Sam Ellis
Columnist
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” debuted earlier this year and is a film to behold with interest.
George Millers’ next installment into his post-apocalyptic drama was one filled with fast cars, loose renegades, resource wars, treacherous men, vengeful women, tantalizing sets and gritty storytelling.
The overall narrative of the film is rather linear and simple. George Miller does a commendable job at weaving in unorthodox techniques akin to chapters in a book to unravel this tale. The story is propelled by Anya-Taylor Joy and Chris Hemsworth as their characters’ paths wind helix-like with power and disparity.
The film is set as a prequal to the 2015 installment, “Fury Road.” “Furiosa” possesses set pieces looking shinier, boasting far more chrome and fresh accents, denoting its position chronologically. The costumes were eccentric and the lighting vivid. The weakest part of the film’s visual capacity was the CGI.
Our characters, Furiosa and Dementus, acted by Joy and Hemsworth, are titular to the film. While Furiosa’s character is not complex, a wounded girl bent on revenge, Joy implemented her prowess to play Furiosa with apparent ease, but Hemsworth truly stole the show.
Dementus is a mad warlord in the wasteland, a role Hemsworth developed and made his own. Not once did any of his previous roles rob the audience of the grandeur that is Dementus.
The sound effects of the film satisfy with every gunshot, grappling hook, thunder-stick explosion and engine growl. The grit and grime of the wasteland is palpable throughout the film. The score, on the other hand, was lacking – each scene, the score seemed to be heading off somewhere, but it never arrived at its climax. To the ear, the music was adequate, certainly, but further striving should have occurred.
Insofar as its action and entertainment, it was terribly entertaining, with bikers of terror, maniacal foes hurling explosives, aerial enemies raining fire below, bullets clanging upon steel and vengeance prowling in the sand.
“Furiosa” was injected with action sequences, particularly sporting a near 20-minute road battle which succeeded in furthering the plot, making introductions and key changes. For an R rating, the violence was quick and light – it accompanied the story but wasn’t the motive.
Morally speaking, the content is unexemplary but educational, displaying how people of good will can be driven to bad decisions, hate, revenge and finally despair. It successfully tracks characters and themes of the human’s downfall and truthfully displays the reality of madness.
How does this film hold up to its siblings? Most fans were expecting something similar to “Fury Road,” but “Furiosa” is strictly about the character and her story. For that reason, it is more similar to its early 20th-century counterparts.
If one is expecting the action heights of “Fury Road¸” continue searching. This film is about a woman and her path of vengeance and the dirty deeds of Dementus.
Colloquially, was this film a good one? Yes, was it stupendous? No. Is it as big and bad as the others? Perhaps not, but it is worthy of the “Mad Max” tradition. Much love and care were put into the film, even if commercially it did not achieve its predicted success.
The acting is well accomplished, the story’s one of intrigue, the visual style is gripping and the effort is present. The movie is one that will show its prowess upon multiple rewatches. The vigorous and arid “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” is a film worth watching.