7. It Plays With Film Speed Like No Other Modern Blockbuster
Like a mischievous, more adventurous and generally more capable Zack Snyder, George Miller plays around with the frame rate and film speed in his movie like no other blockbuster director would have the balls to do. Throughout the film, Miller swaps between slo-mo and fast-mo according to what best captures what his film needs. For instance, an early sequence finds Max captured by War Boys and taken to the cavernous Citadel, where he's kindly given a shave, and less kindly strung up in a cage to be kept as a 'blood bank' and organ donor. Then Max escapes, and runs through the caves of the city pursued by War Boys, all as the footage runs at roughly two-times normal speed. This double-speed chase sequence looks like a colourised action scene from an early hand-cranked silent movie, a wacky Mad Max cartoon brought to life or, if you can stretch the imagination that far, a heavier, more apocalyptic Benny Hill sketch. It's an interesting choice of Miller's, at once disorientating and near-comical, setting up the absurd vibe of the whole thing.