Furiosa

Well, Max has always been a kind of nothing character in the movies. In the first film, arguably Goose and toecutter are the most interesting people. In the second, Max loses a lot of his "personality" when his dog gets killed and the wasteland warriors Max is up against are a damn sight more intriguing than anyone else. In three Auntie and Master-Blaster steal the limelight to a considerable degree. It's the bizarro nutters Max meets that tend to outshine Max himself and Fury Road was no different. You're probably correct, Max was perhaps a second thought used to placate the execs at Warners.

As for Mad Max being niche, this has some merit too. But anyone who's familiar with movies will be familiar with that title. So there is some cachet there. But I think Mad Max has always been better received outside of the US. Remember, 'Mad Max 2' was sold over there under the title of 'The Road Warrior' and few people had any idea that it was a sequel to a little Aussie flick called 'Mad Max'. Which, BTW, was dubbed into "American" when it had a limited release there in 1980. And Fury Road didn't make it's money back in America. Outside of the States it did better business, where it was more well received, and why there's a 'Furiosa' in the first place.

Reminding me that I have to choose wherever to rewatch Fury Road in colour or black and white tonight.

Fury Road is a cult classic, got nominated for ten Oscars, won six(it likely would have gotten best director if it wasn't the same year as The Revenant) and is often viewed as one is the best movies of the 2010s. So no, Mel Gibson most definitely is not needed for a great Mad Max. Furiosa while not as successful is likely gonna be looked back on as similarly masterful. So just because you don't like Miller's approach to the rebirth, there's most definitely a huge interest in them and the direction he has taken them.

The market will force a change down the road otherwise, either make niche movies that dont cost a lot and dont need a mass audience or make expensive movies that a lot of people will want to see. The problem with Furiosa was not that lots of people missed out on a good movie.

for me cinema has to be top tier , either one of us or one of the kids (late teenage) will need to feel its going to be great, it can either be a popcorn flick or even better a "Stella film" otherwise it may just fall into, "ill catch it at some stage if its mildly interesting" the thing is there is a lot of TV shows going back as much as 15 years which create far more entertainment and far less friction.

I remember Mad Max 2 had "holy" status among teenagers back in the day, that kind of magic hasnt been seen since

I think there's something being unsaid here, what do you mean by friction? Fury Road and Furiosa are top tier cinema in general. You refer to Mad Max 2 having a holy status with teenagers but Fury Road has achieved that with all age groups that like cinema tbh. It manages to appeal to both motorheads and people who love the likes of Terrence Mallick. That's an incredible achievement by Miller, expecting a man who is going into his eighties to rethread existing ground is a bit insulting to an accomplished director with a unique vision.

It's most definitely not a retread and you've specifically said you want a Mad Max with Mel Gibson which sounds far more like a retread. 😂 I can say without a doubt that both Furiosa and Fury Road will stick with me. And that seems to be the case for many posters. Both are pretty unique experience respectively.

The film is performing very well on the video on demand charts, costing about 25 euros to stream and own at home. I suppose when you factor in that the vast majority of people who were fans of the Mad Max films back in the day, a good number of them are probably parents of young kids and find it difficult to get to the cinema at any stage.