Mad Max: Fury Road is a masterpiece action movie. Actually, I could probably drop the last two words of that sentence. But what can an artist or creative team do after such an accomplishment? For a lot of artists who work in a single medium, the answer is to iterate, invert, or pivot. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga inverts.
The best way to describe Fury Road is as one long chase sequence punctuated by moments of context. Because of that, its sly and colorful dialogue takes a backseat or can go unnoticed. Think of the turns of phrase unique to the series: “Two men enter; one man leaves”; “aqua cola and guzzoline”; “Mediocre!”; and my new favorite, “A wordburger with you?”
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga takes those ingredients and shuffles them with a deft hand. Now we have a slightly slower-paced movie filled with more context, more depictions of what the Wasteland has done to people who aren’t Max Rockatansky or the dozens of warlords we’ve met in the series. Those moments are then punctuated with chase scenes that are every bit as masterful as Fury Road‘s. With a new emphasis on Furiosa herself (and the people that weave in and out of her story), there are many more chances for that uniquely Mad Max dialect to shine.
Yes, Furiosa is a chattier movie, but the way George Miller and Nick Lathouris write dialogue is fascinating. Characters use occasional $5 words mixed with an impressively coherent, post apocalyptic Australian slang. Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus is given room to chew the scenery, but his speeches on deep topics are extruded through the limitations of a society that has gone decades without formal eduction, making for a rare tone that is frightening, hilarious, and even endearing.
Where Fury Road only took enough time for context and dialogue to enrich the action, Furiosa‘s context and dialogue is enriched by action. And rather than trying to outdo the set pieces of the previous movie, Furiosa‘s action is darker and more violent, incidentally making Fury Road a more optimistic movie in hindsight.
I highly recommend seeing Furiosa in this light. You will absolutely get your fill of Frankenstein vehicles bashing each other into sandy pulp, but the harrowing story will propel you into your next rewatch of Fury Road with a bigger blast of nitrous than any other prequel has done for its forerunners.
Have you seen Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga? How do you think it filled the shoes Fury Road left for it? Tell us in the comments or over at the Boss Rush Discord!
Featured Image: Warner Bros.
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