“Some of the worst CGI I’ve seen — like a joke”
— the woman sat behind me in the cinema was not impressed. But since we are strangers I did not stay to get her full and nuanced opinion. Makes for an impactful lead sentence tho, don’t you think?
In the end, I did enjoy Furiosa. But it took a long time to get into it: a 3rd of the movie is over by the time it clicks. Furiosa needs to grow up and we get a major action sequence sequence. From there it kept my engagement until the end. Unfortunately many of the things I thought would be problems from the trailer do turn out to be problems.
Bad visual effects punch me out nearly from the start: it looks uncanny and offputting. Then bad moments pull me out again and again. Whole shots look badly composited — like it’s from a different decade of movie making. The physics and animation on the vehicles so often looks wrong: several times they lack momentum and stop suddenly or start sliding across the screen like they’re being dragged around with a mouse (which they were) rather than being driven across a landscape. There are a couple of for-the-trailer shots that are silly.
Chris Hemsworth’s fake nose looks bad for at least half of the film. I know what his real face is like too well. Yet! — his outfits and acting were very entertaining. Anya Taylor Joy totally defies my cynical expectations and is great! Yet as soon as she puts on the classic “Furiosa Fit” from the 2015 film it doesn’t feel right again for a bit — it was better when I could imagine her as her own character.
As a prequel the only tension really is when does Furiosa lose her arm that she is missing in the sequel? The sequence there is good I think. The rest we know: half the cast has to 100% survive and the other half is 100% going to…not be around… and they still skip over a big chunk. Like Star Wars : “The Clone Wars have begun … The Clone Wars have ended” style.
One aspect of the ending is left a bit ambiguous and flops around in a silly story-telling conceit— which is an incredible act of cowardice from the director. Please just choose your ending. This soured the ending for me and left me giving it a worse rating than the major part of the film had been building towards. A classic “bad guy speech” goes on too long I think as well.
Part of me feels like it’d be better on a second viewing… and part of me feels like I should just rewatch the 2015 Fury Road again. Oddly there are actually many scenes from Fury Road interspersed thru the credits — don’t draw those comparisons please.
…and it’s frustrating: all because I think there was potential for something really great in this story and it was missed. Perhaps that’s just my wishful thinking? There are some great shots and awesome sequences — often when the action was simpler. There are genuine highs that I’m feeling I could give all the way up to 9/10. Then there are bits that are so wrong and give me a sour taste that makes we want to be very, very harsh.
I think it’s worth watching. But because of that varying quality I can’t fully endorse the expense of a cinema trip. It is worse than it’s predecessor.
Positives: cool outfits, sets, vehicles. Entertaining performances. Revenge story. Origin story/prequel that is better than most of that type.
Negatives: weak effects too often. Hamstrung by being a prequel with a different actress. Cowardly ambiguous ending. Too long sometimes.
7/10 — more entertaining than average with some significant weaknesses.
I could even have gone as low as 5 or 6 at some points — and some people really won’t like this. But other people are more forgiving and those problems won’t affect the enjoyment that is delivered. So this will be a bit more divisive than some films I think.
Alright, that’s all for today. See you another day with another movie.
:)
