Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Fury Road prequel)

[Richeh]

Loved Fury Road and was expecting to be disappointed by this. However as the film went on I was more and more into it, it is definitely a different way of telling a Wasteland story and is a bit too clean compared to Fury Road but honestly, it was really good. Performances were top notch, set pieces also 8.5/10. It is a prequel I didn't think we needed but after watching one that was very well deserved.

 

[Glanza]

Better than I thought it was going to be especially compared to Fury Road, didn't quite hit the same marks and feeling whilst watching and the switch from practical to CGI constantly was getting distracting to say the least. I get why they did it but it wasn't smooth at all and had some really questionable CGI scenes.

No real bangers for the soundtrack this time around either.

Chris Hemsworth hamming it up was the highlight, I still stick by my comment when the trailer dropped that Anya was the wrong casting choice imo.

Not worth the Imax viewing this time around.

 

[hudson86]

Pretty decent , 1st cinema trip for a couple of years and watched the Imax version, forgot how loud it can go.

Not as relentless as Fury Road but still very entertaining and the film flew by.

 

[ArcticHeron]

No real bangers for the soundtrack this time around either

Aye, it's my one solid criticism of the film in general. It barely flaunts with the original score either which is a great shame.

 

[ColdAsIce]

I just love the world Miller has created, I hope he gets scope to make another 1 or 2 in this world. Honestly the cgi wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be but obviously I’d prefer more practical film making where possible. Some scenes the lighting was really dark but I didn’t see it in imax, id be curious what those that did see it in imax thought?

Casting was fine except the final scenes, she kind of lacked the presence of Theron in that moment. Easy 7/10 for me although some repeated moments from fury road. I’d also say kind of plot hole territory

Spoiler

when she goes missing from the citadel would have been a massive deal and being a d female driver of the war rig would have raised eyebrows as she was in perfect condition and a prime target for Joe

 

[Rising]

Really disappointed with it 3-4/10

The first hour was slow and pointless, parts 1 and 2, nothing new stunt wise. Just didn't engage with the film at all.

 

[Nitefly]

Just came back from this.

The good was great. There is an action scene that probably tops anything in Fury Road and the world building is often subtle but appreciated (e.g. the rules that apply to the protected females, trade arrangements and so on). It’s often a joy visually too. The main characters were all generally great and likeable. Some fun shoot out scenes. All good.

The main negatives to get over are:

(1) It has to spend time with ‘backstory’ and ‘set-up’ - the absence of this is exactly what made Fury Road so watchable. You were straight in there… bang! Unfortunately, the first 20-30 minutes of Furiosa is not that engaging IMO. Fury Road is generally much better paced.

(2) It leans far too hard on Fury Road… lots of revisited characters and locations. It really doesn’t need to be tied in to that degree… I’d rather it wasn’t. In fact, the credits just show clips of Fury Road. Uh, why. It sort of undermines all that the Furiosa film achieves by itself.

I actually watched Fury Road last night and really enjoyed it. There were a lot more CGI embellishments than I remembered. Regardless, Furiosa more than held up aesthetically and with the action.

Overall worth checking out if you like Fury Road and worth a cinema trip. Your mileage may vary with the aforementioned downsides

7/10 from me.

 

[Chojin]

I watched Furiosa on Friday and then Fury Road on Saturday. I was surprised by how integrated it was with Fury Road and expected something more standalone.

Since Mad Max 1 & 2 are dear to my heart I have a few bones to pick with it.

- Anya Taylor-Joy wasn't a great fit and her lines like "we're good" are far too American to be believable in the Mad Max world. Could they not have just got an Aussie girl for that part?
- Chris Hemsworth was too tongue in cheek for a Mad Max warlord - almost to the point of breaking the fourth wall and winking at the audience.
- Hugh Keays-Byrne sadly no longer around, so Immortan Joe character felt off.
- Music was incredibly generic and sparse - a few guitar strums here and there. Fury Road was much richer.

I think George Miller still has his inventiveness and a key part is that he taps into the imagination you have as a kid playing with toy cars.

One of the things The Road Warrior did so well was making non-verbal interactions so captivating - whether its pouring some gasoline into a dish, winding up a music box, pulling an arrow out of a leg, an eyebrow raise etc. Unfortunately neither Fury Road nor Furiosa managed to do this effectively.

It's an entertaining cinema film by today's standards but overall this film is firmly in the "mediocre" lane for me.

6/10

 

[Gepetto]

I watched it yesterday and did enjoy it, although I agree with @Chojin in that I thought Anya Taylor-Joy wasn't the right choice for the character.

I have yet to watch Fury Road again, but I'm going to try to do so this week, as the two films are far more linked than I thought.

