Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) [+]
Oct 09 2024
Furiosa is a prequel film to Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). It's post-apocalypse Australian desert (using a zoom in from space, I don't remember if Fury Road set the location of events). A world where vehicles, gasoline and bullets are all important.
A young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) is kidnapped from the Green Place and ends up "adopted" by Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), leader of a Biker Horde. A bit later (maybe months or a year or two) Dementus captures Gas Town and seals a bargain with Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), ruler of the Citadel. As part of that bargain Furiosa is given over to Joe and his War Boys. But Furiosa manages to "escape" and hide among the Citadel's many workers
Young adult Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) rises up in the lower ranks. She stows away on a war rig run and tries to hijack it after a rogue biker attack (where she also shows off her mechanic skills). She fails but impresses Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) who takes her in as replacement crew. He teachers her more skills and we fast forward a bit.
Dementus runs Gas Town badly. In order to keep power over the increasingly unstable populace he attacks and takes over Bullet Town and ambushes the war rig. Furiosa manages to make it back to the Citadel and warns Immortan Joe. The 40 Day Desert War follows (in a montage sequence). With both forces exhausted it's time for Furiosa to take revenge on Dementus...
Like Fury Road, Furiosa has a lot of gorgeous desert scenes, road travel and combat. I guess because we have Fury Road this film doesn't seem as impressive with the same budget (which is probably effectively less budget due to inflation). I also watched this on my iPad and a theater viewing would have been more impressive.
Also like Fury Road all the characters around the lead are more interesting. Mad Max did not talk through most of his film. Furiosa after being kidnapped doesn't talk until she resurfaces as an anonymous wincher. She has a bit of a speech at the end (and other times she "talks" but the camera is farther away and we don't hear speech).
Dementus is a great character that dominates every scene he's in. Talkative, rambling, dissembling, and quite ruthless. He's the main villain that Furiosa can beat (Immortan Joe and his have to live to be in Fury Road) and at times he seems barely capable and other times he shows he's actually quite dangerous man-to-man.
Overall it's a good film and definitely a Mad Max-style film. Not quite as good as Fury Road simply because that was original for the time and this one has follow otherwise it's not a proper prequel.
A young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) is kidnapped from the Green Place and ends up "adopted" by Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), leader of a Biker Horde. A bit later (maybe months or a year or two) Dementus captures Gas Town and seals a bargain with Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), ruler of the Citadel. As part of that bargain Furiosa is given over to Joe and his War Boys. But Furiosa manages to "escape" and hide among the Citadel's many workers
Young adult Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) rises up in the lower ranks. She stows away on a war rig run and tries to hijack it after a rogue biker attack (where she also shows off her mechanic skills). She fails but impresses Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) who takes her in as replacement crew. He teachers her more skills and we fast forward a bit.
Dementus runs Gas Town badly. In order to keep power over the increasingly unstable populace he attacks and takes over Bullet Town and ambushes the war rig. Furiosa manages to make it back to the Citadel and warns Immortan Joe. The 40 Day Desert War follows (in a montage sequence). With both forces exhausted it's time for Furiosa to take revenge on Dementus...
Like Fury Road, Furiosa has a lot of gorgeous desert scenes, road travel and combat. I guess because we have Fury Road this film doesn't seem as impressive with the same budget (which is probably effectively less budget due to inflation). I also watched this on my iPad and a theater viewing would have been more impressive.
Also like Fury Road all the characters around the lead are more interesting. Mad Max did not talk through most of his film. Furiosa after being kidnapped doesn't talk until she resurfaces as an anonymous wincher. She has a bit of a speech at the end (and other times she "talks" but the camera is farther away and we don't hear speech).
Dementus is a great character that dominates every scene he's in. Talkative, rambling, dissembling, and quite ruthless. He's the main villain that Furiosa can beat (Immortan Joe and his have to live to be in Fury Road) and at times he seems barely capable and other times he shows he's actually quite dangerous man-to-man.
Overall it's a good film and definitely a Mad Max-style film. Not quite as good as Fury Road simply because that was original for the time and this one has follow otherwise it's not a proper prequel.