Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, dir. George Miller

Wiz RECOMMENDS Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Mad Max: Fury Road took the film world by storm with it's amazing visuals and mind-bending stunts. It's an action film that, to this day, seems to hold a special place in action film fans hearts. And I agreed: the stunt work, visuals and it's breakneck pace in action gave it a breathless, if not mindless, adrenaline rush. Furiosa: A Mad Max Tale has a lot of the same strengths: the stunt work is expertly done and the visuals share the same tableau as it's predecessor. But Furiosa does a few things differently that end up being to its detriment. The beauty of Fury Road was the lack of time to even catch a breath. The action sequences and set pieces keep coming and coming as the film started to when it's finished only take minutes here and there for some exposition. Furiosa is much slower in comparison: as a prequel, it tells the story of a young Furiosa and how she ended up where she was in Mad Max: Fury Road. But as cool as Furiosa was in Fury Road, you knew barely anything about her. She was much more of a vibe or a template that Charlize Theron embodied more than played. The problem is the depth given to Furiosa was meager at best. And for a movie that is 2 hours and 30 minutes long, that becomes a major problem when she eventually gains her comeuppance. In fact, the character herself, whether played by Alyla Browne as a young girl or Anya Taylor-Joy as an older Furiosa, the character doesn't speak much at all until the third act. Wouldn't the purpose of a prequel focused solely on a single character have you get to know this character better? Apparently not this movie. The most you know is how she got captured and how she eventually started working for Immortan Joe. That's it. In fact, you don't really get to know any character all that well. One of the fascinating things about Fury Road was the characters were so delightfully weird and the world inhabited was so fascinating based solely on it's visuals that it became a disappointment when you would learn not much at all. And honestly, Furiosa doesn't have that feel of "holy hell what am I looking at?!" because a lot of the set pieces and characters were introduced in Fury Road. But I will recommend Furiosa. One reason is, of course, the visuals and action set pieces are amazing to watch. When the action set pieces set on rigs get going, you are instantly transported to what made the last movie so memorable. All of the stunts and action are so believably well done and are exciting to watch. Just not as exciting as it was in Fury Road. There is one thing that I think Furiosa does better than Fury Road and that's the main antagonist. Immortan Joe was incredibly weird in Fury Road, but only in the "yo what am I looking at?" sort of way. Dr. Dementus is both darkly hilarious and charismatic. Played in an incredibly showy turn by Chris Hemsworth, the character gets to show a different side of Hemsworth repertoire that is not only comedically rich but also dark. It's a side that we don't get to see in the chiseled actor since he is more known as Thor or in other action films, but it was a delightful surprise to see him chew scenery. The short of it is this: Furiosa is a lesser Fury Road in a number of ways. With the exception of the villain, all of the aspects of the film aren't as dynamic or as entertaining as they were in the last film. That said, if you want more Fury Road, Furiosa will tide you over nicely enough. Just don't expect to be blown over like you may have been in Fury Road.