Rare Movie Review post in the now interesting world. Furiosa is the prequel to maybe the best action movie of all time and as such should be entered with tempered expectations; it feels a lot more similar to the non Fury Road Mad Max films which tend to be pretty slow paced and punctuated by action sequences instead of just being one long action (fucking amazing) sequence. I think if you compare it to the very first Mad Max that's a good way to think about Furiosa; Fury Road was a way more action-ey version of the Road Warrior and this is a world building exercise around the world established by Fury Road but maybe happening at a similar time frame as the first Mad Max (Toecutter's interdimensional properties notwithstanding); albeit maybe 5-10 years later. It does start with a post apocalyptic overview implying it's earlier and then goes to zoom in on Australia (despite still being filmed in the Namibian desert, in fact in the exact same places as Fury Road).....................................................................................................................................................................................................You start with a young Furiosa for the first 45 minutes or so who seems to have the same lipstick for every scene (which maybe makes sense in one of the scenes but not really otherwise); dunno if that's the child actor's parents interceding and forcing George Miller to make her look a certain way for most sequences but she does eventually look more Furiosa-ish briefly. These scenes have some Many Mothers bits, The Organic Mechanic, and Rictus Erectus as well as Scrotus from the Mad Max Game. I never finished the Mad Max game but I did play like 20 hours of it and it does seem to tie in pretty heavily to the world building and scene construction of this movie (in addition to establishing stuff that exists in Fury Road itself). I wouldn't have minded a young, mostly mute Furiosa for maybe the entire movie; Charlize Theron doesn't really resemble Anya Taylor Joy at all apart from being like 7 inches taller but a child can obviously look quite a bit different and it wouldn't harm the film much; also she doesn't have very many lines of dialogue anyway. They do use Anya Taylor Joy's height to emphasize the transition to adulthood so I guess it works in the context of the movie independent of Fury Road............................................................................................................................................................................................................Eventually Furiosa is captured and brought to Chris Hemsworth's Dementus (who might be referenced in the game as well) who has this pristine white cape at the start and seems relatively friendly and optimistic, the cape and Dementus himself shift in fairly striking visual and presentiation motifs; you probably could've titled the film Dementus for how much he is emphasized; obviously the state of Furiosa at the beginning of Fury Road is known so what becomes interesting is how she got there and that character building mostly happens for Dementus instead of Furiosa. I guess this is a potential point of criticism, but I think it would be quite difficult if you're starting with a child actress and switching actresses mid movie to establish an arc beyond simple revenge (apart from her general lack of dialogue); so this would be more of a thing if they had stuck with one actress.........................................................................................................................................................................................................As far as the general action sequence construct of the movie there is one big middle convoy fight a la the first sequence in Fury Road; then a heavily dramatic short action sequence a la Splendid being run over by Rictus' Bigfoot giant VW monster truck in Fury Road; then there is not really a climactic final battle sequence so that's probably the main thing that Fury Road fans would take issue with. That and the movie being 2.5 hours long instead of exactly 2 hours for Fury Road; again this is more similar to Mad Max 1's ending and general pacing though the bigger action sequences (with some really cool practical effects) are more in line with the Road Warrior or Fury Road. An interesting bit is that in the Mad Max game you have these outposts you take over that have an entrance with a door and then a series of dudes to fight inside to take over the outpost; that exact thing happens in this movie twice which is pretty bizarre because it's a very video game thing to happen but you wouldn't think of that in the context of a film that's about convoy fights and ridiculous vehicles. One spoiler I will share is that Dementus' main monster truck doesn't get destroyed at least not on screen, it loses its wheels but no big explosion; I'm not sure if George Miller just didn't have a back-up one or two a la Gigahorse and Bigfoot (and several OG War Rigs) and didn't want to blow up a nice impractical vehicle or that's just part of the methodical nature of the ending; who knows....................................................................................................................................................................................................... Overall the movie is worth watching just for the world-building and atmospheric nature alone. There are some extremely specific musical sequences that happen briefly in the movie (and only Fury Road devotees will notice) but by and large there just is a very toned down score with a lot of silence a la No Country for Old Men; I think your mileage may vary on whether you like that or not; I did have a completely silent theater so it worked for me (1 other guy in attendance, Tuesday afternoon showtime). The original Immortan Joe died in 2020 so they had to replace him, the replacement is fine but you will probably notice; I feel like with AI assistance you could've pulled off the voice better and just had the dude play him since the visual is more or less spot on (looks younger around the eyes but the film is 20 years earlier); he does say "You are Awaited" well at least; 3 or 4 Witness Me's in the movie. Nicholas Hoult being in the movie wouldn't make any sense but he did kind of hard carry a lot of Fury Road's dialogue so him not being there is felt, Dementus is good but doesn't fill the same role. Nathan Jones as Rictus is excellent again.
No comments:
Post a Comment