Movie Review: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) co-written and directed by George Miller

This prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road shows the origin of Imperator Furiosa (played here as a pre-teen by Alyla Browne and as a post-teen by Anya Taylor-Joy). She grows up in a paradisiacal (though post-nuclear holocaust) community dominated by women called the Land of Many Mothers. They have plenty of food and water, lush green vegetation and peace. That peace is shattered when some bikers spot Furiosa and a friend on the edge of their paradise. The bikers kidnap Furiosa and take her back to Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), leader of a biker horde who adopts the girl as his own child. He's interested in her paradise but she refuses to talk, especially after Dementus kills her mother (who had chased after them through the desert). Dementus hears about another source of water and food, a fortress called The Citadel. It is run by Immorten Joe (Lachy Hulme), a sadistic but competent ruler. Dementus fails to take over The Citadel, losing Furiosa in a deal that puts Dementus in charge of Gastown, the source of gas in the wastelands. The Citadel and Gastown have a bartering relationship that includes The Bullet Farm (where they make weapons and ammunition). Furiosa cuts her hair and pretends to be a man. She grows up to become a fierce warrior. She still wants to return to her home but she is not quite free to leave for a long time.

The movie follows Furiosa as she travels through this imaginative and chaotic world. Miller's great strengths are the creative world building and amazing actions sequences. The initial chase, across the desert from the Land of Many Mothers, is lackluster. The first third of the movie is a slow set-up of the action to come. After Furiosa grows up, the movie picks up the pace. Hemsworth is a bit over-the-top in this, but it is a Mad Max film (even if Max is virtually absent). I found Anya Taylor-Joy's performance a bit flat--she's good in the action sequences but her character seems to mostly be pulled along the rest of the story without real agency. She's just an observer for too long. The whole movie feels too long, like parts could have been pared down to get it to the action where Furiosa's character comes out more.

Barely recommended--I love the bat-poop crazy action and visuals but the story is not so interesting.

Movie Review: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) produced, co-written, and co-directed by George Miller

Max (Mel Gibson) is traveling through the desert when he is waylaid by airborne nemesis Jedediah (Bruce Spence). Jedediah takes Max's car and camels (saves on gas!), basically all of his earthly possessions. Max follows on foot and winds up in Bartertown. It's an attempt to recreate civilization in the post-nuclear-holocaust wasteland. The town is organized by Auntie Entity (Tina Turner) but the electricity is provided underground by Master Blaster (Angelo Rossitto and Paul Larsson), a duo consisting of a scientifically-minded small person and a mute, brutal large person. Master likes to flex his influence which causes trouble for Auntie. Auntie makes a deal with Max to eliminate Blaster, which will take the mickey out of Master and let her be the sole ruler of Bartertown. After an epic and creative fight between Max and Blaster in Thunderdome (the place where all disputes are settled), Max is banished, leading the story in a new, surprising, and creative direction.

One of the appeals of the Mad Max series (at least to me) is the bizarre and creative world Miller presents. The people are rough-shod and hard-nosed but still have a lot of individuality. The main characters also have more depth than the typical action picture. Auntie is the villain but very understandable and sympathetic, even if her actions are not often condone-able. Turner gives a good performance, balancing her character's somewhat bloodthirsty side with a bit of pride and ego at trying to reestablish civilization. She's made a hash of it but at least she's trying. Max's journey could have been just an episodic string of action set pieces. Miller crafts a more interesting and connected journey for Max, one that emphasizes his humanity and weaknesses as he brute-forces his way through very difficult situations. He has heroism and tragic self-sacrifice, attributes that raise him above the standard 1980s action heroes. The fight in Thunderdome is very creative and exciting as is the train/car chase at the end of the film.

Recommended, highly for Mad Max fans. This isn't as crazy as The Road Warrior but it does have more plot and interesting characters.

The Sequel Was Better? Mad Max Showdown

The Sequel Was Better? is a series of reviews looking at famous movies with sequels that are considered, rightly or wrongly, to be better than the original movies. Typically, sequels are a step down in quality, acting, and/or production value. But not always. See other reviews here.

