The words “epic” and “mythic” are frequently thrown around to describe new releases to drum up hype.
Few things live up to that level of anticipation. Furisoa manages to capture that magic. It’s an epic in a very literal sense taking cues from classical epics such as The Odyssey. It wasn’t subtle about this. Most of the trailers flash text on the screen for the viewer stating “This is her odyssey,” and this, admittedly, had me feeling slightly skeptical going in. That, paired with the trailer-closing line from Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), “Do you have it in you to make it epic?” felt like Prometheus playing with fire.
Full disclosure: I wanted to love this movie. I adored Fury Road, and am admittedly a huge fan of Anya Taylor-Joy – playing the lead and titular role here, taking the reins from Charlize Theron – but the marketing had me feeling a bit off going in. It felt like they desperately wanted, needed, to convince audiences this was a full-blown epic worthy of seeing on the big screen, but I was already convinced. This felt like overcompensation.
Furiosa is methodical, measured, and meditative.
It wasn’t. No amount of “This is an epic, trust us” can prepare viewers for how truly wondrous an experience Furiosa is. Fury Road was lightning in a bottle. It’s hailed as one of the greatest action movies of all time for good reason. It’s a breakneck, pedal-to-the-metal, tour-de-force in practical filmmaking and dazzling action set pieces. It grabs hold and doesn’t let go. You’re not going to make Fury Road twice, so writer/director George Miller – intelligently – doesn’t try.
Furiosa is an entirely different beast from Fury Road. It’s a misnomer to expect Fury Road 2.0 going into this film. Aside from the fact that it’s a prequel, not a sequel, Furiosa isn’t interested in starting with the pedal on the floor and never letting up. If Fury Road is a sprint, Furiosa is a marathon. One crystal clear indication of just how different the two are comes by way of Furisoa rocking chapter titles. Fury Road covers a few days, while Furiosa spans decades over five chapters. It’s a big swing that emphasizes an entirely different creative approach.
Furiosa is methodical, measured, and meditative. It lasers in its focus on its titular character and explores her adolescence into adulthood in this barren wasteland. This is – in a weird way – a coming-of-age story. We see Furiosa taken from her home as a child and the struggles she endures and overcomes from then on. There’s a clear narrative throughline – Furiosa wants to get home. The chapter titles then present Furiosa with a never-ending barrage of side-quests.
Through Furiosa, we explore and expand on the apocalyptic wasteland first established in earlier films and then brought vividly to life in Fury Road. While Fury Road delivered an adrenaline-fueled action-set-piece propelled experience, Furiosa takes things slower. The latter lets the audience live with the inhabitants that make up the Wasteland. It examines and contrasts the conflicting ideologies of its characters. It plunges Furiosa, Dementus, Immortan Joe, and others through their own crucibles and reflects on how that forges them.
The interplay between Fury Road and Furiosa is exceptional. After seeing both, they feel like two parts of a whole. It’s hard to imagine the former without the latter. Characters, locations, and moments in Fury Road are enhanced through the events we see in Furiosa. Fury Road was never lacking depth, but Furiosa is purely additive. It’s a remarkable feat of storytelling.
I opened this by talking about mythic epics, and that’s something Furiosa seems to inherently understand. There’s an otherworldly quality to the entire film. I’ve talked about how structurally different it is to Fury Road, and how that structure utilizes the foundations of classic epics, but its visual language sets it apart as well. There’s been a lot of discussion around the VFX in Furiosa. I’m not an expert, and I find a lot of the discourse around VFX in movies to be tiring, but in this case, I think one thing is certain: Furiosa has a distinct aesthetic it’s going for, and every choice leans into that aesthetic.
It feels like a fever dream. It feels like we’re watching a campfire retelling brought to life. It’s gritty and dirty but not quite grounded enough to pass for real life. It lands in this liminal space of unreality. It is also, for the record, absolutely gorgeous. It looks like a myth.
There is a lot of concern these days about continuity in shared universes. It’s all the rage. George Miller seems staunchly against being hindered by this, and I love him for it. Not everything in the Mad Max universe can line up perfectly, and that’s awesome. These movies emphasize the feeling that they’re classic folktales told around a campfire by people who heard the story passed down from a great uncle who swears he was there when it happened. There’s a level of ambiguity and willingness to let the stories exist as stories that’s admirable.
In case you were wondering, the action also absolutely rips. There are multiple utterly jaw-dropping sequences that are worth the price of admission alone. They arguably also aren’t even the best parts of the movie. This one will stay with you. The action mixed with the sound design and score is an experience deserving of the biggest screen and best sound system you can find. Trust me, it’s worth it.
We’ve seen a lot of… discourse about the box office return for Furiosa when compared to its budget. I don’t want to get too in the weeds about the entire thing. There are a lot of factors to consider when talking about the box office of any movie right now, let alone a prequel released nine years after the last film – which also barely broke even. What I will say is that Furisoa was never going to break the box office, and that’s okay. It’s a riveting vision from an incredibly talented writer/director brought to life by a wondrously talented cast and crew. The fact that such a triumph of filmmaking exists at all is enough.
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