Furiosa

June 06, 2024

I saw Furiosa the other night. It’s quite different to Fury Road, more character driven with a longer story. It felt more like Mad Max 2 and included a lot more world-building and detail about the “politics” of the Wasteland. It’s interesting because a lot of the stuff in this movie is also in the Mad Max game but quite different. George Millar wasn’t a big fan of the game for some reason but he said they gave Avalanche all the material which explains why the characters and places cross-over.

I thought Anya Taylor-Joy was great as Furiosa. They did an interesting thing where they used CGI to blend the young Furiosa actress’s appearance with Anya’s as time went on. I didn’t even notice at first and was wondering when they’d switch to the older actress and suddenly I realised I was looking at Anya Taylor Joy. Impressive stuff and it worked really well.

Chris Hemsworth hams it up as Dementus. At first it was a bit distracting because he’s so recognisable and I’m used to seeing him as Thor with a somewhat similar appearance. But he did a great job and I enjoyed his performance.

The cars and action were great as always, just not as visceral as Fury Road. I think that’s because the action scenes were more spread out and the story was more character-driven. Fury Road is basically one long car chase with very little time to relax and catch your breath. Furiosa has a lot more downtime and character moments.

One thing I did really notice was the CGI in this. People say Fury Road didn’t have a lot of CGI but that’s not true. There are scenes where it really stands out in that movie too and it bothered me. But there’s something about the look of Furiosa that makes the CGI more obvious in every scene. Maybe it’s the lighting or the way the camera moves but it just didn’t look as convincing as Fury Road. It’s especially frustrating because I know they did use a lot of practical effects and it distracts me when I can tell what’s real and what’s not. Obviously I know every movie has a tonne of CGI and I’m not suggesting they shouldn’t do it, I just wonder why it was so noticeable in Furiosa versus Fury Road.

I want to go see it again so maybe I’ll write more once I do.

June 07, 2024

I read an article today that talks about George Millar’s increased use of CGI in Furiosa. It confirmed a lot of what I thought - they did film a lot of practical stuff, as they did on Fury Road, but they did a lot more editing in post, moving things around in the frame and sometimes replacing things completely with CGI. Personally I think I’d have preferred it without all the fiddling because I could tell things didn’t look quite right. If I can tell something isn’t real, even if it’s just something minor in the frame, then I disconnect from it. I still really enjoyed the movie but it makes me wonder what it would have been like had they just not been so liberal with the editing. It’s like my brain is allergic to it or something.