With the recent franchise revival Mad Max: Fury Road, viewers are probably familiar with the over-the-top styling of director George Miller's futuristic world. Weird costumes and over-built vehicles (it's hard to call them cars) are the norm in a future gone crazy. The origin of Mad Max is interesting, but the sequel is, in my judgment, much better than the first film that came out over forty years ago.

Mad Max (1979) co-written and directed by George Miller

In a rough and tumble future, the police have a hard job keeping the roads safe. Max (Mel Gibson) is on the force but he's seen too much brutality. He and his partner Goose (Steve Bisley) patrol bleak highways and rundown towns, dealing with tough guys in tougher cars. The other cops aren't as good as Max and Goose, though even Goose can't keep out of trouble for too long. A biker gang led by Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne) runs Goose off the road and burns him up while he's trapped inside his cop car. Max goes to the hospital to see Goose's charred body barely clinging to life. Max is very disturbed. He tries to resign, but his boss gives him a couple of weeks off to relax with his wife and toddler. In several strokes of incredibly bad luck, Max and his family keep running into the same sadistic biker gang that killed Max's partner. After a couple of harrowing encounters, Max's family is killed. Max then sets out for brutal revenge against the gang.

The simple plot gives plenty of room for car chases and action, though the parts in between feel slow and choppy. The initial set-up takes almost half the movie and the slow burn to Max's madness is pretty slow. The action is well directed with a lot of loving shots of cars and motorcycles. Gibson is charming and menacing when he needs to be, a very sympathetic character. The movie makers seem to want to make a statement about justice or how corrupt the system is, but those ideas are swallowed up by the action and suped-up cars.

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) co-written and directed by George Miller

In a post-apocalyptic future, Max wanders the wastelands searching for gasoline for his car. His first run-in with some bikers scores him some gas and a chance meeting with a gyrocopter captain (Bruce Spence). The captain tries to trick Max into giving up his gas. Max is too wily and turns the tables on him. The captain promises to take Max to where there's enough gas for anyone. The spot is an oil pump and refinery run by thirty or so defenders. They defend the refinery from The Humungus (Kjell Nillson), a fierce warlord who leads a band of misfits, including some of the bikers from Max's first scene in this movie.

Max initially wants to lay low but is drawn into the conflict when he helps one of the fleeing refinery people get back to the refinery after being injured. The refinery people don't trust Max but he makes a deal with them. He'll go get a big rig that will pull their oil tanker from the refinery (they want to flee to the coast); they'll let him leave with his car fully fueled. After a long walk, a harrowing battle, and a big chase back to the refinery, Max wants to take his gas and go, but the people want him to drive the rig for them. He refuses and drives off.

The bad guys attack him and leave Max for dead on the side of the road. The gyrocopter captain finds Max and brings him back to the refinery where he has no choice but to drive the rig. He and the others flee the refinery in their vehicles, leading to another spectacular car chase/battle. The battle ends with the tanker crashed and spilling dirt. The tanker was a decoy all the time, allowing the refinery people to escape to safety with the gas hidden in their vehicles. Max is left standing in the road, a battered, lonely, noble hero.

So is the sequel better? Let's look at some points of comparison.

