Is ‘Mad Max’ the greatest franchise in cinema history?
The longer any franchise goes on, the more likely it is to suffer from the law of diminishing returns. It’s a simple fact of life that more sequels, prequels, and spinoffs almost inevitably leads to a downturn in quality, something George Miller has paid absolutely no attention to by delivering four impeccable instalments in the Mad Max universe.
Furiosa is set to continue the Wasteland’s reputation for nothing less than top-tier cinematic escapism, so is it time to finally anoint Miller’s post-apocalyptic saga as the greatest multi-film series in cinema history based on nothing but the fact the filmmaker has yet to miss? Looking at the competition, the answer can’t be anything other than a resounding “yes.”
Of course, many of Hollywood’s most lucrative enterprises boast at least one classic apiece, but the same can’t be said of every single film. The Lord of the Rings was in with a shot, but The Hobbit trilogy put paid to that notion, and The Hunt for Gollum is about as cynical as things can possibly get for extending a property well past its natural lifespan for the sole purpose of making more money.
Alien and Aliens are all-time greats, but none of the rest of the Xenomorph-centric sci-fi stories are in the same stratosphere, while the same can be said of the first two Terminator flicks and everything that followed. Francis Ford Coppola admits he dropped the ball on The Godfather Part III, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been sliding downwards for years, Harry Potter diluted itself with unnecessary prequels, Indiana Jones should have called it quits as a trilogy, Star Wars stretched itself too thin, with the only ongoing saga boasting a 100% success rate across multiple entries arguably John Wick, and that’s only if TV series The Continental isn’t counted.
What makes Mad Max even more impressive is that it began life as an independent film, cobbled together by any means necessary by a first-time filmmaker with little more than a dream and the glint of madness in his eyes. A gritty, grungy, violent, and incredibly influential work of action cinema, as well as being a classic in its own right, Mel Gibson’s introduction as Max Rockatansky became the single most profitable release in history.
Following it up with The Road Warrior, Miller raised the bar in terms of both budget and creativity, with the promise of a bigger sandbox to play in allowing the director to realise his ambitions on an even grander scale, with the end result being not just one of the finest sequels ever made, but one of the greatest action flicks of all time.
Even if Beyond Thunderdome is comfortably the weakest of the three and clearly crafted with commercialisation in mind to a much greater extent than its predecessors, the threequel is, nonetheless, a hugely entertaining, exciting, and accomplished continuation that doesn’t lose sight of the stunts, set pieces, and bone-crunching carnage that made Max Max so great to begin with.
Fury Road speaks for itself, with Miller returning to the Wasteland after a 30-year exile for a massive-scale epic ten times more expensive than the original trilogy combined, but losing none of its impassioned control. In an era where blockbusters have become more homogenised and formulaic than ever before, the director’s artistry, imagination, inventiveness, and sheer balls to the wall what-the-fuckery gave rise to an instant 21st century great that tore it up at both the box office and the Academy Awards, winning six technical prizes and securing further nominations for ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’.
Suffice to say, the pressure has been heaped upon Furiosa as a result, but then again; Miller doesn’t miss in his most famous arena. Every entry in the Mad Max franchise is different from the one that came before, but they’re all equally incredible. It started life as a gung-ho genre series before evolving into a studio-backed $150 million monolith, but at no point has its creator sacrificed a single ounce of personality to stuff himself into a box at the request of the suits in the boardroom.
Significantly, Furiosa also, in Miller’s own curious way, continues the series prescient undertones of environmentalism with ever-greater intricacy. This marks the franchise out as more relevant and forward-thinking than any of its peers. In an era where there is much for cinema to muse over, Miller does it in a manner that has always been thrilling and never too on the nose.
He’s four-for-four so far, and Furiosa is roaring forth to make it five-for-five. There isn’t another property in Tinseltown that can lay a glove on that kind of consistent acclaim, success, or game-changing bursts of batshit insanity.
