Furiosa review - no hype - by Rob Ager / Collative Learning 

Hi folks, if you're into Mad Max check out my video on Jungian Psychology in The Road Warrior ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TPuadIi8c4Y.html I have some other reviews of Road Warrior and Fury Road on my channels too, so just search "rob ager mad max / fury road / road warrior" to find them.

I think making the tanker shiny and chrome is a way to express how well off, how powerful the Citadel is. The war boys spray chrome paint on their "grills" before they die, with Immortan Joe telling Nux "You shall ride eternal. Shiny and chrome". So it's pretty obvious they put a lot of value on looking shiny and chrome. It's borderline religious. It's not only about function with Immortan Joe, but also about form and flexing.

Mad max 1 and 2 can't be topped !!!

I thought it was better than Thunder Dome, and I can see why you’d think it was better than Fury Road. I agree that the setting is strange, I like that the first two Mad Max movies are more grounded. He’s living in a normal house, and is a police officer in the first one for, we’ve become so detached from that.

Mad Max 2 the Road Warrior is still the best in the series... No matter what...

I know some people love Anya Taylor-Joy, but I struggle with her onscreen presence because she has 'actress face' - that look modern young actresses have where you know they haven't actually done a days work in their lives, and if they weren't acting they'd be models or something. So they get cast as different characters and my internal reaction as soon as they're onscreen is "Oh - an actress" - which is exactly what you don't want. I don't want to hate on her, but her performances haven't really impressed me either, and I just don't get the hype. Big-eyed stares just aren't enough for me.

I like your point on how movies nowadays are obsessed with making everything look pretty. It just ends up having the opposite effect, things become too generic and therefore ugly. Comparing Road Warrior with Fury Road is obvious here but I also think a lot about the stark beauty in The Exorcist for example, or even in shows like The Sopranos or The Wire. And then on a slightly different note, it drives me insane when directors/studios are afraid to make even the characters or the sets look a tiny bit ugly, like when you have a character who's supposed to be down on his luck and yet he looks pretty good, or when a high school is supposed to be rough and yet everything there looks damn spotless.

I find the critical drinker annoying af-fake drunkery would have Bukowski yolk him-also his taste & takes are utter shite.I think Fury Road & Furiousa are convolutted tripe:)

Yes, revenge can be useful for giving shape to movie plots, but isn't compelling on a human level because once they achieve their goal/revenge it's like 'So what?". Nothing has changed.

What i wanted to see is the Mad Max character forced to enter , hesitantly, an abandoned metropolitan area, in an effort to find parts to fix his car and explores the seemingly abandoned urban jungle and all the dangers that loom below the surface. Mad max world would look like the world from the movie ''The road'' . You ll have to spend most of your time hiding and running away from danger. Any stranger would pose a mortal danger.

I always found Superman so much more interesting than Batman particularly his growing up story, he's a god but can't stop others he loves from dying of old age etc, weirdly people find him the more boring character. He's a optimistic but heavily tragic character.

I always get from road warrior that all the stakes for the action are increased because fuel is constantly a finite commodity, you never feel that with Fury Road

I get it's shouldn't matter but it bugged me that somehow they can make gas, have welding gases and most of all the rubber tires haven't dry rotted to dust

Rob just nailed it in the Mad Max 2 comparison back in the days. He said 100% everything just how I thought what made old Mad Max superior.

Had the same issue you did with Fury Road. At the time I enjoyed it but once I did a Mad Max marathon and got to Fury Road I hated it. I realised I was comparing Fury Road to modern action film standards in which it's one of the better ones, but comparing it to old skool Mad Max action real metal on metal crashes, real explosions and crazy stunts, it cannot compete.

I love it when Brits do American accents. Makes my day every time. "Rotten ToMAYtoes!" 🤣

If a review channel has sponsors they cant be trusted, period.

Your complaint about industry required for building cars is on point and I found the same credulity straining problem with the Fallout series; somehow they have tilt-rotor aircraft and nuclear powered suits of armor being operated and maintained by a group of less than 10k members of the "Brotherhood of Steel". Utterly ridiculous.

Urulu in Australia is probably the closest thing to the geography of the new Mad Max movies.

bike engine thumping sounds alone make this worth the cinema watch.

I, and most of us, probably agree with the more CGI in a film, the less real it feels - like a cartoon - that is very well said.

Synthetic Man has also called out this annoying trend of some people shilling for bad movies

Sounds like you would prefer The Rover (2014). Same thing but realistic.

The problem I have with Furiosa is it’s an unnecessary prequel. There were hints to her backstory in Fury Road, and that was enough. These films are pretty much non stop action, we don’t need backstory or exposition in these films. Characters are disposable and you should never feel safe a character is safe. And making a back story to Fury Road about a character we already know where their future lies??? Sorry, zero interest.