I figured from the ending of the movie that they are set concurrently, and I had thought of Furiosa as more of an origins story before seeing it.

 

[ianh]

Oh wow, for a film with generally "good or better" reviews and "good or better" audience word of mouth this is looking like it'll be a catastrophic flop, even the Garfield movie (released at the same time) has made 50% more at the Box Office (BO) so far with both making equal BO in the US whilst International is a huge difference, however both only have 1/2 the US BO of the Apes movie over the same amount of release days though.

I wonder if "The General Public" have decided to just not bother any more with side character films. I mean I'm 100% sure its not due to "cinema apathy" as pre-sales for Deadpool 3 are huge, so if its not "sick of cinema" then there's only a few other reasons and none are good news for studios at the moment.

Furiosa - $64m over 5 days - https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Furiosa-A-Mad-Max-Saga-(2024)#tab=box-office

Garfield - $97m over 5 days - https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Garfield-Movie-The-(2024)#tab=box-office

 

[Jokester]

I think your right, cinema viewers just look at these sort of films as cash grabs now a days. I think it would need to be special to get people out to see it based on other people’s reviews (and not critics as well).

Similar with the new Apes film, not a complete disaster, but will struggle to break even I suspect.

 

[ArcticHeron]

It's partly time between releases as well. Had it it come out on the timeline originally forecast (Miller wanted to do Furiosa pretty much straight after Fury Road) then public interest would still be relatively high. As it stands it's been almost 10 years. You just can't expect joe public to be that interested in a franchise that, even with the success of Fury Road, was never that big to begin with.

I'd wager that a good portion of people who enjoyed Fury Road have still never seen the first three movies.

Films like Deadpool 3 will always be the outliers for various reasons and will never be a good barometer to judge the condition of theatres as a whole.

 

[ColdAsIce]

The biggest benefit from the cinema experience was the sound system. The visuals less as much compared to Fury Road. Although my first 15 minutes were almost ruined by some nerd eating cheesy natchos with his mouth wide open and then chocking on them as he was clearly eaten them to fast :/

 

[Freakbro]

We still go to the cinema a lot, especially as we get 3 x Lloyds benefits of Odeon cinema tickets per year & have meerkats but unless it's an IMAX or X-plus type screen I'm enjoying the experience on my own home setup just as much, if not more at times, than I am at a standard screen showing.

Especially the Odeon in Lincoln, the screens are so far away from the seating, they look positively small and you never get immersed in the movie.

I had even thought to myself I'll wait for both the new Apes movie and this one to come out on streaming to watch them, as they're not good enough to bother with a trip to an enhanced screen.

 

[Mesai]

I watched it yesterday and did enjoy it, although I agree with @Chojin in that I thought Anya Taylor-Joy wasn't the right choice for the character.

Knew this would be a weak point of the film - from the first casting announcement I just couldn't see her in the role.

It's sad that the movies think they need a million well known actors to make a movie successful when there are probably 10's of candidates who could've produced a significantly better performance.

 

[Werewolf]

Finally got a booking to see it Friday, first day my brother ln law is off and I didn't have appointments.

Looking forward to it, but by god does Odeon make it hard to book in advance, they only put the tickets for Friday up this morning, which is great if you're trying to plan ahead
*wanders off to find something else to moan about*

 

[ArcticHeron]

Knew this would be a weak point of the film - from the first casting announcement I just couldn't see her in the role.

It's sad that the movies think they need a million well known actors to make a movie successful when there are probably 10's of candidates who could've produced a significantly better performance.

In hers and the movies defense, it was likely a casting decision the studio took upon themselves to make. Not that it seems to have made much difference. The movies tanking even with her and an Avenger on board...

Regardless, she's hardly a 'weak point'. Her performance is great and largely dissimilar from what Charlize Theron did with the role. Maybe not quite as accomplished, but she sells the progression of the character really well considering she's not in it for a large chunk of the movie. I mean, she's not Bergman, but it's a Mad Max movie

 

[Threepwood]

Spoiler: afterthoughts of the movie with don't read if you have not seen

I enjoyed this movie, it had me thinking about it for days after seeing it, which is one of my gauges as to if it was a good movie or not, I have my own idea of what happpened after the end of the movie, I think she took the seed out of the peach that she took off dementus's tree, along with the wives back to her homeland, where she planted that seed
I really liked the Dementus tree, it reminded me of ouroboros legend, which I think was the under theme of the movie, something eating itself, which can be seen in many aspects of the film, even love, even revenge

 

[Ranked1_of_1]

Any chance of a spoiler tag on that Threepwood?

 

[Threepwood]

Any chance of a spoiler tag on that Threepwood?

sure, I thought that I was careful enough to be pretty vague about things?