Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Loses Its Signature Mad Max Grittiness For Typical Action Blockbuster Fare
Ever since Mad Max: Fury Road premiered in 2015 and audiences were introduced to the mystifying character of Furiosa, everyone has been wanting more of her story. After a long awaited nine years, George Miller has satisfied audiences’ quench for her backstory in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
Snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers, young Furiosa falls into the hands of a great biker horde led by the warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel, presided over by the Immortan Joe. As the two tyrants fight for dominance, Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) soon finds herself in a nonstop battle to make her way home — along with a thirst for vengeance.
The first film of the Mad Max franchise, released in 1979, was directed by a young Miller who was inspired by Australia’s car crazed culture and the chaos he witnessed working as an emergency medical doctor. It offered a grittiness like no other, being that it was low budget, and boasted real stunts with unknown actors. It was a key factor that allowed for real immersion, making the story all the more potent. It’s the film that catapulted Miller into his directorial success, as well as made the Mad Max franchise as we know it, so I was perplexed as to why Furiosa had felt like a big Hollywood blockbuster — something that felt so opposite to the original.
I was disappointed in how obvious the CGI was for a plethora of scenes in this film, again, something that was so distant from it’s original grittiness that has long kept this franchise separated from other action films.
I thought Anya-Taylor Joy and Chris Hemsworth were great in their respective roles as Furiosa and Dementus, but as a long time fan of the Mad Max franchise, I became frustrated with Miller’s aversion to continuity. The timeline is loose, the connections to the other films are sometimes contradicting, and Miller reuses actors from the other films as new characters with no explanation. This style of loose continuity has become a signature of Miller’s. His Hollywood pedigree makes it hard to question his choices, but it may frustrate the modern filmgoer who is accustomed to connected universes, airtight timelines, and immaculate canon. Given this is George Miller’s style of storytelling, I feel as though we’ve been forced to accept it, so no one questions it. Like the Max Easter egg in the film that led nowhere.
While Max was the titular character of Mad Max: Fury Road, the narrative weight of the movie rested on Furiosa’s shoulders, an original character brilliantly portrayed by Charlize Theron. I, along with many other fans, were left puzzled as to why Miller chose not to continue with Theron. Recasting the role added a level of detachment from the familiar story that audiences connected with in the first place. It is hard to become fully immersed with the characters and legacy of these Mad Max fire-side stories.
With all of this being said, Theron laid the blueprint for who Furiosa is for audiences. I can confidently say that while we fall in love with the characters, we simultaneously fall in love with the way the actors conduct the characters. Taylor-Joy did a fantastic job, but it felt like a different version of Furiosa, which maybe Miller craved, but I can’t say the same.
If you’re seeing Furiosa as a first installment and introduction to the franchise, I think you’d walk away very happy, with a satiation to your action-filled film desire. However, if you’re a long-time, avid fan of the Mad Max saga, you may be walking out of the theater confused.