Completely agree with your take on revenge stories. Hamlet is one of the only revenge stories I've seen that isn't completely one-dimensional.

Mad Max without Mel Gibson, is like Dirty Harry without Clint Eastwood, for my money.

I went back and watched all the Mad Max Films after I saw Furiosa opening weekend. I didn't realize how badass "Beyond Thunderdome" was since I hadn't seen it since I was a kid. I complete forgot that movie had a chase scene that rivals The Road Warrior and Fury Road. It's like the last 20 minutes of Thunderdome is one badass chase scene.

I walked into the movie expecting it to have a 2020’s sheen of “girl boss” and was pleasantly surprised. I don’t regret seeing it, but don’t know that I’d watch it again. I’d recommend it for sure.

Unfortunately I have to agree that fury road doesn’t hold up to rewatching, I still kinda like it though, maybe like a guilty pleasure 😂

been waiting for this!

I have to “that guy” for a minute, but I think the idea that in the post-apocalypse these crazy war machines could be built (let alone driven and operated in a combat setting) is meant to be somewhat fantastic and unrealistic. Great review, love hearing opinions on new movies that aren’t just “this is the best/worst movie I’ve ever seen!!”

The prob with the revenge plotline is it is such a cliche. There was a huge opportunity at the end to do something way more interesting with it, but it wasn’t taken.

They used CGI on her face for when Furiosa was growing up.

I have to say I only watched Furiosa out of boredom; I wanted to go see a movie and it felt like the best thing out last week. But I kinda dragged myself to see it. Like Rob I didn't really like Fury Road and had very little interest in this character's backstory. The best thing I can say about it goes for Fury Road, and all of Miller's work: you get a sense that Miller is having fun making the movie you're watching, and at least for me that enhances it to some degree (I feel the same about Sam Raimi, whose movies I don't really like but I tend to enjoy them more when I think about him putting them together). I do feel bad for Anya Taylor Joy because she's become the face of a cinematic failure and I think she's quite good with what she's given. Hemsworth is likewise trying hard but I didn't really gel with his character. That's really all the good The CGI was really noticeable and took me out of the movie constantly. I kept wanting to see a version of the great composition but filmed in a grounded way like MM2. The script felt like a mess because it's billed as Furiosa's revenge story but she's really inconsequential for a lot of the middle

If the sponsored channels aren't getting paid for positive reviews of a particular movie, their at least playing the game that the corporate world rewards.

About Dementus mistreating Furiosa, it’s hard to catch the part about Dementus using Furiosa’s blood during the trade with Immortan Joe and the blood sausage scene. The cage and on wheels and her face mask are other indications of her mistreatment. That said, her fury made a lot more sense to me after Jack’s torture.

Dementus was by far the best part.

The reason why the first movies were great was because George had to rely on whatever he's got, there was no CGI back then. Now, CGI makes anything possible so George Miller could make any story he wants. In summary, he always wanted to make those kind of stories like Fury Road and Furiosa.

Also what film sites/youtube channels give good reviews to films?

I like them all. The first two are perfection For me and I tend to watch back to back. Thunderdome and Fury Road are both for the most part enjoyable but I tend to watch them in isolation and don’t see them as adding anything to the character of Max. I can rewatch for first two indefinitely and love them to pieces. They complement each other perfectly.

Mel Gibson needs to comeback as Max.

Rob needs to see The Wailing (2016) if he hasn't. It's an extremely clever basically modern version of The Exorcist; although, I think that won't be obvious to many casual movie viewers. I'd imagine it would be extremely obvious to Rob. Anyway, I would bet money on him liking it.

I believe in part channels are shilling for unpopular films that are of the "modern" take is because they predict them to bomb at the Box Office. Furiosa did, but the reviews from big channels have to sell tickets and seats, or at the least signal for it.

Seeing the trailer for the first time, I thought, "I wonder what Rob thinks of this?" Been looking forward to this for awhile.

What a wonderful surprise of a video! Rob, you need to do more movie reviews like this one! 👍👍 (Also: I'm from Brazil, so I appreciate the good mention to City of God!!)

It would’ve made more sense if it at first and Morton Joe’s army is wearing shirts at first, but then he meets Furiosa. He has everyone shirtless from now on to prevent another woman from infiltrating.

brilliant vid rob. touched enough nerves to make even a dead man wiggle. curious if you have found anything post 2020 delightful, or if there was anything you generally enjoyed?

