengers, Mad Max and Don Draper

I just saw the latest Mad Max movie, and now have some time for some thoughts about it, the Avengers sequel and the unifying factor identified by Don Draper:

Coca-Cola.

How so?  Well, for one thing, as I got ready to see MMFR in a Dutch theatre in The Hague, one of the ads was an ad about happiness around the world.  This time the music was via someone rapping (I am unfamiliar with the rap stars who might be involved).  It was perfect timing, given the ending of Mad Men last week.  Coke returns to happiness, with the world in harmony, and it really worked nicely. 

Coke also played a role in the Mad Max movie since the water that fueled Immortal Joe's regime was called aqua cola.  Yep, cola again.  It had to share billing with ... mother's milk.  Yep, heaps of lactation in this movie.  And, yes, the movie is about the oppression, liberation and then (dare I say it) supremacy of women.  Woot!  Who knew?  Well, the Men's Rights A-Holes (that is what MRA stands for, right?) seemed to be surprised and upset.  But when the women get off of the motorcycles in the sand (which sounds like a Robin Sparkles song), and remove their scarves, the revelation that they are all women was outstanding. 

In addition, the movie was a heap of fun and a good ride (although I still think the chase in Raiders tops the chases here).  No humor to speak off, but the tension was pretty constant--set at 11--with just enough character development so that each of the players were distinct enough.  I have not read the articles on the feminism in the movie because I didn't want to get spoiled, but the clue was in the credits--Charlize Theron's name is above Tom Hardy's.  And she saved him as much or more as he saved her until the last stretch.  Also, she is a better sniper.  Of course, there was some man-splaining re strategy but it was mostly providing Furiosa with an idea how to get what she wanted, not want he desired. 

It is a better movie than Avengers for one basic fact: shouldn't Tony Stark be in jail or something?  He created Ultron out of hubris, in secrecy, with no oversight.  Yes, the movie demonstrates that Stark is a lousy agent and that Shield/Cap are lousy principals for not engaging in more rigorous oversight. 

Yes, Avengers 2 had some fun humor, but Ultron killed a bunch of people.  That Tony's second effort gave us Vision does not make the world a better place than if he hadn't started at all unless Vision saves more lives in the next movie that Ultron killed in this one. 

I think the movie had some good stuff, but was not so coherent.  I didn't mind the new folks or the new team, but the movie simply was not as good as the first one.  Too much noise, too much inconsistency, too much real conflict papered over.  Still, not a bad movie, just not as good as MMFR overall.

Still, much left this summer (which has just gotten started).  Now back to drinking coke with a smile in perfect harmony with a bunch of Dutch people.

1 comment:

Mrs. Spew said...

1) There was too humor in Mad Max, just limited. The dueling nitrous fueling was very funny.

2) Tony's mind was affected by Scarlett Witch's powers into pursuing relentlessly the research that led to Ultron, which involved the mind controlling teseract as well, just as the Hulk was affected out of control by her. And Banner went along with Tony because Tony is a genius and because if it worked, Banner could have walked away from Shield. So Tony gets out of jail because he was mind controlled. And because he's rich.