Nine years after having presented Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller returned to the Cannes Film Festival for the world premiere of this prequel starring Anya Taylor-Joy in the role previously played by Charlize Theron. Received with cinephile excitement, this fifth film will allow us to extend – as has already been hinted – the franchise that began in 1979 with Mel Gibson as the protagonist, especially if it now also becomes a commercial success when released in theaters.
Furiosa: from the Mad Max saga (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Australia-United States/2024). Director: George Miller. Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Lachy Hulme, Charlee Fraser, Angus Sampson, Alyla Browne, Daniel Webber, Nathan Jones and Gordon D. Kleut. Screenplay: George Miller and Nico Lathouris. Photography: Simon Duggan. Edition: Eliot Knapman and Margaret Sixel. Music: Tom Holkenborg. Distributor: Warner Bros. Duration: 148 minutes. Suitable for over 16 years.
Clarification: I really like the movies of Mad Max, but I feel that this saga is somewhat inflated in the critical evaluation. Neither Fury road not even now Furious They seem to me to be masterpieces that almost everyone celebrates with overflowing enthusiasm, although it is true that the Australian Miller has achieved what very few in the history of cinema have achieved: sustaining the artistic level and interest in a franchise that has already turned 45 years old!
This fifth installment is a prequel and in this reboot Miller maintains the mastery of staging, the narrative intensity, the vertigo that is never visual or sound chaos and the visual imagery that made Mad Max both a commercial success and a cult saga.
A few days ago it was released Danger Profession (The Fall Guy)a film by David Leitch with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt that was a kind of tribute to stuntmen and, in fact, several of them were working on a futuristic story with some (quite a bit) of Mad Max. It was like an early celebration, since the stunts of Furious They deserve all the applause when they fall from motorcycles, tanker trucks, crash or roll through the desert areas that are the almost omnipresent background of this franchise.
Like every prequel, Furious starts at… the beginning (or almost): we see a rebellious and brave girl (Alyla Browne) who is able to deceive and confront the burly bikers with skull-shaped helmets, but when she is finally caught and her mother ( Charlee Fraser) comes out to rescue her, the inevitable tragedy ends up unleashing and the little girl is left an orphan.
And, after that extensive prologue (all the sequences of the film are long), the story will unfold over 15 years and divided into five chapters, in which we will see the usual fights between clans and Furiosa as an adult (a convincing Anya Taylor-Joy as a heroine) being helped by Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) and then considering the duel with a thirst for revenge against the ruthless and all-powerful Dementus (a long-haired Chris Hemsworth who plays at being an over-the-top comic book villain).
The scripts of Mad Max They have never been too elaborate or deep (there is always a certain ecological undertone) because Miller trusts that his virtuosity for the imposing, spectacular set pieces will do their part to capture and captivate the viewer. And boy does he get it because Furious It is pure adrenaline with dazzling shots and all the visual paraphernalia that contemporary cinema can display. Action cinema in its purest form, in its maximum and beautiful expression that could be enjoyed with the best projection imaginable in the Sala Lumière in Cannes.
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