Rob I saw a movie recently I thought you might enjoy. It's called Stopmotion, a small horror movie that came out last year. I don't want to oversell it, but I particularly liked its visual style and the way the editing is used to mess with the viewer in the first half

Finally a review without the hype or tripe thanx Rob, ps Id love to hear your thoughts on the film wake in fright a great oz thriller .

Great review.

Is there a car chase? In this movie

Sir i really appreciated your review, because it was an actual honest review, thank you very much.

sorry for being off topic, but as you mentioned you started to watch the northman here, I would like to mention that while it first appears like the typical revenge story, but in the second part of the movie his vengeance is challenged by a plot twist I won‘t reveal here.. not sure if you watched this far, but I personally felt it was refreshing to see this sudden shift in the story line

The whole point of mad max was the anti-hero lone wanderer archtype, which the new films completely miss. Yeah, max is tough but he has flaws and a tragic kind of loneliness too him. Which makes the first two films fascinating. Strange that the new films and fans miss this completely. Same thing happened with the new Fallout show, which got glowing reviews but it was dreadful and missed the whole point and ambience of the original games. I also found Tom Hardy and Charlize had no personality or charm. Mel Gibson carried those original movies hard.

You're insight is so good. Miss seeing you on youtube! Some of the best content ever. Are you aware you got a shout out a couple years ago on Joe Rogan from a guest he had on? They referenced your 2001 work

Excellent critique , I like you offering solutions to your critiques. It distinguishes you from the other movie critics

Making the tanker shiny is a thematic choice...a shining example of hope.

I always loved that the first three ‘fables’ were all stylistically different and played fast and loose with continuity. Fury Road came along and repeated the tradition, little to no continuity and stylistically something new. So it seems a bit of a shame that the 5th one breaks with tradition and is the first ‘repeat’ in the series. A lot of people saying ‘old man Max’ with Mel should have been the 5th film. Can’t pretend I wouldn’t love to see it. Also, I recently listened to the first three novelisations read out on RU-vid, never read the novels and I really enjoyed the extra layers. Road Warrior has quite a different end scene.

Excellent critique of the latest film Rob!

Being genuine, you're the only critic i actually trust. YMS is just awful and Critical Drinker praises shit movies/shows as long as they're not woke.

I cant even watch the trailer let alone the film.

I actually like mad max 1 the best, its actually very unique seeing as most other IPs are inspired by its sequels.

For a movie about revenge, i thought and felt that "I Saw the Devil" was incredibly good character and story wise, and the catharsis at the end for both prog/antagonist was excellent. One of my favorite movies.

I think you missed, the 40 day war or whatever was going on while she was dealing with her arm

For me the thing with Fury Road and Furiosa is they look more like a warhammer 40k movie would look than a mad max one: the world itself could be any industrialized hive world (Armageddon during the second ork invasion) with some human nomads of the wastes; swap the warboys (ork boyz) and Immortan Joe (Ork Warlord) etc with ork tribes attacking the planet; swap max and furiosa with nthe afore mentioned nomads who are trying to get a convoy of fuel to a stranded imperial guard regiment and there it is: Armageddon: Fury Road.

I love your content Rob but are those Desert Rock formations in FR/Furiosa really that much different than Devil's Tower which was featured in Close Encounters? Utah has tons of those rock towers as well. However seeing as this was clearly supposed to be in Australia (Definitively in fact for the first time) Urulu is closest I can find.

I’ve noticed they had eased up on the “woke” as the years go on. Now is that because the market has spoken or is there something more sinister going on….

Yeah like you I initially liked Fury Road, but the more I thought about it and watched it I realise it wasn't that great. I also realise Tom Hardy is an overrated actor.

11:08 i been hearing around that some aspect of the movies are meant to not make sense cause all this are meant to legends not the actual events of what happen. your thoughs on that take?

The scene that stood out for me was Furiosa and Jack talking on the road,simple dialogue exchange but it really felt like a mad max film there. It's a shame that George Miller recently said he doesn't like dialogue and it slows down a film.

I know you have a lot of interesting stuff in the works Rob, and I'm really looking forward to that. But I must say I also like these movie reviews of newly released films. You did a couple of those in 2019, Midsommar, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Joker, and Doctor Sleep. I think if you did more of these types of videos they could potentioally boost your subscribers a bit. Many people watch moview reviews (particulary of new movies). I know you don't go to the cinemas often, and that you're a busy guy, but I would really appreciate if you did more of these, even if it's just once in a while. Your movie takes are always refreshing and interesting to listen to. The two channels I enjoy listening the most to when it comes to movies (which also are deeply underrated and undersubscribed to) are your channel, and deepfocuslens. She i really well articulated, and she has a lot of great takes and reviews (you two also seem to have a lot of overlap in your film taste) (I guess they don't take that long to make compared to lot of your other work.)

