'Furiosa' is a Thrilling Ride
Furiosa is epic, satisfying, and thrilling. Yet it still falls short of its predecessor, Fury Road, but not too short. Furiosa: A Mad MAX Saga is an eye-popping visual feast. There are the Mad Max films starring Mel Gibson then there's Fury Road, which blew the previous three films out of the water. Furiosa comes close to matching Fury Road's excellence, but its moments don't feel as epic as Fury Road. The dust storm sequence in FR, along with the final chase, still goes unmatched.
Although it's disappointing that Furiosa can't match Fury Road's action, it can match its scale. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is enormous. There are multiple scenes featuring hundreds of extras and vehicles. Like Fury Road, the majority of the chases are done practically in camera. And the results show. There's a sequence involving mini helicopters hooked on moving vehicles like it's a paraglider that's stunning. Furiosa is loaded with action sequences that put The Fast and the Furious franchise to shame.
Furiosa is structured like a book. Each act is broken down with a chapter and title, similar to a Quentin Tarantino film. Unfortunately, it doesn't do much to push the narrative forward. The film could have gone without the chapter breaks, and it would have changed nothing. At two hours and twenty-eight minutes, Furiosa doesn't skip a beat. The movie plays from one huge chase sequence to the next, with minimal dialogue in between. That would make sense, as that's how Fury Road was conceptualized. The film was heavily storyboarded, where it's meant to be a visual spectacle more than a complicated story.
Furiosa is a world builder of a film. It expands upon the lore behind the Citadel from Fury Road. We get to see how Immortal Joe (Lachy Hulme) gets to know Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy). As a child, Furiosa (Alyla Browne) is snatched from her mother, who's slaughtered by Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). She's then brought to the Citadel, where Immortal Joe assigns her as his property. With nothing on her mind but revenge, Furiosa spends her childhood away from the green place where she was raised until her capture, building her rage over the years.
The plot of the film is rather simple so that the movie can make room for more action. When you make an outstanding action flick, the lack of a thrilling story can be forgiven. The revenge tale has been told to death. Going from John Wick to Monkey Man, our protagonist wants blood spilled to avenge their assassinated families or pets. It's a strong, simple motivator to allow for as much violence as possible. Furiosa doesn't screw around with its action. If matching it up to any other franchise, the Mad Max saga is king. It has the riskiest action and craziest stunts that only the original Matrix can match. The chaos that ensues on screen is beautifully choreographed. It's one of those movies where you wonder how they even filmed it to such perfection.
George Miller is nothing short of a brilliant filmmaker who knows how to execute action unlike any other. There's an excellent scene similar to the desert storm run from Fury Road. Also, the explosions, brutality, and overall style are stupendous. From the famished citizens to the armor wearing oppressors, the costume, makeup, and production design is uniquely its own. It's a post-apocalyptic lived-in environment that has been an inspiration for video games like Fallout and Borderlands. To make the epic action even grander, Tom Holkenborg, AKA Junkie XL, provides his usual bombastic scores that fit the insane action perfectly. The music continually builds on a shepherd's tone to never let the tension go. Junkie XL also uses a heavy assortment of drums that cut together with the roaring engines perfectly.
The Mad Max films are about humanity's inability to co-exist. First, they blow themselves up in a nuclear apocalypse. Then, the world splits itself between different factions, mostly populated by gangs. Earth dissolves itself in a Darwin like game of survival of the fittest. The very thing that poisons our environment (oil) becomes a desired object since the world runs on automobiles. Humanity's reliance on oil leads to road wars its engulfed in until there's no human left on earth.
The performances in Fury Road are pretty good. Alyla Browne, who plays the young Furiosa, must do a lot of acting through her face as her character isn't given a lot of dialog. Neither is Anya Taylor-Joy. She mostly has to act with her expression more than her vocal inflictions. When she does speak, she has to sound tough, which she does a fine job at. She's not as macho as Charlize Theron, but she gets a good grasp on her character.
The real standout performance is Chris Hemsworth as Dementus. Furiosa isn't the first time Hemsworth has played a bad guy, but it's the most notable. Dementus has a charismatic charm to him where, although he's an absolute dirtbag, Chris Hemsworth has a strong sense of comedy that makes his deplorable character a little likable. You get that there's more to Dementus than cruelty. Unlike most Mad Max villains, Dementus has an empathetic side that Hemsworth wisely doesn't bring out. Although there's a reason to feel sorry for Dementus, it's not enough to forgive him for what he's done to countless innocent people. Hugh Keays-Byrn, the man who originally played Immortal Joe, passed in 2020. Taking his place is Lachy Hulme. Hulme does a fine job bringing Joe's voice back from the grave, with a little help from the sound department to make him sound like a roided up Darth Vader.
From top-notch action, an impressive cast, and an incredible mise en scène, Furiosa is a prequel worth seeing on the largest screen possible. It's a spectacular testament to the glory days of practical effects used in car chases. Instead of everything being created on a computer, you really can feel the weight of the vehicles in the film. Everything is heavy, mean, and in your face. There's still a place for modern filmmaking where CGI and AI don't have to be used to blow your audience away. It's the folks on set behind the camera and the eye of one director who brings some of the best chases I've seen on film to life. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga may be second to Fury Road, but it's a silver trophy that should be worn proudly.
