Will you witness’Furiosa’ on the big screen, or is it mediocre? | See It or Skip It

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4) — Will you be taking out the war rig to see the newest Mad Max film? ABC4 Film Critic Patrick Beatty is here to help sort out what to see and what to skip.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

George Miller is a visionary pioneer who has left an indelible stamp on modern film that won’t be forgotten soon. His ability to be able to deliver incredible films for a wide range of audiences, while creating spectacles proves his mastery of his craft.

I still remember sitting down in the theater for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’, and for the next 2 hrs being transported and immersed in a way that I had not experienced before and in some cases since. The Mad Max saga has been going on for decades now, and the 4th installment not only reinvigorated that saga but introduced Furiosa, (played by Charlize Theron) a character that completely stole the show and fans wholeheartedly embraced.

We return to the wasteland with George Miller telling a Furiosa-centered story taking place before the events of ‘Fury Road’, and replacing Theron with Anya-Taylor Joy and Alyla Browne playing younger versions. We look at her life from when she was a child, kidnapped by a new villain Dementus (played by Chris Hemsworth), a man set on conquering but not entirely good at doing so, and who killed Furiosa’s mother. This is a revenge story of Furiosa and Dementus, told with the same high-octane action sequences with rumbling V8s and makeshift death mobiles, but this is also a slower-paced film not attempting to copy ‘Fury Road’, but to enhance and build the world around it.

It’s a losing game to compete with ‘Fury Road’ and George Miller doesn’t try to. I enjoy the room where we get to breathe and listen to how the Mad Max world works through Dementus and his conquests. Chris Hemsworth does a fantastic job and his character, like Furiosa, steals every scene he is in. I love his weird carnival Barker accent and the fact that though he is a menacing villain, he’s not quite the best at it and often finds himself running rather than fighting. Anya-Taylor Joy and Alyla Browne share the screen and I was surprised by just how effective the visual effects worked in making Alyla Browne look exactly like a younger version of Anya. She gets quite a bit of screen time and does a great job as the character, and when we see Taylor-Joy for the first time it’s not only seamless, but she also gives a very good performance.

There’s some familiar faces returning here, we see Immortan Joe, and some actors who might have played different characters in previous Mad Max Films return to new roles. That was somewhat distracting to me, but seeing as continuity and rule-setting for this world isn’t important to George Miller, why should it be to me? I did have some issues with the VFX. It looked quite a bit downgraded from ‘Fury Road’ and when on full display, took me completely out of the movie. There’s also a very strange choice to literally add clips in from “Fury Road’ during the end credits sequences that feel very odd and out of place. The ending sets up the future film, but it would have been so great to make it seamlessly integrate with Charlize Theron’s iteration of the character, rather than keeping Taylor-Joy in the moments so close to the previous film’s timeline.

Overall, ‘Furiosa’ lives up as a great Mad Max film with bold storytelling and really well-done action. I would’ve liked it to be more polished, but this is certainly one to see in theaters and with friends.

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Note: See It or Skip It is proudly owned and produced by Patrick Beatty. ABC4 is a broadcast partner, but the show, its content, and opinions are independently created.