• SCRIPT--The first film tells a simple story of a guy driven over the edge by an ever worsening situation. The simplicity lends itself to padding out with action sequences and set pieces, which are executed fairly well. The second film starts with a voice-over explaining how obsession with fossil fuel led to the downfall of civilization, implying that a world war after WWII caused massive devastation. It comes off as being a lecture but viewers quickly forget about that as the story kicks into gear. The movie has a lot less dialog in the middle, relying on the action to tell the story. Even though the scripts are very different, it's too close to call a better here.
• ACTING--Gibson is good in both films as the titular hero. In the first film, he has more acting to do since his character has a character arc to move through. In the second film, Max is the same tough action hero from beginning to end. The supporting cast does a good job in the first film; in the second film, the cast also does a fine job though they have the more challenging situation of the post-apocalyptic punk costuming (lots of mohawks, leather, and piercings). Special mention should be made of...
• THE BIG BAD--Toecutter in the first movie is an odd fellow. He's soft-spoken for the most part with occasional bursts of anger and violence. His frizzy hair and somewhat portly shape makes him less threatening-looking, though he is indeed quite threatening. The Humungus in the second film is weird in his own way, but he's muscle-bound (you can tell because he wears hardly anything) and hockey-masked with a sort-of eastern European accent. He is a lot scarier and threatening. Advantage to the sequel.
• ADVANCES THE STORY/MYTHOLOGY--The sequel immediately switches from a rough and tumble future to a post-apocalyptic future, with Max wandering through a blighted landscape. His backstory becomes fairly negligible because he's an Old West action hero cut from the same cloth as Clint Eastwood's characters. The second film doesn't so much advance the mythology as switch it out. Slight advantage to sequel.
• SPECIAL EFFECTS--The bigger budget of the sequel naturally led to bigger effects and more impressive stunts and action sequence. The first movie has some very mundane locations--a good bit of it looks like it was filmed at someone's summer house. Advantage to the sequel.
• VISUAL STYLE--The first movie had a lot of amazing action sequences considering the low budget. The first film's biker gang members have a punk feel to them. The Humungus's gang in the second film is full on 80s punk, definitely crossing over into sadomasochism (which fits the characters). The cars in the second film are less like factory products and more like DIY armed and armored vehicles. They are more distinctive and make the action more exciting. Director Miller is able to have more style with more resources. The refinery is all by itself in this desert valley, fitting the post-apocalyptic tone of the film. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

While both movies are very exciting and very violent, this is another case (like the Evil Dead films) where a bigger budget means a more convincing-looking film. The Road Warrior is also more distinctive with its wasteland setting that's a lot more post-apocalyptic than the first film which seems like it's just on the wrong side of tracks. The high amount of violence and the distinctive visual style of both films is not for everyone.

Movie Review: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) co-written and directed by George Miller

Mad Max (Tom Hardy) winds up a blood donor for a low-level combat driver in a post-apocalyptic town where the main commodity is water. Water is pumped up from deep underground and given to the locals to keep them local. The leader is a fellow named Immortal Joe. He maintains the water distribution, trades with Gas Town and Bullet Town, has an army to caravan the water around, and has a group of wives. Or he had a group of wives--they've snuck out in one of the water delivery trucks driven by Imperator Furiosa (an unrecognizable Charlize Theron). She is taking them to a green place, the Land of Many Mothers, where they won't have to be incubators for Immortal Joe's offspring. Joe doesn't take kindly to them leaving and mounts up a retrieval mission. The combat driver brings Max along so he'll have enough blood (they are attached by a tube after all). It's a slim excuse to get Max into the action but it does get him there. Lots of road chases and fights follow.

The real star of the movie is the amazingly inventive action sequences. No two vehicles are the same and they are all DIY smash-ups of at least three vehicles. Some are mounted with harpoons; some with flame throwers; some with really big guns; some with cow-catchers; some with plows (it makes sense in the moment they are used but at no other time); some with cranes; some with big long sticks with a harness on the end so guys can come flying in to attack another vehicle and fly back out (also only makes sense when they are used); most vehicles have combinations of the foregoing. With all this random equipment, the forces of good and evil can have plenty of tightly-choreographed and eye-popping battles. The sequences are well-shot and edited so viewers can follow the action and know who is where (which doesn't always happen in modern action films). It's breath-taking and fun and completely bonkers.

Sure, there's references to hope in hopeless circumstances, and how people aren't things and shouldn't be treated like things, and characters seeking redemption. But that is all more or less window-dressing to give viewers something to care about in the slight pauses between the amazing action sequences. This is a high-octane, over-the-top action film with just enough heart in it to hold things together.