As we write these lines, the Cannes Festival is at the same time discovering the film, this famous Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, in the company of its actors and its director. And at the end of the screening, a 7-minute standing ovation covered the hall of the Palais des Festivals. No doubt the audience present there took the film in stride, proof that they had difficulty getting over it, or that they enjoyed the company of part of the team, certain actors ( the main ones) and George Miller, the filmmaker. Because yes, we must always be wary of these moments of jubilation when creative people watch a film with journalists and the public, we are often galvanized by their presence and sometimes (I mean sometimes), we let ourselves go. general euphoria. But that said, it is true that once you leave the film, once the lights come back on, you have to recover from this visual, sound and almost sensory experience.
GEORGE MILLER, 80, BEST ACTIONER
Because Furiosa is still 2 hours and 25 minutes of really crazy images that we get caught in the head, or 25 minutes more than Fury Road. And there, instinctively, we tell ourselves that it’s 25 minutes more non-stop action than the first film and that it’s royal at the bar because we mainly came for the show. This is where the film deceives the audience a little, and even though the term deception is a bit strong, there is an element of truth. Let’s say that Furiosa qualifies its remarks, because this sequel-prequel will bring more narrative consistency, a more human side that was not necessarily in the 2015 film. And this is undoubtedly where opinions will go. diverge for Furiosa. We all know it and I said it above, but Fury Road represents the quintessence of brutal, wild, visceral action with an extraordinary visual narrative. Yes, but when you are a filmmaker of the caliber of George Miller, do you have to fall into the trap of repetition? Was there any point in doing an encore repeat with Furiosa? Probably not, especially since this film aims to tell us the trajectory of this character who was sublimated by Charlize Theron’s performance 10 years ago. A character so strong, so important that he stole the show from Tom Hardy, the Mad Max of the film, and who ultimately ultimately didn’t serve much purpose, except to have been Furiosa’s foil. And you will understand that in this new film, Max’s uselessness is even more developed, and that Max is ultimately not such a central character in this rereading of the saga. Worse, it even becomes interchangeable. But I won’t say more, I promised not to spoil anything.
THE FIST OF FURY
In Furiosa, we must understand the genesis of this character. Understanding how a woman like her is capable of standing up to any weirdo in this post-apo world where the fairer sex is relegated to wives who are knocked up for the good of a certain humanity and a certain clan, that of Immortan Joe. The film will therefore follow Furiosa’s youth, her adolescence and her arrival at adulthood, where she will forge her character. And what’s not bad is that Furiosa’s childhood is not treated overly, it is not a part limited to a 5 or 10 min intro as is the case usually in movies. There, we linger at least 30/40 minutes on his childhood, to help us understand his trajectory, his trauma and what will happen driver his quest for revenge until the “epic” finale. In Fury Road, we followed the characters over just a few days, in Furiosa, we will develop the story over 15 years. This will also be an opportunity to find out how our warrior woman lost her left arm, and I can guarantee you that it is quite unexpected. Throughout the world, I was convinced of a path, but in the end not at all.
ANYA, IT’S HIGH!
To take over the role of Furiosa, George Miller has set his sights on Anya Taylor Joy, who is gaining ground in Hollywood. Obviously, the general public knows her for her role in the Queen’s Gambit series on Netflix, or because she lent her voice in the animated film Super Mario Bros. I remember it when I I saw her first in Shyamalan’s Split or The Northman where she played the role of Olga which literally blew me away. In Furiosa, Anya Taylor Joy bursts onto the screen and it is by far her most charismatic role, while having only 30 lines of dialogue, which is half as much as the role in Mad Max for Tom Hardy 10 years ago. This is also where the film deceives the public, we say to ourselves that George Miller has further reduced the dialogue because he does not like it, that he prefers visual narration, but the film is, I I find, much more talkative than the first in fact. And that’s not a bad thing, except that by focusing the promotion on this type of argument, we can mislead the viewer. So Furiosa doesn’t speak much in the film, and this is also justified in the story. But despite this, Anya Taylor Joy comes out sublimated, undoubtedly damaged by the writing of her character. From an angelic little girl, she will become a bruised, soiled, martyred and even amputated woman, but she becomes more beautiful and more captivating. Everything will go through the looks, the gestures, the action of the character, but also through the makeup. The grease she spreads on her forehead will bring out her gaze, and especially her already bulging eyes. Anya Taylor Joy basically has an atypical face and George Miller knew how to use it brilliantly. We leave marked by the intensity of his game and wow, what a performance!
