A great cartoon ... but still a cartoon

Rating: 8/10 (30 June 2017)

I'm going to have to be "that guy" and admit that I didn't like this as much on second viewing. I don't think my opinion about any of the parts has changed, but my relative weighting of their importance has shifted. I'll say right up front, I don't think this is a bad film. A lot of it is more than a little exceptional. The action scenes, especially the final chase, are incredible. It's pretty much everything else about it that I could do without. The story and characters are pretty dumb. That's not a new thing ... it's pretty much true of all the films in this series, and it's what really buries the 3rd one. But in past films, none of the bad elements are amped up to absurd levels through the use of excessive CGI and a ridiculously frenetic pace. If you consider "The Road Warrior", that film's grounding in a very real seeming physicality gives it's broad sketchy characters the aura of archetypes. It's like a post apocalyptic western. This film feels like a cartoon, or maybe a video game. A really really good one, but still ... a video game.