6. New Audiences Were On Board Since It Ignored The Previous Films
Avoiding confusion is the watchword of Fury Road, with barely any attempt to connect the film to the rest of the franchise. Whilst the original Mad Max trilogy remain cult classics, there's a whole generation of movie-goers who haven't seen a single Road Warrior flick before heading in to see what is technically the fourth in the series. The genius of Fury Road is that it doesn't care. Unlike, say, the new Star Wars films which are likely to be completely impenetrable if you're not familiar with at least the Original Trilogy (if not the prequels), this Mad Max might as well be an entirely new character. He certainly doesn't look much like the old one. Tom Hardy is technically playing the same Max Rockatansky from Beyond Thunderdome and the like, but it's never beholden to them, allowing flashbacks to exist as character background rather than hints at a larger continuity viewers have to be aware of.
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/
