Furiosa kicks sand in the face of boring franchise filler films

Like a war over gas in a post-apocalyptic landscape, the debate over franchise fatigue rages on, with multiple factions claiming that sequel, prequels, and superhero movies are destroying the cinematic landscape, while others argue that the smoke doesn’t lead to fire, and that the entire battle is exaggerated. The latest salvo in the war – that is, the latest prequel to extend a decades-long franchise – is Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, a prequel almost ten years in the making. But where long experience with franchise logic would lead us to expect director George Miller to offer a louder, bigger retread of his predecessor, the groundbreaking Mad Max: Fury Road, Miller dares to ignore that expectation. He blazes a brave, exploratory path with a searing film that refuses to adhere to the tried and tired rules that franchise films follow.

Furieweg hit the screens nine years ago with an impressive reconfiguration of the Mad Max series. Miller recast Max (played by Mel Gibson in three films from 1979 to 1985) with The dark knight stands upTom Hardy, thrusting him into a supporting role and introducing a new leading hero, battle-hardened war leader Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron). Furieweg is a deep-rooted landmark in the action cannon, based on propulsive pace, deliberately chaotic editingand nerve-wracking practical stunts that make the whole thing buzz with frenetic energy.

Trying to recreate that lightning in a bottle would be foolish, so Miller doesn’t even try Furiosa. Instead, he presents an entirely different film that mixes things up Furieweg‘s efficient brevity in favor of epic scope and world-building, while adding an even more experimental touch. If anything, it feels more like the original Crazy Max films that inspired him then it feels like the film that came before it, except for the absence of Max himself.

Where Furieweg takes place over three days, Furiosa spanning 18 years and five chapter breaks, telling the story of the titular lead, from her childhood as a prisoner of the maniacal warlord Dementus (a scene-chewing Chris Hemsworth, in a role so different from his signature role as the MCU’s Thor , it’s finally easy to shake off those expectations) until the events of Fury Away.

Each chapter begins with disturbing images, random stories, and tone-setting montages rather than concrete stories. Miller and credited co-writers Nick Lathouris and Prateek Bando don’t worry about meeting the expected rules for prequels. In one of their cleverest diversions from the format, they spend almost equal time with young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) and her adult counterpart (Anya Taylor-Joy).

There isn’t a single quick flashback to five minutes of childhood on screen before we meet the real star. Instead, Browne plays a crucial role in actually showing us how Furiosa grows. Miller seems to trust the audience in a way that most directors aren’t willing or allowed to do, with narrative years going without explanation or apology, and new characters appearing without a constant stream of exposition or introduction. It’s a wild ride as Furiosa grows from a vengeful child to a budding warrior woman with a greater mission.

That choice directly contradicts what we’re usually told about the importance of star power in franchise vehicles. Miller already replaced Charlize Theron, the woman who made Furiosa an action star, because he wanted to tell the character’s origin story and did not want to use aging technology for that. Splitting time between an established star like Taylor-Joy and an unknown child actor seems like a huge risk, but it pays off and lays the foundation for the often gruesome adventure Furiosa must go through to reach the heights of heroism in which she finds herself. located. Furieweg.

Photo: Jasin Boland/Warner Bros. Entertainment

Her characterization is particularly daring: Furiosa speaks only 30 lines in the entire film. Taylor Joy said She spent months in complete silence on set, which makes sense when you see the raw anger and heart she manages to convey in one look in the film. It’s easy to forget that she’s not an expansive protagonist, as Miller weaves a vibrant, loud story around her, and Browne and Taylor-Joy create a character so present that even a single word carries weight.

That choice lingers long after the film ends, especially when you compare it to Furiosa’s trauma and the trials she endures in this film. In her world, silence means control and power, without the need for jokes or clever comebacks. Put that at the center of a film that’s more concerned with atmosphere than storytelling, and that draws more from the surreal tones of artists like Mœbius and Alejandro Jodorowsky than famed blockbuster directors Steven Spielberg or David Yates, and you have something that feels unlikely: but great.

An epic, nearly twenty-year saga is probably not what most people expected Furiosa, but the approach allows the world to expand in pleasant ways. The MCU-ification of cinema means that franchise blockbusters often reveal characters, major MacGuffins, narrative loose ends, and potential sequel nods in bite-sized teases that are increasingly less likely to go anywhere. But with FuriosaMiller expands the scope of the Mad Max landscape exponentially as characters old and new make their way onto the screen, providing a clearer insight into the Wasteland’s setting, its societal hierarchies, its gasoline-fueled wars and its steampunk -tinted reality.

Photo: Jasin Boland/Warner Bros. Entertainment

On the other hand, the level of detail, the number of characters and the narrative ambition to tell a story about an entire generation of Wastelanders could bog down the film. But Miller brings it all to life with his punk auteur sensibility: even considering the film’s 148-minute running time, there’s rarely a moment of reprise of the beautifully harsh post-apocalyptic action.

The almost overwhelming stunts are a big part of what was created Fury Away stand out from the blockbuster packs of 2015. For the most part, Miller returns to that gritty sensibility here. Since that film was made, filmmaking technology has evolved significantly, especially in the area of ​​action: the ability to manipulate CGI backgrounds in real time on large screens has given studios and filmmakers the ability to create entire worlds with barely any hands-on or location shooting, with projects as broad as Our flag means death And Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania take advantage of the technology.

During a recent question and answer session before a screening of the film in Los Angeles, Miller said new technology has changed his approach. According to the director, the main new element was an Unreal Engine-driven pre-vis program called PROXicreated by Furieweg stunt supervisors Guy and Harrison Norris, which allowed him to prepare and storyboard all of his dangerous stunt scenes in a fully digital format. He explained to reporters on the spot that it was a huge shift Furiewegwhere the team visualized stunts by physically laying out each stunt team member’s entire set and models in a tent in the desert.

Photo: Jasin Boland/Warner Bros. Entertainment

That progress is palpable on screen, with more obvious CGI than in Furieweg, especially in the backgrounds and vehicles. Some of the grittiness of the previous film has been lost, and Furiosa feels a little too smooth and slick at times, despite being shot on location in Australia. But that’s just a wrinkle in the brutal patchwork of the film, which still features several complex action scenes full of practical stunts – including one that took 78 days to shoot. In his best moments, Furiosa puts pretty much every modern superhero movie to shame.

Actually, the key word here is ‘trust’. Miller trusts that the audience will embark on this adventure with him. Miller trusts his own abilities, reputation, or beliefs enough to make this film without checking the expected boxes. And the studio clearly trusts Miller enough to position an unconventional fantasy action epic as a major summer release.

So even if Furiosa is inevitably compared to Furieweg, both positive and negative: trust Miller’s strange, wild films. He ensures that, despite insurmountable odds, you choose an almost silent hero and an insane villain who will fall next to him. Furieweg‘s Immortan Joe as a terrible new addition to Mad Max’s rogues gallery. Innovative and strange in all the best ways, Furiosa repays that faith with a journey down a twisted cinematic rabbit hole that will likely once again redefine expectations of what an action movie can be.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will be released in theaters on May 24.