8. A Long Lead In Time Meant They Could Get Things Right
The pace of Hollywood filmmaking is a breakneck one. Once a film has been greenlit it's rushed into production as quickly as possible, with casting, pre-production and location scouting taking place even if there's not a finished draft of the screenplay ready to be shot. It's not unusual these days for a huge blockbuster to have scenes drastically re-written and handed out on set. Which is why you end up with films that are often structurally and tonally messy, with characters arc that don't feel complete or satisfying and lots of bad one-liners. It's because the writers were literally making it up on the spot. Mad Max: Fury Road is basically the opposite of that, being some fifteen years in the making, and a good thirty years after the last instalment in the franchise. Any number of setbacks caused the film to be delayed, which may have actually benefited Fury Road in the long run - more time could be spent refining every single aspect of the film. That's why the plot is so tight, the action so well-choreographed, the characters all perfectly developed, and the costume and vehicle design so on-point. They didn't have to rush.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
