After George Miller's 2015 masterpiece "Mad Max: Fury Road" revitalized not only its franchise but the action genre as a whole, expectations were sky-high for the next entry in the series. I remember being blown away by seeing "Fury Road" on the big screen back in 2015, and I was hoping that this gritty and often brutal prequel about Furiosa's childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood would help complement that film and stand alone as a compelling and action-packed entry in the series. Prequels aren't particularly easy to get right, particularly when it comes to establishing a sense of purpose and creating clear stakes and dramatic tension to keep the audience engaged even when they think they know the ultimate outcome of the story. But as we clearly know by now, Miller doesn't do things the easy way, so I didn't expect that to be much of a problem. Ultimately, I thought "Furiosa" was fine, but it sometimes feels flawed and dull in a way that "Fury Road" obviously isn't.
Running a lengthy but never lethargic 2.5 hours (which is a lot longer than previous movies in the series,) the film's primary plot centers on Furiosa seeking revenge against the evil Dementus (Chris Hemsworth.) Anya Taylor-Joy does well as Furiosa, always establishing a commanding sense of rage and trauma, but Chris Hemsworth sometimes over-acts as a sometimes-vicious, sometimes-campy, sometimes-Shakespearean sort of villain who ends up being a bit all over the place thematically. While the film does a good job establishing world-building, the plot still isn't especially unique, efficient, or consistently engaging despite being a bit dragged out. Audiences don't end up learning as much about Furiosa as a character as we would expect for a prequel that is this long. There are two prolonged action scenes that are very technically impressive, but the action is definitely not as good (and nowhere near as frequent) or ingrained in the story as in "Fury Road." Yet on the positive side, Taylor Joy's performance is generally strong, and the movie is still gorgeously shot, edited, and scored while always staying very visually engaging. While topping "Fury Road" probably would have been impossible, it's just at least a little disappointing that this film couldn't have been at least a little better or a little more purposeful. 6/10
Note: My ranking of the franchise, from best to worst, is as follows: Fury Road, The Road Warrior, Mad Max (the first movie,) Furiosa, Beyond Thunderdome.
Running a lengthy but never lethargic 2.5 hours (which is a lot longer than previous movies in the series,) the film's primary plot centers on Furiosa seeking revenge against the evil Dementus (Chris Hemsworth.) Anya Taylor-Joy does well as Furiosa, always establishing a commanding sense of rage and trauma, but Chris Hemsworth sometimes over-acts as a sometimes-vicious, sometimes-campy, sometimes-Shakespearean sort of villain who ends up being a bit all over the place thematically. While the film does a good job establishing world-building, the plot still isn't especially unique, efficient, or consistently engaging despite being a bit dragged out. Audiences don't end up learning as much about Furiosa as a character as we would expect for a prequel that is this long. There are two prolonged action scenes that are very technically impressive, but the action is definitely not as good (and nowhere near as frequent) or ingrained in the story as in "Fury Road." Yet on the positive side, Taylor Joy's performance is generally strong, and the movie is still gorgeously shot, edited, and scored while always staying very visually engaging. While topping "Fury Road" probably would have been impossible, it's just at least a little disappointing that this film couldn't have been at least a little better or a little more purposeful. 6/10
Note: My ranking of the franchise, from best to worst, is as follows: Fury Road, The Road Warrior, Mad Max (the first movie,) Furiosa, Beyond Thunderdome.
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