{"id":28689,"date":"2024-05-22T22:51:13","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T05:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=28689"},"modified":"2024-05-22T22:51:13","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T05:51:13","slug":"furiosa-a-mad-max-saga-is-another-compelling-chapter-in-the-franchise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=28689","title":{"rendered":"FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA is Another Compelling Chapter in the Mad Max Franchise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Running Time: 148 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This film from Warner Bros. opens exclusively at movie\ntheaters on May 24th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in 1979, director George Miller created Max Mad<\/em>,\na dynamic little Australian action picture produced for well under $1 million\ndollars. While the film became a massive success and went on to gross more than\n$100 million worldwide, even the filmmaker probably wouldn\u2019t have anticipated\ncreating several more hits based on this property. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga<\/em>\nis a prequel and spin-off marking the fifth chapter in the series arriving some\n45 years after the first picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this reviewer, it rarely seems necessary to create a\nprequel that fills in background details about events that have already been\ndepicted. However, for this picture one can make an exception. While it doesn\u2019t\nquite match all of its predecessors and features more CGI than prior\ninstallments, the storytelling on display is still remarkable. The film\ndelivers more thrills than it has any right to and delivers pulse-pounding\nentertainment throughout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Based around a character introduced in 2015\u2019s Mad Max: Fury Road<\/em>, this prequel begins not long after the world has become a wasteland devastated by war. A young child named Furiosa (Alyla Browne) lives in a hidden community that still has trees and farmable land. When invaders violently abduct the child and take her to their barbaric leader Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), she is forced to do anything she can to survive within this group of marauders. In the meantime, Dementus aims to become a more powerful figure, ultimately making a deal with Citadel head Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme) that sees him promoted to leader of GasTown. Years later, a still traumatized but fierce and grown-up Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) yearns to return home and enact retribution on Dementus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A great deal of the first half of the picture involves the\nmostly mute child Furiosa taking in the inhumanity surrounding her. Despite the\nvery young age of the actress playing her, there\u2019s plenty of trauma and fury\nvisible in her wide eyes. Taylor-Joy does an admirable job of portraying a\n20-something version of Furiosa, handling the intense physicality of the part\nand displaying her damaged frame of mind exceptionally well. As villains go,\nHemsworth also makes for a very memorable foe. There\u2019s a lot of meat on the\nbones of Dementus. He\u2019s an egotistical psychopath who falsely believes he is\ncleverer than he actually is, leading to some darkly humorous comments. Miller\nwisely chooses to imply a grim past for the character as well, allowing him the\nopportunity to deliver a notable monologue about revenge and its inevitable\nfailure to heal deep psychological wounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good portion of the first half is also used to detail the\npolitics involved in this savage world. This normally would be the type of\nthing that I would bemoan and it does result in a slower pace, but the material\nis quite interesting as presented. Earlier films detail a few moments\nbehind-the-scenes with tyrannical leaders and present many of the roving gang\nmembers as faceless outlaws, but this picture shows more about these societies\nand the relationships between comrades (often peppered with gallows humor). And\nfor viewers familiar with the series, there are several notable nods not just\nto Fury Road<\/em>, but to other films and individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As expected, the action is, once-again, first rate. It is noticeable that digital effects are being used more frequently here (no doubt because early sections involves a child performer, and later bits include elaborate wasteland backdrops). However, this isn\u2019t too much of a distraction. The camera angles are always creative, with plenty of wild moves during long takes. The geography is very clear and the dangerous situations the characters find themselves in are consistently exciting to witness. There are a couple of absolutely fantastic bits involving a tanker that are incredible to witness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, there is more digital trickery in this effort and the film doesn\u2019t move as breathlessly as a couple of other features from the series. However, the story is more engaging than anticipated and there is a great deal of phenomenal action and interesting interplay to enjoy. This unexpected franchise is surely now among the greatest in cinema and few could expect a fifth movie\/prequel to be this engaging. While it can\u2019t quite match the perfection of Mad Max 2<\/em> aka The Road Warrior<\/em> or Mad Max: Fury Road<\/em>, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga<\/em> does outdo others in its series and is something of a marvel. If Miller wants to continue hurtling down the road in his 80s with another chapter, this critic is more than willing to take yet another ride. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running Time: 148 minutes This film from Warner Bros. opens exclusively at movie theaters on May 24th. Back in 1979, director George Miller created Max Mad, a dynamic little Australian action picture produced for well under $1 million dollars. While the film became a massive success and went on to gross more than $100 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":28690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[215,697,1161,1634,2056,3943,4304,6305,8007,8008,8009,8010,8200,12861,16296,23696,23989,24008],"class_list":["post-28689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-215","tag-action","tag-alyla-browne","tag-anya-taylor-joy","tag-australia","tag-cars","tag-chris-hemsworth","tag-driving","tag-furiosa-a-mad-max-saga","tag-furiosa-a-mad-max-saga-film-review","tag-furiosa-a-mad-max-saga-movie-review","tag-furiosa-a-mad-max-saga-review","tag-george-miller","tag-mad-max","tag-post-apocalypse","tag-vehicles","tag-warner-bros","tag-wasteland"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}