Unfilmed Review of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Sometimes I write up scripts for videos that just don't make sense to actually record and edit when all's said and done. This review of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is one such example. putting it here as a bonus/thank you for everyone who's supported the channel as patron!

There are plenty of anime like mad max. Fist of the North Star, Sand Land, Desert Punk, Redline…Vampire Hunter D. They love animating postapocalyptic wastelands over here. But did you know, at one point, there was an anime adaptation of THE postapocalyptic wasteland slated for production as an official prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road?

See, Mahiro Maeda, the legendary mech and monster designer and director of Gankutsuo, created the concept art that laid the foundation for George Miller’s operatic opus of cars and carnage. And after he finished that work, he was handed a prequel script that Miller and his co-writer had worked on in pre-production to establish the setting and characters, which they asked him to make an anime out of.

 Sadly, before it could actually be animated, shooting delays on the main fury road set caused it to be pushed back as well – no sense releasing a tie-in to a movie that didn’t exist yet, after all – and by the time Fury Road was ready to resume work, it was no longer feasible for the anime to be made. So it got shelved, Maeda moved on to new products, and we were left with just a handful of beautiful concept art pieces, hinting at something amazing we’d never get the chance to watch. The End.

Damn, that was a short, depressing video… what was I thinking… oh, right, there’s a plot twist! You CAN actually watch that that screenplay play out on the big screen, right now, in live action, with some of the most gorgeous cinematography and heart-pumping sound design your senses will ever feast on. But only if you hurry, because, as you might have heard, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga ain’t doin’ so hot at the box office. It’s already being pulled from theatres left and right, and you might think that’s no big deal because you can just catch it at home, but you’re wrong on two counts.

Firstly, the existence of the next mainline, Tom-Hardy-starring Mad Max film reportedly hinges on this prequel’s performance, so if you want to see more of what made Fury Road Great, you gotta go see this while the getting’s good. But also, a lot more of what made Fury Road great – the visual bombast, the musical rhythm of the action, the big, fast, MEAN cars - is already present in this movie, and in many respects, better than it ever was.

If you’ve seen the original Mad Max: Fury Road, there’s a good chance you saw it on streaming, and if that’s the case I’m sorry to inform you that you haven’t actually SEEN Mad Max: Fury Road. It’s a good enough movie to experience from the couch, better if you’ve got a decent home theatre setup, but with its gorgeously evocative imagery painted across the big screen, the rumble of its motors resonating in your chest through a high end dolby sound system, it was a thing of unrivalled splendor.

It was without question one of the BEST movie-going experiences I’ve ever had – a high I’ve been chasing ever since. And Furiosa brought me back there… so maybe don’t see it in theatres if you don’t want your eyes opened to the true meaning of cinema. But if you want to know what a live Beethoven symphony would have sounded like if he had access to a V8 Engine, or witness a renaissance master live painting on a canvas of sand and asphalt with a palette of oil, fire, and blood, maybe consider going out of your way for it this weekend, before it’s too late.

But that's not to say Furiosa isn’t worth experiencing on the small screen if that’s your only option by the time you catch this video. It’s a brilliantly tight and deceptively dense little narrative – the two and a half hour run time absolutely flies by, and not a single minute of it feels wasted or drawn out. The opening act, which follows a young Furiosa as she’s taken from her home by marauding bikers, and her mother valiantly tries and fails to get her back, is one of the most efficient narrative setups you’ll ever see, an object lesson in how to do worldbuilding, character development, and action all at the same time.

The film establishes the unique nature of Furiosa’s home – an oasis of greenery in the hell-blasted wasteland – the kind, yet quiet and cautious culture of its people, the insane lengths every last one of them will go to protect its secret… everything precious and good about it that will drive Furiosa in her quest to get back there over the course of two movies… at the same as it’s being torn away from her. The moment we understand the depths of what she’s losing, she’s already flying off across the dunes on the back of a motorbike, her mother already chasing after her like hell on horseback. And eventually, wheels.

And it just keeps going at that breakneck pace, layering on pathos and building out the world at every turn, as the mad biker warlord who kidnapped her rolls around the wastes building his army, throws himself into an unwinnable war with Immortan Joe and his suicidal warboys, then trades her as concubine when they sue for peace. Right up until she ultimately escapes to hide among the citadel’s road warriors and plot her eventual return to The Place of Abundance. It’s an hour of Absolute Cinema that feels like it’s done in minutes.

After that the plot and character development slows down a little, to give us time to bathe in the action and carnage – and oh, what glorious action it is – but that’s also the part where you’ll be missing out the most if you miss the movie’s theatrical run. The shots are clean and well composed, so they should read well on a TV, computer, or shudder phone screen – perhaps that’s a remnant of the original anime storyboarding – but the action won’t WASH OVER you in quite the same way. And all the really clever storytelling is front-loaded, aside from the ending, which links up to fury road brilliantly, plus the part where we learn how Furiosa lost her arm.

If you’re a writer, watching the first two acts of this movie will make you a better one. The last three will just leave you deeply satisfied with a solid saga of revenge and redemption, guided by the hand of a master artist working at the height of his craft. Which you can only really appreciate in its intended big screen format, but is still worth experiencing however you’re able, as soon as you’re able, if you have any love for film whatsoever. Or anime, for that matter.