By Marc Peoples
Australian filmmaker George Miller brings us back to the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max. This Franchise started in 1979 with Mad Max starring Mel Gibson as the titular character.
It managed to spawn four sequels and two video games throughout the years. The last film was 2015’s critically acclaimed and Academy Award-winning Mad Max: Fury Road had Tom Hardy as the character, but introduced an instant fan favorite, Imperator Furiosa played by Academy Award Winner Charlize Theron. This fifth installment focuses on her character in her younger years from her abduction and her survival as a slave to a fierce warrior.
Anya Taylor-Joy portrays Furiosa. Though An excellent actress, in this film, she gets the Tom Hardy Mad Max treatment. She barely speaks. She is the main protagonist of the story but out of all the characters she has the least lines. To Some that may be a good thing but to others it may be a negative. The positive is that most of Anya’s acting comes from her eyes. They’re so unique that George wanted the acting to come from her eyes to prove that film doesn’t always need dialogue to make us feel the characters’ feelings. In my personal opinion, that’s good filmmaking. Now, it could be a negative because the supporting characters outshine her. There’s a Mad Max-like character, named Praetorian Jack and he seems to have a more interesting backstory than Furiosa’s.
The Major standout of the film is Chris Hemsworth’s performance as the film’s villain Dementus. He has an Over-the-top personality and is charismatic. He had fun playing this character because he steals the screen every time he shows up. Hemsworth will always be our God of Thunder, but his charisma and comedic timing show he has range. Like Kevin Durand’s Proximas Caesar in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, this may be Hemsworth’s best performance.
The action sequences are a reminder of why we enjoy these films. They’re always nothing but amazing. Not as good as Fury Road’s but George Miller and cinematographer Simon Duggan films these in ways that seem very daring or damn near impossible. There’s a chase sequence that involves a tanker being attacked by raiders and there are shots in the scene when you’ll say to yourself “How did they do that?” Duggan’s cinematography is also a plus in the calmer scenes by using wide shots and color palettes to make locations in a desert wasteland not look too wearisome. When it’s dark everything is blue, when there are trees and water you feel the green like walking into an oasis after a long day in the desert.
There are only a few criticisms I have of the film. First, the run time could’ve been shorter. The film is two and a half hours long, and we spent the first forty minutes of the film on the Furiosa as a child. Some later feel like they drag and could’ve been cut. Another is that Dementus never felt menacing enough. Last, some of the CGI is noticeable when characters look like they’re standing in front of a green screen.
Overall, Furiosa is a great movie and George Miller even at the age of 79 still shows why is a pioneer in filmmaking. The action and cinematography alone make this movie deserve to be seen on the big screen. If you haven’t seen any of the other Mad Max films I highly recommend you do.
Fun Fact: Mad Max 2 and Fury Road are ranked among the best action movies ever made.
Marc Peoples
Marc Peoples is a writer, film, and game enthusiast with a full range of electronic or digital games experience, who lives on the West Coast in Los Angeles, CA.
He graduated with honors from the Los Angeles Film School (LAFS), where he studied film and screenwriting. www.linkedin.com, www.instagram.com
Photo Credit: 1-3) Source. 4) YouTube.com
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