Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – REVIEW

The mammoth production of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga finally crashes into cinemas and anticipation will be rewarded with 148 minutes of non-stop adrenaline pumping action and death-defying stunts.

Dark and sinister, this is the fifth instalment in the Mad Max franchise and a spinoff and prequel to the previous instalment, Mad Max: Fury Road. It’s macabre and devilish fun as audiences take to the road in what must be the loudest and most visually stunning post-apocalyptic action-adventure film ever produced.

Mankind is rogue, having become a half-life. The story surrounds the kidnapping of young Furiosa by members of the Horde of the Biker Warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and the chain of events that result in years to come once Dementus executes her mother. Furiosa vows retribution.

Chris Hemsworth is unrecognizable as the evil Dr Dementus and at times his portrayal seemed as if he was parodying his character’s psyche, with silliness and irrelevant humour.

Anya Taylor-Joy plays the adult Furiosa and handles the role effectively with minimal dialogue and maxed out facial expressions that highlight the angst she has carried in her heart since the murder of her mother.

The characters are all grotesque and the violence overwhelming with an extremely high body count. There’s never a dull moment and audiences may feel overcome by the barbaric rogue wars.

Visually the movie is mesmerising, and the CGI is spectacular though at times it looks cartoonish and overloaded — several scenes look fake.

There are also many clunky sequences involving vehicles  and other sets which are indisputably models.

One would think that all these ‘minor defects’ would have been rectified considering it’s the most expensive Australian movie ever made with an astronomical $343 million budget.

While watching this movie, audiences may feel they’ve seen it all before. There’s not much that writers can do with this franchise as it increments except bring in new characters; the storylines seem borrowed from previous editions with rogue wars, storylines about retribution and rogue gangs searching for food and water.

However, it’s entertaining and movie goers who enjoy watching movies in this genre, especially the die hard fanbase, won’t be disappointed.

What would a Mad Max movie be without the extremely loud and long sequences of vehicles being chased and blown up followed by gruesome scenes of death?

Will there be a sixth edition to this extremely successful franchise? If it’s a box office hit undoubtedly….

★★★

In Cinemas May 23