In many ways it is hard of course to follow on from what many rightly in my opinion refer to as one of the greatest movies of the century thus far, if not ever. But George Miller is a man who has sequelised his creations time and time again through his incredibly successful career. In the case of Furiosa, of course he is adding a fifth entry into the Mad Max series, however with the huge gap of time in between entries and alterations in the cast, this feels more so like a direct sequel to Fury Road, the aforementioned ‘one of the best ever’, hence the shoes were very large to fill. However Furiosa to me, and I know this is not an opinion that all hold, feels so startlingly different in concept and vision that the two inform each other and enrich each other and leading to one of the best films of the year and certainly one of the most entertaining even with all of its bizarre and off-kilter narrative shifts.
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To witness a pure master at work is always a thrill, especially when their work manages to live up to their previous bounties of creative excellence. Furiosa is in some ways a different beast and in many more obvious ways is a perfect continuation of Miller’s Mad Max world and in its case is wholly understanding of where it sits within the legacy of this series of humble beginnings and contrasting far reaches. Miller with his co-writer Nick Lathouris have adapted to the screen here the many notes and visualisations they prepared prior to Fury Road for the iconic character of Furiosa, which once initially said does sound like an exercise best left for tie-in books or licensed animated series left to die on some streaming service. It is the rarity and the absolute joy here that this back-story is given the full theatrical treatment and is by all merits the absolute raging definition of pure cinema. The work of cinematographer Simon Duggen, the costumes of Jenny Beavan, along with the editing of Margaret Sixel and Eliot Knapman, all once again in the vein of Fury Road work together to create the most visually dynamic and tangible of worlds, here aided it seems with a touch more visual effects that very, very rarely didn’t work for me. Miller is such a master and so well versed in this bizarre and terrifying- as much as it is entertaining- world that he could rest on laurels of the immense creativity he has already imbued into the world and yet here there is a wealth of new creations and a true bank of exciting and often ingenious new characters who not only fit into the world we know, but once again better it with the populating they do.
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Miller is undeniable as a director and is as
expected at his very best when creating vast set-pieces and sprawling action of
an incredibly visceral and dynamic nature. But the joy of this film is how
different it feels too and how many different muscles Miller stretches when it
comes to intimate scenes and dialogue exchanges that are certainly the most
verbose we have ever received in this world. The joys of this are largely down
to the astounding performance of Chris Hemsworth as Dementus who is in the same
ways that Max often takes a side-seat in his own films, perhaps the lead and
main focus of the breadth of this film. His complete intoxication and lengths
of pure villainy and outrage are overflowing and his tact with Miller’s
incredibly specific bizarre dialogue is sensational. Although Hemsworth may
very well steal the film and although Thom Burke and Charlee Fraser captivate
us greatly for their stretches, this is of course Furiosa’s film. However in
regards to the brilliant Anya Taylor Joy, we wait far longer than is advertised
to get her take on the character, with the solid Alyla Browne as the character
for the first hour of the film, once we do get Joy however she is brilliant and
perfectly encapsulates all that is this iconic character in a way that is
fitting of Theron and different as and when it is allowed.
A startling 9/10 whose expanse is seemingly endless and whose power is enthralling. The film is the definition of epic in all of its forms and if anything that is where my one point retraction comes from the fact that although the film is a mighty and justified 2hr 28mins, it actually feels as though an awful lot has been cut out and the blatancy of it was noticeable and hardly smooth. However Miller is a master like no other, singular and divine almost, and when your chief complaint is that you wish you had more of a film - then that really isn’t a complaint at all really. The film is built upon a foundation of big shoes and the film either fills them with panache, continues entertainment in the same mode or diverges to create even more enthralling characters and worlds. This is a film destined to rise above the unfair and yet wholly natural comparisons to its predecessor.
P.S. This film does however commit the cardinal sin of reminding us of a far better movie in its closing credits, showing us literal footage from Fury Road, in a sense it seems to remind us that this film does have closure and a sense of conclusion, it can simply be found in a different film – however of course in the meanwhile reminding us that we could have been watching a film that’s just simply better in many different ways.
P.P.S. The chapterised quality to the film overall worked for me very well and actually helped in some ways to ease the clear wealth’s of narrative that were divided up and put aside for a rainy day blu ray one can hope.
P.P.P.S. Perhaps if I rewatched Fury Road with an immediacy before or after to Furiosa then my reaction would be a bit more tempered, however I intentionally chose to distance from the film as long as I could.
- -Thomas Carruthers
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