Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

If you're expecting a non-stop, fast paced, high octane movie like Fury Road you'll be sadly disappointed with this outing. The first half is slow. Not to say there aren't interesting points but it could have been tightened up instead of dragged out.

The last hour is action packed. Not great but also not terrible.

There's a lot of call backs to Fury Road, almost as if they were going for a nostalgic vibe but that movie is not even 10 years ago yet.

If you didn't know beforehand that Chris Hemsworth was in the movie you wouldn't know it was even him. He's rocking prosthetic nose and teeth and speaks in a high pitched nasal voice.

Let me start off by saying this, if you enjoyed the last movie, you'll probably get a good time out of this one. That being said, it's night and day when you compare the two. I'm a huge fan of the last one, the spectacle and action make it one of the best films of all time imo, and it's clear they tried to recreate that with this movie, but for me it falls flat. Most, if not all, action sequences are all CGI, it's good CGI, but you can absolutely tell it's CG. There are lots of times in the movie where it straight up just looks out of a video game. I get where this comes from, the shots they go for are definitely a bit more ambitious, but it's lacking the chunky and gritty realism of the last film. The action can seem floaty and overly ragdolly at times because of this. Regardless, this isn't my biggest complaint with the movie, my biggest is the story. There are times when things just happen for no good reason at all, in an effort to avoid spoilers, I won't list them, but they are painstakingly obvious. For example, an integral character gets killed and it seems to be of zero consequence to one of the characters, even though the movie spends some time trying this half baked romance. I also just couldn't get into Anya Taylor-Joy as furiousa, maybe it's just a me thing, but she just doesn't really fit the gritty role she's meant to play. Chis Hemsworth is a standout performance though, although I do think, again, the writing for his character is a bit garbage. Regardless, this is a fun movie, lots of cool action shots, and pretty good if you have no preconceptions and expectations stemming from the last movie.

Furiosa would be easier to watch if Fury Road never happened. After the incredible cinematography magic that genius John Seale weaved, Furiosa felt just like some lacklustre adaptation of a far superior source material.

Only thing I found charming was the overall 80's feel, resembling the style of a Road Warrior, and some scenes feel like they were recreated straight from the original trilogy. While action sequences are, as expected, top notch, the epic sense of awe and sheer crazy excitement that ludicrous stunts and choreography brought us in Fury Road was lacking. Editing was sometimes atrocious. Even in the best action or "poignant" scenes this movie had to offer, I never felt that I'm watching it from the edge of my seat, nor did I get emotionally involved with any of characters.

Speaking of which, acting was fairly wooden, lines declamatory delivered, the script overall seemed recycled and overly done, bordering on boring. Storytelling was chaotic, rushed and dragged at the same time. Sometimes the unnecessary narrator helped things to move along, unfortunately in a bad way.

But the major flaw was that there was no hero's journey for any of characters. Furiosa is the same person at the beginning as she is at the end of a movie, same as Dementus. Remember Nux and his journey? There is nothing like it in Furiosa. Furthermore, Furiosa endures every hardship with the same fierce look in her eyes - we never see pain, never fear, never doubt. She shrugs any injury off, like a terminator. It was hard to get emotionally involved with her character. Unfortunately, she came across as a classic girl boss, amazing in everything she does from the start to the finish, as a kid, and as an adult. Relationship between Furiosa and Praetorian Jack is so robotic and unemotional it's painful to watch. Dementus's monologue at the end was a snoozefest. All in all, I witnessed it, and found it mediocre.

You want it or not, a comparation with the old movie is automatic. The first thing that comes to mind is that it kinda drags the story. It lacks the flow of the previous. The main villan is unconvincing and I found myself many times not understanging how to categorise him. Is evil without a clear motive, powerful without convincing greatness. You don't know if you want to love him or not.

The actions scenes are ok, but no moment where I would thing it's something epic worthy. At times almost too much of the same.

Maybe the main problem was the script, neglected in the face of the many action scenes paired with fancy camera movement. The plot was ok, but it lacked a smarter way of putting it on the screen.

George Miller... "Why yes, yes I do. Well sort of anyway..."

I really really wanted to love Furiosa but in the end I didn't, I liked it but didn't love it. Big big shoes to fill, I completely love Fury Road - a perfect action film in every way, so I was prepared to have this film fall in its shadow. Which it did. Furiosa is fun but its sadly no FR.

The good news: You want action? There is action, loads of it. Like any good Mad Max story it holds true to its promise to entertain the masses with spectacle. Glorious. We get the hot rods, big wheels, diggers, bikes of all shapes and sizes, as well as flying contraptions, weaponry galore and no holding back on the violence. Explosions, bodies flying, witness me etc. Plenty. It can be brutal and nasty but true to form and true to Mad Max. What more do you want?

Casting is good, perhaps a few too many characters leaving each of them to have not quite enough to do especially with Immortan Joe's followers. Anja Taylor Joy is good as Furiosa and Hemsworth seems to really be enjoying himself. Dementus is a great villain, a sort of love child of Immortan Joe and The Humungus; the presence, the wee speeches, his villainy is fun. And he gets to be very Aussie no need to hide that accent. I also liked a younger and much cleverer Immortan Joe; in this film he's not the core bad guy and without the need to get his 5 wives back as a motivator making him crazy we get to see him as the warlord he is. Smart and patient and in control.

And there's world building! Which was very cool. We got to see more of the Wasteland and get hints of how it ticks and what made it so.

The bad news: Visually Furiosa is a bit of a mixed bag; sometimes we get stuff worthy of its predecessor and other times we get stuff that is... less so. The colour is much more pale than the richness of FR and the cinematography is no where near the standards. Occasionally the CGI lets the film down just a bit. In Fury Road you got the impression that it was almost all practical effects even if it wasn't. In Furiosa there are sequences where I went... 'eww, yikes' as the standards of the film dropped. Only a few moments but be prepared.

The music is often absent or very lacking. The sweeping epics of Fury Road are almost gone instead we get much more background stuff or even sadly largely silent action sequences. This leads to a lack of tension, nothing edge of your seat here.

The writing and edit isn't great. The characters lack spark and bits feel missing. Miller is trying to tell a story but seems unsure of how to write characters in which one can invest. Furiosa has more ambition in its story telling and I think its execution is lacking. The core story solid but it seems a bit empty on the screen. The film jumps at times skipping over character development worthy of exploration.

In the edit i really really missed the fast cuts of Fury where Miller really built his scenes through tight production and cuts and edits where everything builds beautifully and leads to a great conclusions. Miller did this scene after scene in FR whereas in Furiosa its really lacking. Means theres not as much tension, not as many 'that was close' nor 'that was amazing' moments.

Overall I did like it. Furiosa is a good Mad Max film but its no Fury Road. I'd be surprised if the film is recognized at Oscar time, where Fury Road won 6 Furiosa might get a nomination or two in the technical but no nominations for Directing or Best Picture.

By my deeds I honour him...

By my wallet I honour George Miller, Witness Furiosa. Its worth your time and money but not more than that.