So I just got back from watching Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. When leaving the cinema, I happened to trip up the stairs. So I might be slightly concussed and litigious for this review. My initial thoughts are that it was a great movie packed with lots of action and world building. I don’t really mention this often because usually I review garbage, so please do not read this review unless you’ve seen Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and its predecessor Mad Max: Fury Road. They are both excellent action movies and worth watching.
It’s a prequel to the previous movie, so I can’t help but compare it to Mad Max: Fury Road. I hold the past film to a very high regard, and this one didn’t quite reach the same standard. Fury Road was almost perfect and the entire film was essentially one giant action packed car chase. It had a story and world that was slowly explained throughout the constant commotion. The story itself was quite basic and it really needed to be, to instead elevate the visuals.
In contrast, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga slowed down some of the action. We got these scenes of characters discussing their origins and the world around them. It made for better world building, but lacked the constant intensity we were previously shown.
There are a few other things the prequel lacked compared to Fury Road. This includes an iconic soundtrack. The actor that played Immortan Joe is sadly now deceased and the new one’s voice wasn’t as fearful. I also noticed this movie had less practical effects and instead relied on CGI. And the backgrounds and sets seemed to lack the same level of detail.
A new error of this movie franchise was giving Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) a fake hook-nose to make him look uglier and scarier – I guess? They should have given him a big facial scar if that was their goal. It just seemed unusual and it was noticeable in a couple scenes.
Now I said this movie does better world – building, however there’s a couple of times when I found myself begging the movie to just hurry up with the discussion and get back to the action. The ending was about 5 minutes of Furiosa and Dementus just having a boring discussion while she slowly tortures him in the desert.
There was also poetic narration added in this film, which had me frustrated. We are about to get a giant battle, when the narrator just interrupts and explains how war has existed forever and this one will be remembered as the ‘40 Day War of the Wasteland’. Then we cut to the conclusion of it. The reason for this is that their main protagonist Furiosa really didn’t play a part in the conflict, except for the beginning and end.
However, a war between a mutant biker gang and mutant Vikings would have been maybe the greatest scene ever put to cinema. It’s really what the entire movie was working up to, and then they just pull the rug from under us to instead focus the plot on Furiosa chasing revenge against Dementus.
Now I apologize for critiquing this movie so heavily, but I only do so because the previous standard was set so high. I pretty much enjoyed the entirety of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. I liked the origin stories of many of these characters and the expansion on previous ideas. We get to see the network of other towns and how they work with the citadel. We view an array of new weapons, equipment and gangs. I’ve seen a lot of bad prequels, but this one was done well.
The action scenes were still brilliant, ultra – violent and even absurdist in many ways. One of my favorite scenes was Dementus’ biker gang trying to get Immortan Joe to surrender. The response is simply getting a suicide bomber to blow up the biker gang and make Dementus realize that every single soldier Immortan Joe has is willing to die for the glory of reaching Valhalla. A petty biker can’t comprehend that there is no surrender in the politics of Gods. It’s a perfect scene because barely any words are spoken, and instead you learn so much about the characters and the world through their actions.
Now this movie has done poorly at the box office, although nearly all the reviews have been positive. I really blame the marketing for this. The trailers for this film do not do it justice. They are essentially clips from the movie showing Furiosa fighting with Dementus. It’s done in this girl power format, constantly showing how cool she is. Consider they are pandering in opposition to men, then don’t act surprised when they don’t show up. Additionally, women aren’t the demographic that goes out to see car related action films.
The other issue is that we have already seen the end of Furiosa’s story so most people just think it’s pointless, and in many ways it is. If you’re going to do a prequel like this, then double down and show us ALL the iconic characters and the world. Make it clear that we will explore the people and environment that we already love. It just seems that the trailers are so hyper-focused on Furiosa’s girl power that everything else is completely ignored.
I would probably have preferred this film focusing on another iconic figure or a totally new one. However the environment, action and characters are so extravagant that I would probably enjoy any person’s story in this world. I honestly think these two movies are some of the best action films in the past decade and most people will thoroughly enjoy them.
