Summary
George Miller’s 2024Furiosa: A Mad Max Sagawas a welcome entry to theMad Maxfranchise but made some mistakes worth noting for future movies.Furiosa’sbox office performance was disappointingconsidering the popularity of the franchise and the success ofMad Max: Fury Road. It was hard for cinema to recover after COVID-19 destroyed attendance, and the rise of streaming as a competitor platform probably didn’t help. Nonetheless,Mad Maxcreators Miller and Byron Kennedy could learn fromFuriosa’serrors, as could the rest of Hollywood.
Furiosawas set just beforeMad Max: Fury RoadintheMad Maxtimeline, offering a prequel exploring Anya Taylor-Joy’s irrepressible Furiosa. This spinoff was the first movie in the franchise not to focus on Max Rockatansky, the franchise’s famous antihero. Instead, the movie provided an origin story for Charlize Theron’s Furiosa, who appeared in the previous movie.Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’sinteresting premise had potential. However, among other issues,the movie failed to deliver comprehensive character development, despite its myriad achievements.
Charlize Theron’s “Cameo” In Furiosa Explained & How It Rescues A Deleted Fury Road Scene
Charlize Theron may have been recast in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, but she still makes a cameo (of sorts) in a scene intended for Fury Road.
The Decade-Spanning Revenge Saga Worked Well As A Biker Movie
Furiosa: A Mad Max Sagawas unambiguously a revenge flick with incredible biker action sequences, and in these regards,it did what it said on the tin. The movie created a truly epic sense of time and scale that was reminiscent of the profound revenge dramaThe Godfather. This paid dividends both in the fantasy department, as far as it enabled painstaking world-building, and in the drama department, attaching the audience to Furiosa’s fortune and building up a lifelong revenge arc.
Praetorian Jack’s Cranky Black was emblematic of the romance of the road and the freedom of a bygone era.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Sagais notable as a biker movie alone.This high-budget spectacle of outrageous vehicles was a love note to a low-budget genre of moviespopular in the ‘50s and ‘60s that riffed off Marlon Brando’s rebel biker inThe Wild Oneand the media notoriety of the Hells Angels. InFuriosa: A Mad Max Saga, Hollywood didTop Gearbut made it post-apocalyptic, crystallizing what was always great aboutMad Maxinto its deepest respect for cars and bikes yet. Praetorian Jack’s Cranky Black was emblematic of the romance of the road and the freedom of a bygone era.
Anya Taylor-Joy And Chris Hemsworth Shone But The Script Was Lacking
Anya Taylor-Joy is one of the most exciting actresses around, and her Furiosa proved it, while Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus was multifaceted, but both appeared inconsistent.Furiosawas a female empowerment story that sidestepped the problems with the comics, avoiding the objectification that seemed to pervade it.Furiosa had a genderless style that was fashion-forward, current, and refreshingin a sea of conventionally attractive heroines. She recalled Natalie Portman’s iconic turn inV for Vendetta, pulling off style and substance in a hard balance to nail commercially.Furiosabuilt her up to be strong, stoic, and singular in a cruel world, so her psychopathic revenge felt abrupt and unearned.
Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus should be celebrated- his complex portrayal hit all the villain notes wherever it could. Butthe movie glorified Dementus. He had the build of Hercules, a flawless beard, and he emerged messianically from the smoke of the red flare, fearless and gleeful. This hit audiences on the head with “red flag” and “danger” symbolism, but Dementus actually just looked awesome. And then he looked like he’d had a trendy red dye job at the hair salon, and went on to look even cooler.
Furiosa, in choosing to torture him horribly, proved that Dementus was right when he said that they were alike.
Dementus had a lust for life, childlike innocence, and a (dark) sense of humor, and in a bleak world, that’s real strength. No matter how demented he was stylized as, he seemed brave underneath it all.Dementus was meant to be a foil for Furiosaand Max. But Furiosa, in choosing to torture him horribly, proved that Dementus was right when he said that they were alike. Killing him kindly would’ve been merciful compared to what she put him through.The peach growing out of Dementuswas meant to symbolize hope, but the jarring incongruence of Furiosa’s sadism damaged that.
