Top Ten reasons why Thunderdome went wrong

[MWFV8]

For me it would be

• Max appears to have been replaced by Riggs from Lethal Weapon
• Too much comedy
• Silly character names, costumes. cars and props
• Dumb repeated chanting ie "Break a deal spin the wheel"
• Cow car?!?! WTF BBQ!?!?!?2???1

As others have said, as a stand alone movie it's one of the more watchable future sci-fi movies produced, but as a Mad Max movie it's a bit of a kick in the teeth.

One of the great things about Mad Max and RoadWarrior was the way they didn't go down the naff sci-fi route that nearly all other films did, that made them more believable and perilous.

Thunderdome played to the gallery, but that's how you make big money in the movie industry.

[zykotec]

There are only two reasons why this movie is bad to me . (or, not as good as RW)

1. I agree on the part of the music. There's a lot of weird drumming, and stuff that is trying to sound either tribal or futuristic, instead of the timeless 'horror movie' music in RW and MM1. This one thing really ruins the film for me, because unlike the two others it gives a strong feeling of the film being old. MM1 and RW is alot more timelss because of the whole soundtrack.
1. The Road Warrior is epic.You can't beat it. As a total complete package of a movie, both concept-wise , sound style, acting script and stunts. It even has litle dead-time, it's near perfect. The only movie quite 'up-there' for me is Terminator 2. Which also had no good sequels, and they never could have.

I still think BT is quite a good movie and it ends the trilogy in a somewhat realistic way. I hated it more as a teen, but as a grown man, with kids on my own, it's grown on me. (apart from the music )

[kickherintheguts]

This column by John Brosnan divulges some criticism on why Thunderdome pales to its successors.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5OGIrfjjcc0/S ... rosnan.jpg

Great, this kind of insider info makes it clear Thunderdome had mega problems in the wake of Byron Kennedy's death.

[Bubba Fat]

I do see the kids of MBT as annoying Ewoks. The comparison is justified. This is the main reason why so many people hate Beyond Thunderdome and don't accept it as a truly Mad Max movie.

[bike]

Umm, perhaps to rephrase....

Yes people die, but it´s all funny and brings laugh moments to the film. It`s just like Road Runner or Daffy Duck, who fall off cliffs / get blown up / squashed by falling rocks etc, but bounce back. I don`t think MM3 is a bad movie, and Tina Turner certainly brings good assets (ahem) to the role, but it doesn`t appeal to me as a Mad Max movie. More like a bizarre genetic mutation of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang meeting Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout.

[MadMack]

I know this is replying to an old post, but I figured I would chime in.

All in all I don't think that Beyond Thunderdome was all that bad. Yes, I will agree there were several things out of place when you directly compare the trilogy. But it still does follow as a sequel. The point in mind is how you can physically see how society deteriorates and the best way to see that is in the vehicles and surroundings. In the first Mad Max movie, you can easily make out what the vehicles and surroundings are. In the second movie the vehicles became more custom as well as dwellings and settings. In BT, you see the extreme case in which the vehicles are now totally unrecognizable from their original state (with a few exceptions). So that is one thing I liked. I did also like the whole Bartertown / Thunderdome concept.

While I am a big fan of Tina Turner, I do admit she did seem a bit out of place in the movie. She definitely looked good in the movie and her acting wasn't that bad, but like I said, she seemed kind of out of place. The two music pieces that she contributed to the movie however ARE good songs.

Ok, probably the biggest downfall is the Lord of Flies children segment. I thought it was just far too long. I don't know why the producers thought this would fit into a Mad Max Movie, but then again, as others have pointed out, I guess they tried to make the film more 'family friendly'.

But after the segment with the children, the movie picks up again with the return to Bartertown, and the spectacular chase scene at the end, which is a characteristic of all the Mad Max films.

Overall I do like all the films, but I do agree with the general consensus that The Road Warrior is the best movie of the series. This film just got it all right. Furthermore the dialog is extremely memorable. You just can't beat the lines from Lord Humungus. Then there is the lovely Virgina Hey as the The Warrior Woman (I am a big fan of her from the Farscape series). The music is great too. Thus if I had to pick of the three films to watch, it would be this one hands down.

MadMack

[Taipan]

From the perspective of two previous MM movies, BT was definitely an unpleasant surprise, at least at first sight.

But you know what, over time I got to understand where Miller wanted to go with it, in fact BT wasn't supposed to be Mad Max in the first place. I can't find the link for the article but he mentioned in an interview that originally BT was a movie about kids living in a post apocalyptic world. And then someone said 'hey,
let's throw in Max into it' and so it happened. So no matter how you look at it, wether you like it or not it's not exactly a genuine Mad Max movie made from scratch. It's a combination of those two elements and it shows. So if you separate them, meaning kids from MM world you'd get a pretty decent MM sequel on its own. As for the 'kids' element, i don't even care.
So you might as well just stick to MM elements in that movie, the post apocalyptic environment, cars (COW CAR IS THE COOLEST CAR IN BT AND IF YOU DON'T AGREE I'LL STAB YOU IN THE EYE WITH A FORK). Sure it gets goofy with all the chanting, thunderdome itself too, but all the other elements that belong in Mad Max world are pretty spot on. Except for the kids, but they don't belong there anyway. Just my opinion.

[sloop]

Tina Turner
Hollywood
Casting Bruce Spence again
Lack of hard villains- Iron Bar v Wez? Come on...
Taking the 'post-nuclear apocolypse' scenario. MM1 shows society in terminal decay. The opening montage of MM2 shows 'two mighty warrior tribes' going to war and the destruction of the oil fields. The rest is left to your imagination and I think the films are the better for that.
The rawness of the previous films is missing
Again- Tina Turner!
The Car is the Star. You could hardly have the Last of the V8 Intercepters in BT but it left a large gap in the film for me

[DetritusMaximus]

I really don't have a problem with the kids (as a concept), but they did get a little too cute.

To me, the kids and Bartertown aren't so different. To follow on with what MadMack said, it's the continued downward spiral of society. As the old world gets lost and forgotten more and more, people start making up things. Even though it is a city being built, Bartertown represents people trying to recreate the dead old world, including the bad parts (corruption, vice, crime, bad cathartic entertainment). The kids, being isolated are building their own almost from scratch. All they know of the old world is what their parents told them and the artifacts left behind. The Crack Kids are a theoretically positive note, Bartertown is supposed to be the last gasp of the old world, maybe? Both attempts are rooted in tribalism and primitive, one is trying to bring back the past and the other is making it up as it goes.

The Max part of the story is the wandering warrior who doesn't fit anywhere anymore. His world is dead and without what he initially lost, he is lost. He sees what the future could be but maybe thinks he is one of the things that should be left behind.

[Daywalker]

I remember, when the movie came to the theatres in France, the critics were very bad.

In an interview, given to a movies mag, somebody..perhaps Miller, said that, at the beginning, it wasn't writen as a MM movie, but as a post apocalyptic movie.

The suggestion of making a MM franchise came later (the american studios?????), perhaps because they expected a blockbuster when putting Mel Gibson in the desert, wearing a leather jacket...

That's probably why several people, like me, consider MM and MM2 as the only authentic MM movies.

MM under T-Dome is "something" other, same design, same "look" but only a copycat of MM2.