Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Movie Review (2024)
With staggeringly beautiful cinematography and heightened filming techniques, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a movie that you can’t compare to any other. It’s truly unique and you have to watch it.
I have an admission to make: I have never watched the original three Mad Max films. I may get to them one day, but they were never on my radar and I’ve never been intrigued enough to pick them up now. I did see Mad Max: Fury Road, however, and it was very good. I gave it 4 stars. This one is even better.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga takes place in future Australia, which is now a barren wasteland. Water and nature are scarce and Furiosa is a child who lives in one of the few hidden green places. When she is kidnapped and refuses to report on where her home is, her captors (led by Dementus) kill her mother, who has come to rescue her. Dementus soon arrives at the Citadel (another area with water) and Furiosa chooses to stay with the leader there, who intends to make her one of the many birthing wives. She escapes and hides herself among the many citizens, knowing that she will avenge her mother’s death and return home one day.
Furiosa is its own story and you don’t really need to have seen any of the other Mad Max films to follow what is going on. The story is fairly light and you will pick it up quickly. There are a few Easter eggs for those who may have seen Fury Road, but not many and they don’t change anything if you’re a first-time watcher.
While most people (including me) go into a film looking for a story, Furiosa is all about the cinematography. It is stunning. STUNNING. The colors are bright, vivid, and constantly used to perfection. The camera uses wide shots and ultra-close-up shots to convey beauty and anxiety, and there is almost always something in motion. Nothing ever fully stops within the visually-controlled chaos.
There is a slight sheen to the entire film. The skin, the eyes, everything has this very slightly animatronic feel to it, down to the tiny increased speed of motion that takes place. You notice it, but it oddly adds to the entire effect. It’s as if you’re watching everything in a bit of a dream.
Anya Taylor-Joy is a presence as Furiosa. Her character speaks very little, so her entire being is communicated through her physicality and her eyes that always look as if they’ve doubled in size. Everything she does is highly serious and with purpose, so there are no extraneous words or movement in her world. She is also the only character who speaks with an American accent while everyone else is Aussie. She is from a different land, unlike anyone else you meet.
On the other end of things is Chris Hemsworth’s entertaining Dementus. He is always talking, always moving about, and is truly the clown of this otherwise semi-serious circus. He even has what could be considered a clown nose.
In a world where pain exists, but barely registers and the story feels so grandiose in scale that it is almost Shakespearean, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a film unlike any other. It is truly unique and absolutely beautiful to watch. I highly recommend it!
Runtime: 148 minutes
Motion Picture Rating: R
Languages Spoken In The Film: English
Should You Watch It? Yes
Did I Cry? Nope
My Rating: 4.5/5
Available: Free on Max, to rent on Prime Video, or may be available for free on other streaming platforms
