Mad Max (PS4) Review

“Fury Road was cinema at its purest visual form. There was necessity and merit and reason to each shot. Everything was important. Editing discipline proved remarkable. This skill has yet to be learned on the interactive side. Bloat is easier. Looking further back, Mad Max’s theatrical origins can inspire film studies. That pre-apocalypse represented inevitability, reflected the ’70s oil crisis, and expressed frustration with rising Australian crime rates.

The mainstream video game sort-of adaption exists to subdue forum posts from those who quantify their purchase merely by numbers – those of time and content. That’s why linear video games are dead or dying and with them, so are the inroads to narrative innovation. Now games are so lost, selling energy drinks in the apocalypse isn’t a funny faux pas; it’s a depressing expectation.”

Read my full review of Mad Max at Game Skinny

Mad Max: Fury Road Review

“While pasty, cult-ish people are being flipped through windshields and their midsections are stomped by monster trucks, Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa cuts a wide patch of feminism through the brutish heart of this traditional guy flick made of oil, smoke, engines, and heavy metal. This is an unorthodox blockbuster, a generation’s Aliens or Terminator flexing all-female muscles, as good, nay great, as those too. Mad Max (gruff spoken Tom Hardy) – quite literally – hangs on as the ride begins and continues to do so throughout.

Importantly, this is not a “female Mad Max.” Separation is necessary to distinguish Fury Road from tiresome, pandering Barbie doll cinema. A female Hangover, a female Ghostbusters; movies are being made like toy aisles. It’s insulting. Hollywood clothes women in pink. They must wear dresses and kiss in the rain. Furiosa soaks in Castrol and drives a big rig named War Machine. She can play with any toy from any aisle, so where is her action figure?”

Read my full review of Mad Max: Fury Road at DoBlu