The Mad Max theory solves my biggest problem with Furiosa

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is an exciting installment in the franchise, but the movie represents a radical departure from fury ways successful series design. Despite some standout performances (and generally performing well with critics), Furiosa was a box-office bomb. While there are many potential explanations for its financial failure, one problem with the prequel was seemingly unrealistic CGI, vs. fury ways spectacular practical effects – something I found particularly jarring on first viewing.

There are now five movies in the Mad Max franchise, the most successful of which encompass practical stuntwork and truly dangerous action. Some scenes in Furiosa seem to go against this formula. However, although I found some of FuriosaThe scenes and special effects disappointingly unrealistic, I have since realized that one of the movie’s characters may hold the key to explain their strange, deliberately exaggerated quality. It’s a subtle solution to the problem, but one that retrospectively makes Furiosa A much stronger movie and potentially holds the key to the future of the protagonist.

The story man is an unreliable narrator in Furiosa

It is possible that the story person is deliberately making up stories

The history men are the tattooed historians of Mad MaxAnd FuriosaStory Man, played by George Shevtsov, is a key character. He refers to himself as a story man when he meets the young Furiosa, but, according to the lore of the Mad Max Comics, the story people came into existence after Immortan Joe’s empire fell. One scene before Furiosa meets Immortan Joe is one of many inconsistencies in the Mad Max universe, and this unreliability becomes significant when The Story Man is revealed as the narrator of Furiosa’s storyWithout any certainty about the details.

in Mad Max study, History People are a combination of ​​a living dictionary and an encyclopediaAs shown in Furiosa When the history person provides historical context to dementia. When the Story Man encourages Furiosa to become as useful to Dementus as possible, that part intrigued me because it could indicate that the Story Man is also trying to stay alive by making himself useful. Although his job is to preserve an accurate recording of history tattooed in his skin, the willingness to prioritize utility over integrity (as well as offering the audience alternate deaths for dementia) reveals the history man as an unreliable narrator.

Why Furiosa’s CGI looks surprisingly fake

The scene in which Furiosa loses her arm lacks an important Mad Max feature

From the beginning, audiences could see the stark difference between Furiosa And fury waywhich used 90% practical effects, according to director George Miller. rather, FuriosaThe effects are softened, dreamlike, over-saturated and over-sharp all at once. Furiosa Uses more greenscreen than fury wayAnd in many scenes, characters are digitally added to their vehicles. Furiosas vehicles seem to lack the imposing weight and presence of fury ways war rig, and even the dogs of Dementus have been said to move unnaturally and almost weightlessly.

The effects in the pre-reboot Mad Max Movies might look dated now, but there is a visceral quality to the violence, and fury wayS characters still react to injuries with Mad Maxs signature intensity. in fury wayFuriosa punctures a lungAnd her labored breath, sweat and tears are a jarring contrast to what audiences see in what is arguably the pivotal scene in Furiosa. The question of how Furiosa loses her arm is answered in FuriosaBut when it is thought that she cut him off to escape from the shackles, she barely reacts by driving away on a motorcycle.

Like many other viewers, I was initially disappointed by the lack of realism in this scene and several other key moments. However, this stylistic choice makes perfect sense if you assume that the movie isn’t actually a perfect recreation of Furiosa’s story as it actually happened. Instead, it can be an embellished and mythologized version, told by the story man. Since it’s actually coming from his perspective, this may explain why everything seems somewhat distorted – the movie offers a visual representation of how retelling a story can change key elements.

The Story Man being an unreliable narrator fixes Furiosa’s visual decisions

A complete retcon can only save a Furiosa sequel

Mad Max is described as a “Saga“From The Road Warrior Onward, and part of every subsequent movie in the Mad Max Franchise contains an observation of ​​a testimony or narrative, which implies that Max’s story is closer to a legend or myth As a first-hand account. One interpretation is that this is underlined in FuriosaWith slightly different editing styles used to illustrate the perspectives of the characters involved. It is possible that the parts of the story told by the story man use fake-looking, overly stylized CGI, revealing his story to be similarly fake. Making this more obvious than the obvious could have been avoided Furiosas CGI backlash.

For many viewers, Furiosas visual effects undermined the realism that the fury way Team has worked to achieve. to make Furiosa Work as part of the Mad Max Sage franchise, a Furiosa Sequel would have to address the overuse of CGI and strange visual effects choices that polarized the audience watching Furiosa. Ignoring the backlash and making a spin-off movie about Praetorian Jack would, in my opinion, look like an embarrassing attempt to erase FuriosaWhile a significant retelling that revealed the story man as an unreliable narrator and offered a different perspective on Furiosa’s backstory might just work.