The latest “Mad Max” installment, “Furiosa” had the potential to be a feminist prequel actually worth seeing, but turned out to be a major swing and a miss.
“Furiosa” is the fifth installment of legendary Aussie director George Miller’s multi-decade franchise. It comes almost 10 years after the release of the Tom Hardy-led “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which had Charlize Theron playing the one-armed road warrior, Furiosa. Now, Anya Taylor-Joy, in all her bug-eyed beauty, steps in to tell the story of a young Furiosa.
Sure, the film capitalizes on the “Tell Her Story” virtue signalling that Hollywood is currently obsessed with. But “Fury Road” is among the best action movies ever made, and Furiosa was no boilerplate Girl Boss; she deserved her own standalone picture. I went into the theater cautiously optimistic.
While I was pleasantly surprised at how not woke it was, I was let down for another reason. It was just plain boring, and at a two-and-half hour run time, way too long.
The great part about “Fury Road” was how little dialogue and traditional character development there was. Miller thrust you into this world with no context, and decided to show rather than tell. The result was some of the best, heart-pumping action scenes ever made.
He did the opposite with Furiosa. There was nothing wrong with the overarching plot, per se. You get the backstory on the wars between The Citadel, Gas Town, and the Bullet Farm and some more epic visual world building. Chris Hemsworth is a compelling new villain, Dr. Dementus. But Miller makes you sit through an entire hour-long intro of the young-young-Furiosa, before Taylor-Joy even makes an appearance. This could have been cut down to ten minutes, tops. The action, once it starts, is derivative of “Fury Road,” and far more sparse.
What we’re left with is a whole lot of dialogue — worse, preening monologues — that leave far too little to the imagination. The movie is only woke to this extent. Max is a man of few words, a good old action hero. But for a female hero, Miller apparently felt the need to give a deep background and complexity. Taylor-Joy’s Furiosa wasn’t a Girl Boss, but she was awfully introspective for a world long-since rid of therapists.
I guess we can just be thankful that the left didn’t have a conniption over Chris Hemsworth’s big prosthetic nose.