More recent movie/show videos like this please!

I agree with your analysis about the abundance of vehicles in fury road and how absurd that is. In road warrior, beyond thunderdome, gasoline was a precious and scarce commodity, and so were bullets. In furiosa they have the villain firing off thousands of rounds of ammunition as well as rocket propelled grenades. It’s rule of cool run amok

I agree with you about fury road

Its possible to make it that shiny, but youd have to polish it alot, if you had slaves, well.

With your comment about the arm, the 40-day war happened and during this time, she was recovering.

100% agree regarding Fury Road. I've no interest in seeing Furiosa, there's only two Mad Max movies in my mind.

I agree ... the stoic / silent character is so overdone nowadays ... how many times is that just a crutch for not writing good dialogue esp for a girlboss character like this?

Jack looked like a young Stacy Keach. There's alot of clues to say the Max in Fury Road is actually the child in Road Warrior he even had the music box. That said, I prefer Mad Max 1&2

What do you think of the Dune movies? Will you do a review of them? Personally I saw a lot of paralells/Jabs to Putin and Ukraine War. As a Dune fan I love them, but then again I love the book and the scifi channel and lynch movie too so very biased, but would love to hear what you think of them since you have done Blade Runner 2 analysis and if remember correctly you liked the sequel made by Villeneuve though I fear you found them boring.

Well, according to most people Furiosa gets her ass kicked in this movie. So I guess the writers were trying to give her some flaws. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Contrarianism is the mental shorthand for intelligence among midwits and capital for those looking to push easy engagement. Too much CGI is not a real critique. If it took you three viewings of a film to notice you didn't like the CGI, how distracting could it have been?

Hi Rob, great video. Do you have any thoughts on the 1977 movie Sorcerer? I watched it recently just from seeing the movie poster and thought it was astonishing, the sort of movie that would never ever be made these days. Starting with 15 minutes of non-english dialogue, the nothing-held-back portrayal of poverty and violence, the crazy special effects like the bridge scene. At the start of the film Serrano denigrates someone as "just a soldier" and his wife snaps back "no one is just anything", I work in a mucky blue collar field and you would never believe the variety of people who end up in these rough jobs - one of the only movies I have seen to do that justice.

The difference between them all is that the new ones it seems civilization is “thriving” in the apocalypse versus just barely surviving. People can adapt for sure but you wouldn’t want to be expending all that energy ( needless action) in times of famine.

In my opinion, the futility of revenge was one of the themes of the film. That's what I took from the 'multiple choice' ending: maybe Furiosa shot Dementus in the back of the head, maybe she burned him or dragged him behind a car, maybe she turned him into a tree. Ultimately it doesn't matter and nothing was changed. Everything he said before he died was true.

The violent killing of Furiosa's former controller, just might be a symbolic revenge against men whom some women see as " creepy" and " controlling " due to their regard to these women.

I had the same experience with Fury Road on subsequent viewings. There are obviously some great moments of cinema (it's still Miller after all) but the original Road Warrior is another thing entirely, it has much more rewatch value thanks to the story, acting, atmosphere...

30:29 - The lamp right next to Rob's head is way shinier than anything in those paintings.

Never judge a film by its runtime. Some films are too short. You saw that a lot in the 70s 80s and 90s where films got cut way down, and now all the directors cuts are coming out. Now studios are giving directors more freedom up front and we're winding up with movies that should have been shorter.

Rob i'd like to hear your thoughts on Possession (1981) by Andrsej Zulawski. I saw recently and tought it was fantastic, very disturbing and surreal experience

Mad Max Road Warrior is the best in the series for me

What a great video, I agree with pretty much everything.. wish you were on drinkers open bar stream about it.

33:06 About Clerks shooting on the rawest film format and then the lighting changed the colours. Was that your so called happy accident or intentional.

I found Furiosa in Fury Road insufferable, no way I'm going to watch another movie about her.

Solid video, Rob. Just one gripe: you can’t be bored by grumpy, revenge driven characters and love Mad Max. He might as well be Batman. As for Furiosa: I enjoyed it enough, but felt that when it dipped it really dipped. Whereas Fury Road sort of kept me engaged throughout.

I agree with you about Fury Road. I would add that the overwrought music is a problem also….

If Mad Max was an anime this would have been the full episode Randy show you some side characters backstory.

Good take!

I was hoping you'd mention the history man. That was the most interesting character for me and it allowed for a narrative framing device that allowed a different story scope from all the other Mad Max films

There are terrains that exist that don't exist in Australia.