Mad Max Fury Road – 2015
On the surface, this movie looks like it has a ton of digital effects. It would be understandable. There is a strong element of fantasy in this post-apocalyptic action/adventure movie. There were a lot of stunts, explosions, guns, an eyeless mutant playing a heavy-metal guitar that shot flames from its neck, and a hellish tornado and lightning riddled dust-storm. But for all those fantastic elements, director George Miller has stated that over 90% of the effects were practical effects.
Now, I have to remind myself that practical effects are still visual effects, even in this modern age of filmmaking, as are the stunts. In fact, there were reportedly over 150 stunt people involved in the production, some of whom were Olympic athletes and Cirque du Soleil performers. Nowhere was this more evident than the scene in which men standing on the ends of long bending poles anchored to moving vehicles, were swinging back and forth, raining destruction on the good guys, and even snatching a woman out of a truck. And to make it even more impressive, all this action took place while the vehicles appeared to be speeding along at 80 or 90 miles per hour. In fact, I could totally see this acrobatic technique being used in an actual Cirque du Soleil show.
As the digital effects in the movie go, one of my favorites was the dust storm. The scene was so intensely chaotic! It was just visually stunning. The constant lightning, the tornadoes, and the flying debris were other-worldly. Speeding cars were lifted off the ground and screaming men were thrown to their deaths like rag-dolls. But it was such a small segment of the movie, and there were other CGI effects that are just as impressive, though not as flashy. Like Imperator Furiosa’s missing arm, for example. Obviously, they didn’t amputate Charlize Theron’s arm, but they did have her were a green sleeve which was digitally removed in post.
As I’ve said before, some of the best visual effects are the ones you don’t notice as visual effects. For example, there were terrain or sky replacements, which all looked as natural as reality. They also did some very effective day-for-night shooting, where they shot in the daytime, over-exposed the film, and added color alteration effects to make it appear to be night-time, even though you could clearly see everything taking place on the screen.
But really, what is it about the Mad Max franchise that fans have always enjoyed? It’s the fast cars and motorcycles, and the big explosions, and this movie had those things in spades. Apparently, about 150 cars were built for this movie, and by the time filming was done, only about 88 had survived. But here, the biggest and most impressive vehicle had to be the good guys’ semi-truck, called the War Rig. It was a monstrosity that was fast, powerful, and darn-near indestructible. The climactic scene in which it is finally taken down was so exciting to watch! The first time I watched this movie, I wasn’t a fan, but this second time around, the incredible visuals really went a long way to boost my enjoyment of the film. Just incredible!