The audience was not supposed to be sure what Furiosa actually did to Dementus.The History Man’s narration painted Dementus the tree as hypothetical, offering alternatives like Furiosa shooting him. Furiosa giving Dementus back his bear and turning him around, then shooting him in the back of the head - that would have felt right for these characters. That small degree of mercy would have made Furiosa seem mature and capable of leading the wives to safety, and would have made Dementus’ death tragic. But the movie clearly led audiences to believe that Dementus ended his life as a tree.
Furiosa Should Have Either Followed The Comic Or Carved Its Own Path
The Movie Should Have Gone Even Further In Its Departure From The Comic
Had the movie chosen to simply adapt the comic, refining its content to be more sensitive, perhaps it could have avoided its problems.The gruesomeFuriosaprequel comic treated sexual assault with blunt-force insensitivity,andFuriosawas right not to translate that for the big screen. Instead,Furiosachose to follow its own path. If it had committed to this completely, that would have made for far better storytelling. But it seemed like it cherry-picked tonally and thematically from the comic. Perhaps this was behind its inconsistent characterization.
Dementus’ attachment to the teddy bearand choice to wear it like an accessory would’ve been haunting if just a touch of sexual perversity was added somehow. This would have been powerfully evocative, calling back the abusive villains of the comic, and yet dealing with the subject matter far more sensitively and eloquently. This would have made him feel slightly more deserving of his fate. But it wasn’t repulsive, it was eccentric, charming, endearing, and sad.Dementus’ speech to Furiosa about revenge constituted the wisest words spokenin the whole movie.
Dementus was subtly coded as a likable hero when he was obviously meant to be a villain…
The movie created pathos for Dementus and offered no closure, ending him grotesquely. It also created admiration for Furiosa but confused this by suggesting her sadistic cruelty, equal to that of those she fought. Minutiae of each character’s successes and failures aside, ultimately, the situation is this. Dementus was subtly coded as a likable hero when he was obviously meant to be a villain, and Furiosa missed all the marks when she was obviously meant to be a protagonist.Taylor-Joy’s Furiosa was brilliantbut fell at the last hurdle by creatively torturing someone, and this misstep confused the whole character.
The Movie Only Needed Small Tweaks To Be Perfect
Furiosa only had to show slightly more complexity and mercy to make the story credible and poignant. Butto be original, the movie could have cast off the shackles of a tired, predictable revenge storyand served a forgiveness twist. The movie could have followed the scenes of Dementus as a tree and tied to the wooden cross with a scene of him weeping in a cell, finally coming to terms with his fall from grace. The History Man could have presented the reality as unknown while leading audiences to believe that this final, lingering, redemptive shot showed the truth.
Morals aren’t what is missing fromFuriosa: A Mad Max Saga. Revenge stories are allowed to justify killing. Emotional payoff is what is missing. The movie was successful in creating emotional connection between the audience and its characters, only to whip it away. This could’ve been pleasantly subversive, but there were no surprises here. Furiosa slipped into a hyper-violent comic-book stereotype, and Dementus died as the revenge narrative had suggested he would. As such, that emotional intimacy just dissipated, leaving not emotional resonance or surprise, but indifference. And as such,Furiosawas a missed opportunity.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Sagacould’ve been the bestMad Maxmovie and unique. But instead, it was just very good.Furiosabombed at the box office, and, sadly, pioneering content wouldn’t necessarily have saved it - but it might have.There’s life left in the revenge genre, but it must be complicated. Cinema is meant to teach people something new about themselves. That doesn’t mean in-your-face social commentary, it just means moving the dialogue on somewhat from the same old thing. This is a lesson that futureMad Maxmovies, and Hollywood in general, would do well to learn.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Cast
A prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa is an action-adventure film that tells the origin story of the headstrong and fearless Furiosa. Set shortly after the beginning of the “end of the world,” Furiosa is kidnapped and brought before a powerful warlord, now forced to work for him. To find her way back home, Furiosa will adapt to the new harsh and arid world as she grows into the Furiosa she becomes known to be.
