Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

After nine years, the spin-off prequel to the fourth installment of the established franchise from a nearly 80-year-old geezer... If it weren't for the Mad Max franchise and the old-timer George Miller, one would have expected a mess. But that series is Mad Max and that old man is the visionary Miller, or once again, a peculiar, lavish, audio-visually polished spectacle, brimming with ideas in literally every scene. My only criticism is that the running time is too (especially in one particular chapter). It teeters on the edge of "more of the same" vs. "more room for characters and world building but not more of the same". Which isn't necessarily a criticism, but a more pronounced lean to one side might not be out of place. Either way, they are just minor details. (05/24/2024)

A desert adventure for big boys and fiery girls. While the snippets from Fury Road during the closing credits recalled the tank scene from The Last Crusade, what came before was Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, missing only Bravestone in a buggy and a flock of aggressive ostriches. But I won’t complain about the special effects, given how charmingly frantic, energetic, rule-free, and playful the details were in the costumes, masks, and auto-moto park (like the cut-outs in Immortan Joe's advisor’s suit, used to stimulate his nipples, or the extension of Tom Burke's real scar above his lip). The finale, where Dementus Hur, without his team but still with a nose covering half of New South Wales, was chatting with his Nemesis, only underscored George Miller's creed that dialogue slows down a film. “Ladies and gentlemen! Start your engines!” (07/26/2024)

Furiosa was still a child when she was taken from her home. She grew up surrounded by violence and madness, but she never stopped wanting revenge. In the wasteland, a war is brewing between two armies of brutal dictators, and Furiosa intends to be on the front lines. George Miller returns to a harsh post-apocalyptic world, but in a slightly different way than you might expect. There's still plenty of action, and there are so many ideas in a single scene that other Hollywood blockbusters could live off of it for years. However, this time around there are more complex characters and, above all, a greater effort to immerse yourself in a world full of chaos and discover that it too has its own order. Miller delivers another one of his visually lavish and uncompromising visions, and he knows he can afford not to pander to audiences who expect nothing more than more of what they got last time. (05/22/2024)

Mad Max is an Australian cultural treasure that should have only stayed at three or four episodes. For the first hour, it felt like a sequence of mini-stories, with the disgustingly overacting Chris Hemsworth twitching like a pigeon eating grain and his performance actually making it into a kind of interlocking semi-comedy sketches that I really don't want to see in the Mad Max saga. He was the weakest link in the film. The other one was the overuse of obvious green-screen and over-stylized colors. Back then, years ago, with the first two episodes, I admired the punk spirit that came out of them. A punkness that was related to the low budget, when everything was handmade, so to speak, when the wastelanders were played by real bikers, the cops by real cops, the props were invented in the breaks during filming, and it exuded a wildness and realness that George Miller partially revived in the equally wild Fury Road. This is rather closer Thunderdome, which was also over-stylized and implausible in its depiction of the post-apocalyptic world. I didn't believe it. Mad Max doesn't benefit from a swollen budget because then Miller can't keep it up and in trying to cram in as much as possible, it's like that dog and cat fairy tale where they cooked a cake with so many ingredients that it made them puke (the quarry scene is too over the top). As time goes on, you find that you don't really care much about Furiosa's fate because, unlike Mel Gibson, she's not a pivotal defining character for you, you don't experience it with her, and you pray all the while that there's as little Hemsworth as possible. In fact, the only thing worth singling out is the ten-minute attack on the tanker, because you can feel the punk genuineness of it, where the stuntmen have honestly worked their magic along with those who came up with the choreography. And that's not enough for me, George. Too little. (07/19/2024)

George Miller couldn't keep up the fiendish pace a second time. Furiosa is more vivid in plot and tries to be more emotional, but it loses its punch and drive. It's as if Fury Road is a unique movement from the best watch manufactory, where every component is perfectly thought out and crafted in detail, versus a top of the line mass-produced Aussie watch that will work well too and just won't shatter, but the top craftsmanship isn't there anymore. Furiosa copies the best action moments from the first film, but otherwise it doesn't have much to offer. Anya Taylor-Joy is awesome, it’s a shame that we have to wait so long for her. The overwhelming amount of eye-popping digital effects is very disappointing, and they're often blown out of proportion, which is a solid bummer compared to the first one. (06/28/2024)