The Man We Called Max: Fury Road Comic Con Footage

After 30 years away from cinema screens, George Miller's Mad Max franchise is finally revving up the engines and coming back to cinemas next year with the long delayed and long anticipated 4th installment titled Fury Road.

And the film also went to the San Diego Comic Con over the weekend and the footage shown from that panel event was later made available around the world to watch and being the Mad Max fan I am (the first two films in the series are the only films I've seen that have given the Star Wars Trilogy a run for their money on my favorite films list) I was keen to check this footage out.

But sad to say the footage left a very mixed taste in my mouth after it was over and the reasons are numbered below:

- The first and biggest reason is that the tone of it reminded me a lot of the comic book feel of the third Mad Max film Beyond Thunderdome and the hard hitting Car Stunts of Mad Max 2 (NOT THE ROAD WARRIOR!!!!) and for me I didn't think this was a good thing as I did not like Thunderdome for that reason the comic book/Indiana Jones tone really put me off especially given the hard hitting fast driving Australian feel the first two films had and worked very well whereas here the mix of the two put me off.

- The second is sadly Tom Hardy himself, Hardy inherited the role when Mel Gibson walked away from the film (Gibson and Miller were going to make the film together back in 2003 before the Iraq War broke out and the US Dollar crashed against the Australian dollar) and when he opens his mouth and says "My Name is Max" the British tone of voice really grated with me and I kept thinking afterwards "Why couldn't an Australian actor like Jason Clarke or Joel Edgerton have taken over this role" but given the increasing reliance on the International Box Office these days I doubt Warner Brothers or Village Roadshow would've gone with that idea.

Even though to continue on this part THEY DAMN WELL SHOULD HAVE!! as this is an Australian film franchise and that's who this role should've gone to in Gibson's absence and yes I did miss him as well after hearing Hardy's voice in the footage.

Now I know that it is very hard to judge what the film will be like based off footage that is for the most part still needing to be completed before its release next year but the more I've thought about this footage the more my hopes for this film have gone into the same territory as my hopes for the Avengers: Age of Ultron and Star Wars Episode 7 in that while I am keen to see all three of these films I also have very deep seated reservations about each of them that will probably only be resolved when I am seated in the cinema for each of them.

And so ends my thoughts on the Comic Con footage of Mad Max 4 and as for the Road Warrior well he lives for the moment only in our memories.