Review - Mad Max: Fury Road

The post-apocalyptic genre is quite popular in Hollywood. Movies like “The Book of Eli” and “Oblivion” have done well at the box office in recent years, but they weren’t able to stimulate the audience's imagination the same way classic films in the genre have done before. That’s why it’s a good time to put the pedal to the metal and return to the wasteland.  

“Mad Max: Fury Road” is the fourth film in the Mad Max franchise. It’s been 30 years since the last film in the series, “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” was released. No one would’ve been surprised if the new Mad Max movie turned out to be a boring sequel with an unoriginal premise. Luckily, “Mad Max: Fury Road” is action packed, startlingly beautiful, and completely off it’s rocker.  

This is the first movie in the series to not feature Mel Gibson as the titular Max Rockatansky. Replacing him is Tom Hardy, and he does a magnificent job. But the real star is Charlize Theron as Furiosa. Max is widely regarded as one of the toughest dudes in all of cinema, but Furiosa makes him look like a toddler playing with Tonka trucks in a sand box.

The plot of the movie is pretty simple. Max helps Furiosa and her friends cross the post-apocalyptic desert wasteland as they are pursued by some bad guys.

While the plot is basic, it’s also perfect for this particular kind of movie. Most of the film is essentially one long chase scene, which means a lot of action. And the action in this movie is superb.

 Mad Max: Fury Road trailer

With “Mad Max: Fury Road,” George Miller has proven he knows how to film action better than any director working today. Miller started making the Mad Max movies in the late '70s. As a result, he comes from a background of using practical effects in his films.

In an interview with Vice, Miller talked about making "Mad Max: Fury Road."

"This is a movie that's real vehicles and real people and real desert. It had to be old school," he said. "It's not a green screen movie, so we had to shoot it for real. I think that makes the movie feel very, very authentic."    

While there is some CGI to be found in “Mad Max: Fury Road,” most of the stunts are achieved with practical effects. When a car flips over ten times and explodes it’s a real car exploding.

Some of the stunts were so authentic looking that viewers may be left wondering if any actors were injured in the making of the film. Only when people think actors were in fear for their lives during filming is it clear that the action was handled properly.

Critical reception for "Mad Max: Fury Road" has been overwhelmingly positive. Jeff Baker of the Portland Oregonian said, "'Mad Max: Fury Road' sets new standards in old-school stunt work and car chases and does it in service of an idea-driven story with a beating heart and an action star for our troubled times in Charlize Theron." Ian Nathan of Empire magazine said "Max’s re-enfranchisement is a triumph of barking-mad imagination, jaw-dropping action, crackpot humour, and acting in the face of a hurricane."

The truly surprising thing about this movie is just how beautiful it gets at times. Strange, but beautiful nonetheless. A particularly memorable scene in regards to the visuals is when Furiosa drives into a sand storm in an attempt to evade her pursuers. It’s jaw-dropping.

There’s really nothing wrong with this movie. It has strong characters and performances. The plot is simple, but it compliments the rest of the film perfectly. The action is masterfully executed. The visuals are strange and eerily beautiful. This movie just works on every level. “Mad Max: Fury Road” is a mad masterpiece.

At a glance:
STARRING: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult
DIRECTOR: George Miller
PRODUCTION: Kennedy Miller Productions, Village Roadshow Pictures
GENRE: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
RATED: R
OVERALL RATING: 5 Stars
  

Richenda Hawkins

Meet Library Department Chair Richenda Hawkins

Students have a plethora of resources at their disposal if they need information or help with their classes. Richenda Hawkins works hard to make those resources easy to access, and she’s available to help students with whatever problems or questions they might have.

While assisting students is Hawkins’ primary job, her duties go beyond the book shelves of the library and involve improving the LBCC community as a whole.

Hawkins has been the  chair for four years at LBCC. Her responsibilities as the department chair mean overseeing the budget, the supervision of the classified staff, the facilities, and everything that has to do with promoting the library. Despite her responsibilities as department chair, Hawkins makes time for each student that stops by the help desk.

Hawkins’ career as a librarian stems from an early love of public libraries and books.

“I’d just hop on the bus and go to the public library and check out books. I thought it was such a big adventure,” she said. “I’ve always been a big reader. I remember in about fourth or fifth grade really liking “The Chronicles of Narnia .” It sort of sparked a love of the fantasy genre, so I’m still a fan of anything that takes me outside of our reality.”  

While her youthful journeys to the library and fantasy worlds lit a fire under Hawkins’ feet, the path that led where she is now was a long one.

“It was a process. I started becoming interested in becoming a librarian when I had my first job in a library,” she said. “I was a senior in college, so I basically got a work studies type job working at the UC Davis main library. My job there was to help the department that was called gifts and exchanges, so my job was to sort through all the books that were given to us and make some decisions on them a little bit and put them in the catalog.”

