Furiosa: A Mad Max Sagais an exciting installment in the franchise, but the movie represents a radical departure fromFury Road’s successful series blueprint. Despite featuring some standout performances (and generally performing well with critics),Furiosawas a box-office bomb. While there are many potential explanations for its financial failure, one problem with the prequel was its seemingly unrealistic CGI, versusFury Road’s spectacular practical effects – something that I found particularly jarring on first viewing.
There are now fivemovies in theMad Maxfranchise, the most successful of which embrace practical stuntwork and genuinely perilous action. Several scenes inFuriosaseem to go against this formula. However, although I found some ofFuriosa’s scenes and special effects disappointingly unrealistic, I’ve since realized that one of the movie’s characters may hold the key to explaining their uncanny, deliberately exaggerated quality. It’s a subtle solution to the problem, but one that retrospectively makesFuriosaa much stronger movie and potentially holds the key to the protagonist’s future.
The History Man Is An Unreliable Narrator In Furiosa
It Is Possible That The History Man Is Deliberately Making Up Stories
The History Men are the tattooed historians ofMad Max, andFuriosa’s History Man, played by George Shevtsov, is a key character. He refers to himself as a History Man when he meets the young Furiosa, but, according to the lore of theMad Maxcomics, the History Men came into existence after Immortan Joe’s empire fell. One appearing before Furiosa meets Immortan Joe is one of many inconsistencies in theMad Maxuniverse, and this unreliability becomes significant whenthe History Man is revealed as the narrator of Furiosa’s story, without being certain about the details.
InFury Roadlore, Miss Giddy has been considered an early version of the History Men, as she has a very similar appearance toFuriosa’s History Man.
InMad Maxlore,History Men are a combination of a living dictionary and an encyclopedia, as is shown inFuriosawhen the History Man gives historical context to Dementus. When the History Man encourages Furiosa to become as useful to Dementus as possible, this part intrigued me, as this could hint that the History Man was also trying to stay alive by making himself useful. Although his job is to preserve an accurate recording of history tattooed into his skin, this willingness to prioritize utility over integrity (as well as offering the audiencealternate deaths for Dementus) reveals the History Man as an unreliable narrator.
Why Furiosa’s CGI Looks Surprisingly Fake
From the outset, audiences could seethe stark difference betweenFuriosaandFury Road, which used 90% practical effects, according to director George Miller. By contrast,Furiosa’s effects are softened, dreamlike, over-saturated, and over-sharp all at once.Furiosauses more greenscreen thanFury Road, and in many scenes, characters appear to have been digitally added into their vehicles.Furiosa’s vehicles seem to lack the imposing weight and presence ofFury Road’s War Rig, and even Dementus’s dogs have been said to move unnaturally and almost weightlessly.
“It’s A Different Animal”: Furiosa’s Big Differences From Mad Max: Fury Road Explained By Director
Mad Max: Fury Road director George Miller explains the major differences between his 2015 action film and his upcoming prequel, Furiosa.
The effects in the pre-rebootMad Maxmovies might look dated now, but there is a visceral quality to the violence, andFury Road’s characters still react to injuries withMad Max’s signature intensity.InFury Road, Furiosa punctures a lung, and her labored breathing, sweat, and tears are a jarring contrast to what audiences see in what is arguably the pivotal scene inFuriosa. The question ofhow Furiosa loses her armis answered inFuriosa, but while it is implied that she cut it off to escape her shackles, she barely reacts, driving away, dry-eyed, on a motorcycle.
…this stylistic choice makes total sense if you assume that the movie isn’t actually a perfect recreation of Furiosa’s story as it really happened.
Like many other viewers, I was initially disappointed by the lack of realism in this scene and several other key moments. However, this stylistic choice makes total sense if you assume that the movie isn’t actually a perfect recreation of Furiosa’s story as it really happened. Instead, it could be an embellished and mythologized version, told by the History Man. Since it’s actually coming from his perspective, this could explain why everything seems somewhat distorted – the movie is offering a visual representation of how retelling a story can alter key elements.
The History Man Being An Unreliable Narrator Fixes Furiosa’s Visual Decisions
A Total Retcon Might Just Save A Furiosa Sequel
Mad Maxhas been described as a “saga” fromThe Road Warrioronwards, and part of each subsequent movie in theMad Maxfranchise contains an observation from a witness or storyteller, implying thatMax’s story is closer to a fable or myththan a first-hand account. One interpretation is that this is underlined inFuriosa, with slightly different editing styles used to illustrate the perspectives of the characters involved. It’s possible that the parts of the story told by the History Man use fake-looking, overly stylized CGI, revealing his story as similarly fake. Making this more obvious could have avoidedFuriosa’s CGI backlash.
10 Post-Apocalyptic Action Movies To Watch After Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
With the release of George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, these 10 post-apocalyptic movies will quench the thirst for similar action.
For many viewers,Furiosa’s visual effects undermined the realism that theFury Roadteam had worked to achieve. To makeFuriosawork as a part of theMad Maxsaga franchise,aFuriosasequelwould have to address the overuse of CGI and odd visual effects choices that polarized the audiences watchingFuriosa. Ignoring the backlash and making a spin-off movie about Praetorian Jack would, in my opinion, look like an embarrassing attempt to eraseFuriosa, while a significant retcon that revealed the History Man as an unreliable narrator and offered a different perspective on Furiosa’s backstory might just work.
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.
