Furiosa: Rocky Road

Having recently launched this website, I was full of excitement to watch "Furiosa" the night it premiered and come back to write a glowing review about how it had been an "Anya Taylor-Joy".

Sadly, I disliked and could not connect with this film. Because I am committed to my mission of this site being a kind corner for film fans to unwind, it's taken me a few days to get my thoughts together. When we share our genuine feedback, we contribute to a richer and more honest experience, but will being honest about disliking something, automatically make it negative and unkind?

The original trailer for "Furiosa" ends with Dementus asking her "Do you have it in you to make it epic?"

And for me the answer is that they didn't. Below is my attempt at a straightforward and sincere assessment of "Furiosa", focusing on what I experienced, without resorting to snark or glossing over.

Full Throttle Moments - What Worked

Chris Hemsworth, his motorcycle chariot and his prosthetic nose.

To reference Ocean's 13 for a moment, "the nose played, it worked and in a way it was kind of perversely dignified". Hemsworth embraced being a scene-stealing villain again (he was incredible in "Bad Times at the El Royale") and there are some scenes where it is clear he happily accepted anything that came his way, even if there was no payoff in the story. He was committed and said every line with so much conviction and enthusiasm that I do believe it was a personal mission of his, as an Australian, to be part of George Miller's turbo-charged hellscape franchise.

The action sequences, but specifically the chases and road battles, are very well choreographed. This is where George Miller shows off, with wide shots of that vast desert landscape, and extreme closeups of high speed fight/story beats. Without them, the wasteland setting would feel even more barren.

But here's where, for me, the film starts running out of "Guzzoline"

Roadblocks

When it was announced that there would be a prequel to "Mad Max: Fury Road" but focusing on Furiosa, I didn't expect Godfather Part II but I did expect to be linked emotionally to this scene.

"Furiosa" had the same setting and many of the same characters as MMFR but it didn't seem like it came from the same vision. I'd hoped that in the arid beauty of the endless desert, George Miller - via Anya Taylor-Joy - would devastate me with what Furiosa had been so desperately trying to get back to.

We experienced The Green Place for a few minutes, saw her interact with her loving mother for less than that, and saw nothing of her potential life before her abduction. "Furiosa" missed the mark in developing its characters' backstories and relationships.

To be fair, we did get a setup of why she became someone relentless in her mission, protective of the wives and full of quiet rage:

• As a child, she is kidnapped and her mother manages to give her one message before she is killed: "Promise me you'll find your way home" (which was the first line in the Trailer)

• She watches Hemsworth's Dementus violently murder her mother in front of her and she is then handed over to Immortan Joe

• When she is sold off to Immortan Joe and pursued by his pedophile son she runs out of the Bride vault and hides for years in the car shop

Instead of her motivation happening within the setup phase of about 15 to 25 minutes, the movie was split into five chapters and the grown up Furiosa, as played 100% by Anya Taylor-Joy, appeared about one hour+ into the film.

Why am I mentioning 100% specifically? According to Variety, they had this to say about Anya's face being added via CGI to the child actor: "At the beginning of the movie, it’s about 35% of her appearance on Browne, and by the time that she is about to assume the role, it’s roughly 80%"

The real Alyla Browne

The altered Alyla Browne

This was news to me. I just thought they'd done excellent casting, so I was not on the same page as Mr. Miller that actually Anya was already on screen, right in front of me, but with VFX.

At one point the film sets up that as a child, Furiosa must hide and disguise herself as a boy to evade being caught by the pedophile. This premise gave me hope for a compelling character arc where we would see more of The Citadel and that possibly a secondary antagonist would appear for her to attempt to neutralize, setting up her eventual plan for revenge on the main villain.

It did not occur. Furiosa focused on surviving and hiding, waiting for a means of escape to present itself.

That chance appears in her adulthood, in hiding under the War Rig. During the battle that breaks out on the road, her hair is exposed to the driver, Praetorian Jack revealing she's not a War Boy. This is not a spoiler because the subsequent lack of reaction or significant consequence to this revelation undermines the earlier tension built around her disguise. Furiosa then seamlessly transitions to openly driving the war rig with Praetorian Jack who takes her under his wing, diluting the impact of her revelation and leaving me questioning what Payroll looks like in The Citadel.

Some publications are mentioning "love" with Praetorian Jack, played by Tom Burke but I can't say I'd classify it that way. It could be that in their poisoned world letting you take the wheel is the equivalent of marriage, but I really could have used a scene or two where she is shown learning something from him and that shared intimacy.

Action alone isn't enough to keep viewers engaged if there is no emotional core to the story.

Without meaningful stakes and well-rounded characters or even new stunts, the action sequences felt hollow. This is especially difficult to understand considering how intense "Mad Max: Fury Road" was.

The last place where this film stalled was in that there was nothing comparable to the "Doof Warrior" of "Mad Max: Fury Road" who hovers suspended on a harness, in front of a stack of amplifiers and speakers, while rocking out on a double-necked guitar that is also a flame-thrower.

There is a gang that paraglides and a warboy that leaps from a great height but I don't think that'll give you a fix of that sweet adrenaline MMFR had

Hit the Brakes: Why I Left Early

What I came in to see is not what I got. The actors could not save their characters.

Even though I was a fan of "Mad Max: Fury Road", "The Witches of Eastwick", "Lorenzo's Oil" and "Three Thousand Years of Longing" unfortunately, this new film by Miller didn’t resonate with me in the way I had hoped. Despite the strong foundation of its predecessor, Furiosa spun out in a direction that didn’t quite align with my expectations.

I personally found it challenging to connect with the film and ultimately chose to leave before it ended, I acknowledge that every movie can offer different experiences to different viewers. Cinema is an art form that still has the power to elicit a wide range of emotions and opinions, and I encourage you to give Furiosa a chance if you wish to see how it speaks to you.

Sometimes, even when a film doesn't meet our expectations, it can still spark interesting discussions and perspectives, and I hope to read yours below.