LOVE & THUNDER
To give him the answer, there are a whole bunch of male and female actors alongside him, and we can also remember the performance of Charlee Fraser, who plays the role of Furiosa’s mother. In 15 minutes of screen time, she also manages to make an impression. It’s also difficult not to salute the performance of Chris Hemsworth, the great antagonist of the film, the one who will be the driving force behind Furiosa’s quest for revenge. We already knew that the Australian actor was capable of the best in the comedy register and we had seen it with the evolution of the character of Thor from the MCU, there he proves to us that he is not just a body divine, or perfect muscles, he knows how to be fine with sarcasm and his character of Dementus proves it perfectly. So it’s true that Dementus is never as scary as Immortan Joe, but he nonetheless remains unpredictable and a little crazy. We can sometimes have the feeling of seeing a Thor in a crazy version because obviously, there is the naked body of Chris Hemsworth, but also this homemade cape, in system D mode, which recalls the God of Thunder. But this hooked nose like Gargamel, this accent and this timbre of voice allow him to become this Dementus to whom we become quite attached, which makes him a villain written differently, and that’s not bad. Because as I already told you, there’s no point in doing the same thing as in Fury Road.
In any case, the issues in Furiosa are not the same and George Miller constructed his film differently. Fury Road knows how to dynamite action blockbusters with a controlled pace, no downtime and a chase that is both dense and explosive. Furiosa is more of a rise in power, a quest for revenge spread over 15 years and even divided into 5 chapters, the narrative is no longer the same. But hey, know all the same that you will find some crazy action scenes, in particular a dazzling 15-minute sequence with a Warbearer who reveals his strengths over the course of the attacks, both ground and air. This is where we see that George Miller has not lost his splendor, that at the age of 80, he knows how to be imaginative, he knows how to use his camera, place it where he is, rotate it at specific moments, and too bad if the film has lost authenticity.
HERE LIES OUCH!
Because yes, as the various trailers suggested, there is a lot more CGI in Furiosa, a lot more. They are there to serve the narrative and the universe too, allowing George Miller to dare to take plans that he could not have done in practice, but it is true that everything is not perfect. There are quite a few passages where things are quite jarring, where the digital side takes over, with the added bonus of some failed effects. Between the slightly poorly connected digital doubles, the discrepancies between real shots and synthetic personal ones, we see these moments of hesitation. Is it serious ? Not so much, because the film remains explosive, but these moments are so obvious that sometimes you make a little grimace. No doubt George Miller accepted these faults in order to get to work faster. It is known that the production of Fury Road was difficult. Several years of filming interspersed with breaks, between 3 and 4 years of post-production, the 80-year-old filmmaker undoubtedly did not want to return to such complications. For Furiosa, everything was done in less than 2 years, including filming and post-production, which probably explains this, especially since the quality of CGI has declined significantly in Hollywood in recent years too.
But hey, that’s nothing compared to the experience that awaits you with this film. If you like the spectacle, if you like chaos in the image, if you like Mad Max, if you like brutality, you will come out feeling completely different. Of course, this Furiosa sequel immediately clashes with its illustrious elder, Fury Road, which has risen to the rank of an already cult film, almost untouchable, but Furiosa remains a great film, a prequel sequel which was able to offer its own trajectory, without ever falling into the ease of repetition. Certainly the surprise effect is no longer there, but the experience remains just as explosive, especially since the sound design is also to be commended. Not everything is as perfect as the first Fury Road, but it remains far superior to what is being done today in terms of blockbusters.
OUR RATING 8.5/10
