Ah! Should've seen this before posting about it on the movie thread.
Well, I'm glad I don't have to re-post it in there now, and that I'm not alone in seeing that. BTW, if you haven't listened to the pod, you get a name drop near the beginning of Max talk starting at about 1:22:00.
Some more follow up on what I said on the pod: I've come around on Hardy/Max in the movie, mainly because going in I wasn't sure of the chronology, like was it a sequel (where he got the new Interceptor?), a reboot (No thanks), or something taking place between Mad Max 1 and 2 (sounds cool, but presents difficult expectations all around, "who are these people he failed to save?", "will Max meet Dog?", "will The Road Warrior still make sense after this?" and so on and so on...). This created an unpleasant anachronistic sense of cognitive dissonance as I was watching. But it was pretty clear to me after, and Miller agrees, that, iffy chronology and all, it makes the most sense as an experience taking place sometime after Thunderdome, new/old Interceptor or not. So, it should just be seen as what it is, the 4th Mad Max movie, and all the stuff Max has gone through before and the audience has experienced comes to bear on his character.
Knowing that makes all those expectations go away and Max's changes far more appealing to me as it's a natural consequence of his development (and doesn't flush everything before this movie down the toilet or try to recreate it from scratch). Also, it makes practical sense since, despite his boyish looks, Hardy is almost a decade older than Gibson was the last time he played Max (God, Gibson looked middle-aged when he was in his 20's). That's a long time to be alone in the wasteland getting weird with a beard, so, in a nutshell, now I like Hardy's performance as an understandably Madder Max. I also retract my statement it would be better with Gibson, because it would be nearly impossible for the movie to be as vital with him, whether due to his baggage or him being past his prime; all else being equal, it would've been hard not to shake the perception of it as some ill-advised last hurrah, ala Crystal Skull, rather than an exciting new enterprise that amounts to a rebirth of the genre). Anyway, I look forward to seeing it again without all that bullshit swimming around in my head... well, mostly, save for one thing: I guess his first V8 Interceptor wasn't literally the
last one as it was dubbed (unless he spent the interim somehow restoring it =)
I'm still pissed they wrecked it again immediately too, and twice! For those that don't understand my objection, following up on the Max/Guts comparison, the iconic V8 Interceptor is kind of like Max's Dragon Slayer, so giving it back to him only to take it away is a big tease.