Review: Ambitious, Messy and Mad — ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ Has it All
George Miller’s triumphant return to the Mad Max franchise is another impressive, if sometimes sloppy, ride through the wasteland
Expectations were, in all likeliness, impossibly high for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Across 45 years, the Mad Max franchise has led to some of the strangest post-apocalyptic action cinema around, but also some of the best. Each of the films has their share of drawbacks — often George Miller’s struggle to add real depth to his characters, and his occasional struggle to hold a consistent tone together — but they make up for those faults in their sheer ambition and brazenness. The incredible ambition of the franchise’s previous entry, Mad Max: Fury Road, is now almost a decade old but still the last real major action film in memory. It was a film that genuinely shook the foundations of action cinema — an impossibly lean and efficient two hour car chase, albeit with some flaws, that highlighted Miller’s unique ability to mix great moments of character development and world-building directly into the middle of chaotic, sprawling action set-pieces.
Miller maintains that brilliant ability in Furiosa, but he also makes a point to dare himself to go further this time. Not that Mad Max: Fury Road…