She eventually got her master’s degree in library science.

Fellow librarian Bryan Miyagishima works with Hawkins on a daily basis.

“She’s an excellent colleague. She’s always upbeat, always energetic, so she’s very delightful to work with,” he said.

Current LBCC students might not know this, but there used to be signs all over the library that said, “Please be quiet.”

“Richenda eliminated all of those,” Miyagishima said. “We kind of count on students to police themselves. Students don’t need to be treated like little kids.”

Ultimately, Hawkins wants to help people become the best they can be.

“My job is to share things with people,” she said. “What I get to give you is something that has the potential to make you a better human being. To increase your understanding. To increase your knowledge. To maybe improve your job prospects. I get to help you find it, I get to help you understand it, and I get to give it to you for free. I think that’s a really awesome thing to be able to do every day in your life.”

At a glance:

• If you have any questions for Hawkins, email her at hawkinr@linnbenton.edu.
• If you need help finding a certain book, go to the LBCC Library database.
• For help with your classes, go to the Learning Center located on the second floor of the library. 

Melee All "Day-lee"

Jeffrey "Axe" Williamson at Evo 2014

Fighting games are a prominent genre with competitive gamers all over the world. One game that has become popular over the years is “Super Smash Bros. Melee.”

“Super Smash Bros. Melee” was released in 2001 for the Nintendo GameCube. The game was such a success with critics and fans alike that it became the highest selling GameCube game of all-time.

A niche community of devoted players developed a competitive tournament scene around the game. Nearly 15 years since “Super Smash Bros. Melee” was first released, the competitive scene is still going strong. 

The basic premise of the game is simple. Up to four players battle it out on any number of different stages with 26 playable characters. The objective is for opposing players to knock their opponents beyond the boundaries of the stage. It becomes more complicated for tournaments, because there are advanced techniques and rules that casual players might not be aware of. At its core though, Super Smash Bros. is about having a good time with your friends. 

What makes Smash stand out from other fighting games is that it wasn't supposed to be competitive. 

The creator of the game, Masahiro Sakurai, has stated on multiple occasions that he intended for the Super Smash Bros. series to be a casual gaming experience and not a competitive one.

“What I’m more going for is something like a party game, something you can play on a whim and have fun as all sorts of things take place on screen,” he said in an interview with mashable.com.  

Nonetheless, players still developed a competitive scene around the game. 

Another element that makes “Super Smash Bros. Melee” stand apart from other games is the speed and technicality required to be successful in tournaments. Wynton “Prog” Smith, a Smash commentator, talked briefly about the speed of “Super Smash Bros. Melee” in a documentary called "The Smash Brothers."

“Players learned how to use wavedashing and other advanced techniques to speed up the game to the point where it basically got ridiculous. Most people figure that we put in about six or seven inputs per second,” Smith said. “It kind of broke the boundaries of what people expected to see in Smash.” 

The Smash scene started off very small. Tournaments were held at people’s houses with 20 or so players in attendance. However, the Smash community eventually grew out of its underground fight club roots and emerged as a major title at major events. 

Major League Gaming (MLG), a competitive video gaming organization, ran “Super Smash Bros. Melee” at their tournaments from 2004 to 2006 with cash prizes. Christopher “PC Chris” Szygiel won $10,000 for winning the MLG championship in Las Vegas in 2006. 

After the MLG championship in Las Vegas, the Smash scene returned to the underground. For a while it looked like that was where it was going to stay—until 2013. 

The Evolution Championship Series, or Evo, is the largest fighting game series in the world. In 2013, Evo staff held a donation drive for breast cancer research. The gaming community that donated the most money would get the last spot in the Evo 2013 lineup. The Smash community won by donating nearly $95,000. 

Joseph "Mango" Marquez after winning Evo 2013

Evo 2013 became one of the largest “Super Smash Bros. Melee” tournaments of all-time with 709 entrants. A year later, Evo 2014 broke that record with 970 entrants. Evo 2015 will take place July 17-19 and is already the biggest tournament of all-time with over 1,000 entrants registered to compete.

In the same Smash Bros. documentary, a tournament organizer, who goes by the gamertag Jv3x3, was interviewed. 

“I think ‘Melee’ is one of the deepest and most intricate games you can ever play competitively,” he said. “Which is crazy for a game made by Nintendo that wasn’t supposed to be competitive with cartoon characters, but it just kind of was like a beautiful accident.”  

At a glance:

• Go to reddit.com to find your local Smash scene
• Go to evo.shoryuken.com to register for Evo 2015
• For more information about the competitive Smash community, go to smashboards.com 
• The Oregon SHFFL  is an upcoming Melee tournament in Eugene, OR. It will take place on June 20,
• NW Battleground  is an upcoming Melee tournament in Des Moines, WA. It will take place on June 13.