Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) ***
Just like Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) (review 1, review 2), I felt like I was watching a video game half the time that I was viewing Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) (the CGI in this one is even more obvious than in FR and, my goodness, there is so much of it). (Side note nitpick: I'm guessing George Miller was contractually obligated to use the MM subtitle, but it's still annoying and unnecessary; people know what the movie is and Furiosa, on its own, makes a much bolder title.)
In many ways, these modern Mad Max films look and feel too much like other franchises (Marvel, the modern Planet Of The Apes, Star Wars, the Villeneuve Dunes) for my tastes. Everything is so clean and perfectly color graded; I just can't get past that. I miss the grittiness and genuine sense of danger of the first two films (reviews for those here and here), and even 1985's Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) (review), the weakest film of the franchise, felt more lived in.
All that said, the picture is populated by fun characters—Anya Taylor-Joy plays the younger incarnation of the titular antihero well, Chris Hemsworth is a good (and humorous) villain, and Tom Burke's Mad Max stand-in (until Max himself shows up in a throwaway cameo) is solid. There are some strong action sequences, cool vehicles, and I genuinely appreciate the costumes and production design (plus the fact that all the films in the franchise have been written and directed by Miller).
I also found the storyline more interesting and better developed in this prequel (though the voiceover narration was a bit silly), which honestly I think I liked more than FR overall. I would love to see versions of the newer Max films that aren't so vividly post-processed (and I don't mean the Black & Chrome Editions either).
It might sound like I'm picking the film apart, but I did think it was good and I did enjoy it. I just don't love the last two MM movies the way most people do (especially FR). I'm very much in the minority, but I heavily prefer the first two films in this series.
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