I saw Mad Max: Fury Road again last week and marveled for the third time at its ability to convey incredibly complex action scenes with rare clarity. My wife (and plenty of others) don’t understand my fascination with the film. “What makes this different from Transformers?” she asks. “It’s just two hours of action and explosions.” Well, I think there’s a LOT that elevates it above dreck like Transformers, but below is an interesting contrast.
The first video is about “Bayhem,” a pejorative term given to Michael Bay’s style of filmmaking, and it does a great job of illustrating (part) of why his films are so mind-numbing.
The second is a short example of how George Miller shot and edited Mad Max for maximum clarity.
These two examples of the art of cinema are a lot like the way I often talk about writing: poor writing is overblown and meandering while good writing is succinct and clear.