nickrobertparadies The Mad Max franchise is one of the rare film franchises where each film truly feels like its own animal. The original Mad Max is a classic revenge film with pseudo-Western elements, The Road Warrior is a gritty, low-budget action flick (think The Raid but with cars), and Fury Road is a stunt-driven blockbuster spectacle. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, the third film in the series, is definitely the most different of the films, but that isn't to say its bad. It isn't.In this entry, Max's camel wagon (made out of his crashed V8 Interceptor) is stolen and hocked in Bartertown. Max travels there and meets with Aunty Entity, the leader of town, who promises to resupply him if he helps her take down her enemy, Master Blaster, in a Thunderdome duel (post-apocalyptic WWE with no rules). Max defeats Master Blaster but refuses to kill him, and is exiled, where he meets a tribe of oasis-dwelling children who survived a plane crash. The kids believe Max to be the long-lost pilot returning to take them back to civilization, and he eventually agrees to help them get to the mythical "Tomorrow-morrow Land".It's a given that Mel Gibson is great as Max. Tina Turner's Aunty Entity is the butt of a lot of jokes, but she really isn't that bad. Most of the other performances are pretty good, barring a few child actors that aren't great. Other givens with the Mad Max franchise include the set design and production design being great, and they are here. Bartertown, the Canyon Oasis, and the Thunderdome itself are all creative and fun to look at. The costume design is also excellent, especially for the Bartertown residents. A Bugs Bunny toy that makes an appearance is a nice Easter egg to subtly remind us of the post-apocalyptic world the films take place in.An added bonus is how quotable this film is. None of the Mad Max films feature a lot of dialogue, but much like Fury Road, there are plenty of memorable lines to be found among the general silence. "Raggedy man", "no matter where you go, there you are", "two men enter, one man leaves" "bust a deal, face the wheel"... all lines sure to illicit recognition from even casual fans of the series.The biggest issue with the movie is that it feels like two films in one. George Miller, the director, suffered some personal tragedies partway through and left the project, leaving his friend George Ogilvie to finish it. For the most part, you don't notice that directors changed halfway through, which is a testament to editing, but you can still occasionally see indications of it. Additionally, the story is very disjointed; despite Miller's best efforts to connect them at the end, the first half of the film Bartertown has very little to do with the second half, which is basically Lord of the Flies in Australia. Because both the stories are so engaging and great on their own, it doesn't take away from the film that much, but it is a bit jarring, and ideally this film would be two separate shorter films.All in all, a well-made but slightly disjointed film that is a lot of fun to watch, but is definitely the weakest of the franchise and doesn't measure up to the excellence of Road Warrior and Fury Road. But again, not to say it's bad. It's like saying winning a million dollars isn't as good as winning a million and a half dollars. I would still recommend this film to anyone who loves action movies.

bitomurder Then we come to Beyond Thunderdome which is a disappointment after the awesomeness of the previous film. It tried too hard to be a rehash of The Road Warrior as well a more easily acceptable, Hollywood version of it that it just fell flat. While watching this one I couldn't help but come up with a different version of Thunderdome which I think would have been so much better.Thunderdome or Beyond Thunderdome without a Mad Max preface. If The Road Warrior could stand without the Mad Max preface, Thunderdome can as well. The Thunderdome also should have been the focus of the movie. The Thunderdome is the most interesting part of this film and should have been the emphasis instead of simply the one fight we get between Max and Blaster. Make this one stand out on its own and be the story of Max trying to earn his right to fight Blaster to accommodate the deal he made with Auntie Entity. The Thunderdome should be a form of entertainment for the people of Bartertown instead of just simply a way to settle disputes. Cut out all of the unnecessary junk with the children and Capt. Walker and instead fill up that time with Max battling his way through opponents in the Thunderdome and maybe a sweet montage of Blaster destroying all comers. The fight with Blaster could have been exactly the same, but instead we would have had 2 or 3 fights leading up to the showdown. If for some reason you found it necessary to include the children make them part of underworld and have Max fight to free them. The beginning of the movie and the end of the film could have remained the same, but our middle section would have been filled up with fight action instead of Lord of the Flies kid societies and quicksand. I would also have cut out the very 80's music and the cheesy comedy. I truly believe that these changes would take this movie from a not good 7 to at least a good 8 if not higher.

Ian (Flash Review)Everyone has had a paper cut before. That really small sliver glowing red. That small little slice is the thickness of this film's story. Loner fighter man wins a duel inside a metal sphere with the town looking on. He doesn't follow all the rules and is cast away to die. He ends up at a village with lots of native kids. Stuff happens. The original mean town learns he is alive. They chase after him with one of those iconic mammoth car chase battles. Sprinkle on dirt and sweat and grim and there's your picture. The End. It felt like a darker version of Goonies at times.

Arne Kristian Lindmo Perhaps the weakest link in the Mad Max series, Beyond Thunderdome is sharply divided into four acts. The first act is superb! Production design, world building and action are all interwoven into a great tapestry of Mad Max greatness and the cage fight is the highlight of the entire movie. Then act two comes along, drags the tempo down, and even though it delivers a lot of interesting mythology and world building, it just lacks the intensity and tempo which has come to define the series as a whole. Act three is the return to Bartletown which has little to offer in the way of spectacle and both the simple, slap-stick humour and the new supporting characters (a bunch of children) suggest that the movie in fact tries to target a broader demographic, as the new PG-13 rating also suggests. Finally, in act four we finally get the trademark car chases, but they aren't anywhere near as good as those featured in The Road Warrior with the exception of a few breathtaking stunts. The ending does not satisfy at all, and we are left with the impression of a bloated, watered-down, minor Mad Max entry. That said, even a weak Mad Max movie is better than most other action flicks, and Mel Gibson is always interesting to watch, especially here in one of his signature roles.