Review by Dan Berry and Darren Shulman
Director: George Miller
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, and Alyla Browne
Movie Length: 2 hours 28 minutes
What it’s about: A prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road that showcases the early years of Furiosa as she seeks revenge for the killing of her mother.
What Dan thought: Wow. This was a near perfect prequel. From the cinematography, to the score (which wasn’t over the top and helped the scenes keep moving), to the action/chase scenes. All of those combined along with great performances by Hemsworth’s Dementus (who you could tell was having so much fun as a villain), and both Browne and Taylor-Joy as younger versions of Furiosa made this movie a 2 and a half hour movie filmed in the Australian outback worthy of the other movies in the franchise.
Lets talk about those action/chase scenes now. If you thought some of the stunts in Fall Guy were great…the ones that George Miller thought up for this movie blow those ones away. There are 2 long chase scenes and they are visually impressive thanks to veteran Guy Norris as supervising stunt coordinator along with very long stunt performer list (seriously! IMDb credits over 100 total)
If you want to spend 2.5 hours in a theater with good AC as the temperatures start to rise as we approach the Summer movie season…this is one to see on a big screen. If you have an IMAX theater nearby, go see it on that one. This is a movie that definitely needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible. And don’t leave until the credits are done running.
What Darren thought: The recent Max Mad movies are a bit of an enigma. Mad Max: Fury Road ostensibly is a prequel to the Mad Max movies that made Mel Gibson a star. But that movie was mostly about Charlize Theron’s Furiosa character, making the title feel like a bit of false advertising. Now Furiosa gets her own prequel movie (a prequel to a prequel with Anya Taylor-Joy stepping in for Theron), only this time it seems to really be mostly a movie about Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus (the names in this movie are off the wall hilarious). Taylor-Joy does a decent job stepping in for Theron, though she doesn’t really show up in the movie until halfway in and she seems more sorrowful than furious.
While it keeps the same dusty aesthetic as Fury Road, Furiosa is, in my opinion, a better movie. Gone are the random dudes on hoods of vehicles playing guitar for some reason. In their place is a more gritty, grounded series of car chases. They go on forever, but they manage to avoid being repetitive with creative set pieces. It’s still ridiculous – from the characters’ names to Hemsworth’s scenery chewing performance – but it’s fun and intense. The violence is gritty and fairly graphic.
As a prequel to a prequel, you really don’t have to have seen any of the prior Mad Max films. A note of warning, this move does lead right up to Fury Road, so if you haven’t seen that movie, I recommend not sticking around for the credits, as they link up the films and may ruin your viewing of that movie. I was one of the few people who didn’t like Fury Road, so perhaps the best compliment I can give is that this makes me want to go back and see it again.
Dan’s rating: A
Darren’s rating: A-
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is now in theaters.
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