Legendary movie critic Roger Ebert’s favorite Mad Max movie was the least popular in the franchise, and the reviewer’s rationale for the pick may come as a surprise to many fans of the series. Most franchises follow a pretty predictable rhythm when it comes to their critical standing. Often, early movies receive rave reviews (or at least positive) write-ups and, while the first few sequels may on occasion match the reception of the original movie, the more installments there are, the worse their critical standing becomes.
In recent years, some ambitious franchises have been able to avoid and, in some cases, even reverse this fate. However, until 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, the post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller series fell victim to this formula. The original Mad Max was broadly beloved as a gritty, brutal effective revenge thriller, its first sequel The Road Warrior was well-liked as a cartoonier, more over-the-top sci-fi chase movie, and the third outing Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome was seen as a disappointing follow-up that couldn’t recapture the magic.
However, the iconic movie critic Roger Ebert did not share this opinion. In a choice that will come as a shock to many fans of the franchise, Ebert’s favorite Mad Max movie was Beyond Thunderdome, which he gave a rare four-star review upon release. Ebert said the movie was not only the best outing of the series so far but also one of the best movies released in 1985, which is very high praise for a sequel that was mostly seen as a lesser franchise outing (despite Beyond Thunderdome foreshadowing Fury Road’s Furiosa future).
Per Ebert, the immersive setting of Beyond Thunderdome more than made up for the movie’s more meandering pacing and its stunning sets were worth more than the bruising, brutal action set-pieces of earlier franchise installments. While it is broadly agreed that Beyond Thunderdome is a less intense and urgent outing than the rest of the Mad Max movies, Ebert viewed this as a positive for the franchise since the movie had more room for world-building. While a lot of Mad Max fans might balk at the critic’s claims, though, there are some undeniably valid points made about the underrated movie's successful aspects in his review. For one thing, Ebert notes “the fight between Mad Max and Master-Blaster is one of the great creative action scenes in the movies.”
Pulling off Beyond Thunderdome’s Master Blaster twist does give the sequel one of the franchise's most effective surprises and one of its most poignant moments, something that the harsh earlier movies are missing. Similarly, Ebert’s comment that, as “Mad Max first visits Turner's sky palace, I began to realize how completely the director had imagined this future world” will ring true for fans of the series, which became even more immersive with the arrival of Fury Road. While Fury Road was undeniably more artful about weaving its world-building and action together without sacrificing pacing, Beyond Thunderdome did offer the sequel a roadmap for introducing a complicated post-apocalyptic society in mere minutes of screen time. This was part of what made the Mad Max sequel stand out for Ebert and remains an impressive achievement that advanced the franchise, even if it’s not enough to make the third movie every fan’s favorite.
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