Sorry for that super-long post...
I went to see the film in its third week of release. I like to wait a little while to get some peace and quiet in the theater, and I wasn't disappointed... There were two of us in a 180-seat theater...
Anyway, I just loved the film!
It's a revenge movie, so you don't expect anything from the script, the interest being 100% in how the thing is told... and damn, Georges Miller is a BEAST.
His universe is as rich as ever, the storytelling impeccable and to-the-point, the action is crazy but above all, very creative!
Costume and vehicle designs contribute directly to the flow and choreography of the action... it's stunning, exemplary.
Everything is so well thought out, it's a pure delight.
Alyla Browne and Anya Taylor Joy are perfect in their roles, but, as advertised, it was Chris Hemsworth's performance that really surprised me.
I've never had anything against him, but it always seemed to me that he never really disappeared in his roles
(from what I'd seen of him), but here, he IS Dementus. The nose make-up was a bit hit and miss at times
(especially in his first scene) but I love the way they've progressively aged him, both in appearance and, well, in the acting. Superb creation.
Tom Burke's Jack the Praetorian also struck me as a very charismatic mentor. He's not a very fleshed-out character, but he's not supposed to be. We just need to feel his presence, and that worked perfectly for me.
Nothing to say about the rest of the secondary characters, I believe in all of them.
On the question of CGI
(which many still confuse with stylization), I'm one of those who raised an eyebrow at the first trailer, while remaining comprehensive: the film was a work in progress.
On the second trailer, things seemed more polished overall, but I did voice a criticism about a clip shared a few pages ago, saying that it reminded me, in all honesty, of
The Flash, due to the rather rough compositing... and I stand by that criticism. But only for this mini sequence!
(Furiosa on a tank during the chase)
Because otherwise, the rest of the film sincerely seemed to me to be very well managed in terms of its visuals, and having seen
Fury Road again just before, I didn't get the impression of a loss of quality. It seemed to me to be equivalent in terms of rendering... and ambition. If not actually more ambitious!
So many shot are just fantastic "tableau". Along with Villeneuve's
Dune, these two films are just so f***ing refreshing and make me want to go to the cinema again: it's meant to be seen big... and heard loud!
While I'm not a big fan of Tom Holkenborg
(although he's quite a nice guy on Youtube), I also really liked the heavy, dark and oppressive soundtrack in this film
(the assault on the Bullet Farm... almost funereal... loved it). By extension, the sound design was also very immersive, reinforcing the overall viscerality of the film.
Truly excellent work!
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Now, about the film's lack of success with audiences...
While it's true that its spin-off nature may put some people off, I sadly don't think this film ever had a very large "reservoir" of viewers to draw from to begin with. The original saga is almost 40 years old and has never been a major license. When
Fury Road came out in 2015, it made sense because many young adults then were familiar with these films and were attracted by a modern version. But today, 10 years have passed.
First, it’s too much for a movie that is, at his heart, an inseparable companion to its predecessor. Because for as much as the film remains comprehensible on its own, many of its elements take on their full flavor if you're familiar with the lore already introduced.
Second, the bulk of the demographic that rushes to the cinema and guarantees the big box-office figures - young people, that is – now comes from a generation that, I'm convinced, is quite different from its predecessors in terms of film consumption. If the kids of the 80s and 90s went looking for their films in their elders' collections or in video stores, the kids of the 2000s have grown up in a saturated audiovisual space that leaves less room for "digging" into the past. I'll say it again, but I see more and more young adults who have never seen
Star Wars or, even more surprisingly, any of Nolan's Batman movies, however recent they may seem to us. So
Mad Max…
More generally, I sincerely believe that the window for revivals and remakes of many "icons" simply closed at the turn of the 2020s. I think that's also what happened, at least in part, to the latest
Indiana Jones movie. Some name simply won't drawn much by themselves anymore.
Then there's the fact that... this universe is perhaps, more than ever, a "niche" thing. Personally, being unfamiliar with the Mad Max universe,
Furiosa appealed to me anyway, on its own merits
(I'd only seen Fury Road once, years ago and catch on the original trilogy last month). But I was also perfectly aware that what attracted me to it remained "niche" tastes. And having now seen the film, my opinion is solidified: this film's identity is simply not big crowd pleasing stuff.
That's not to say it's not good, it's just "too special". The brutality, the over-the-top characters, the dark humor, the chaotic chases, the steam-punk meets S&M rusty aesthetic... I just have to imagine 80% of my entourage in front of this film to understand that it's pretty special stuff, at least too special for many to make the trip to the theater. Regrettably so, because there's just too little big films with that degree of singularity, sincerity and creativity.
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Anyway, just my two cent!
I really, really hope Miller will be able to offer us another one, because it’s pretty clear there’s another puzzle piece to fit in there….
And I just had to much of a blast to be stopped there!
