Movies…with a little bit of obscure culture and sports mixed in
The Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) trailer dropped about a month ago, and you can bet your ass that I watched it multiple times that day. Today I am writing about it for the first time just to get my thoughts out. Yes, I know 16 million people have watched this trailer alone on the Warner Bros. Picture page…but I am going to have my moment here.
“The origin story of renegade warrior Furiosa before her encounter and teamup with Mad Max.”
Director: George Miller
Writers: George Miller, Nick Lathouris
Starring: Anya-Taylor Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Charlee Fraser, Angust Sampson, Nathan Jones, Alya Browne, Daniel Webber
Release Date: May 24, 2024
IMDB
The Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) trailer dropped about a month ago, and you can bet your ass that I watched it multiple times that day. Today I am writing about it for the first time just to get my thoughts out. Yes, I know 16 million people have watched this trailer alone on the Warner Bros. Picture page…but I am going to have my moment here.
First of all, the trailer starting in black & white makes me happy. It reminds that Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and the chrome edition that was available for purchase…that I did purchase.
The other distinction off the jump is that we see Furiosa (Anya Taylor Joy) wandering in the desert off a motorcycle, which is a vehicle that immediately associated with Max or the older version of Furiosa. The last bit of this tease in the trailer’s first 30 seconds is a dirty, grimy Anya Taylor Joy turning around toward the camera. Furiosa has seen some shit, and she isn’t afraid to get her hands…or hand…dirty.
I text title crawl sequence was not on my bingo card for this trailer, but hell, let’s ride with it. We are 45 years after the collapse of the world and we learn that a young Furiosa is taken from her family. Hence the message at the start to find her way home. The best part of this opening text is calling Furiosa’s journey an “odyssey”. It just means epic, and George Miller’s version of epic is remarkably exciting.
One other thing about this word sequence. The convey is moving away from the screen, yet the words are coming towards you with pace. This is the opposite of the star Wars opening text where the words are moving away from you at a glacial pace until (usually) a large ship, planet or object is coming into frame.
The one minute mark of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga gets us to the footage we are all excited to see. The trailer knows exactly what we want, and we want those engines to rev as loud and thunderous as possible. We have a jacked man with a comically large microphone telling people to turn those keys and give us the ride we all want.
From there, we don’t get a ton of words, but we do get a visual of Immortan Joe. The man antagonist of Mad Max: Fury Road is going to have some part to play in this prequel. Part of Immortan Joe’s origin story (as told in the comics I have not read) involve a struggle with Dementus, who is played by Chris Hemsworth. It’s not clear who the main villain will be in Furiosa, but we are getting a dash of a familiar evil face from a different perspective.
The middle of the trailer has bashing brass instruments reaching a peak crescendo while showing striking visual images of Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, and exploding cars. There is one cutaway to a green tracking shot of people running, which has to be an outlier. Is this a flashback to before the apocalyptic event, or is this an Eden hidden away by someone powerful that people are escaping too? It could be many things, but it catches the audience’s eyes with its different color pallette.
The next words spoken in the trailer are the catchphrase of the movie:
“I’m Furiosa”
“The Darkest Of Angels”
Spoken by two different people, we then get 20 seconds of Furiosa kicking ass including a shot of her standing behind a gate with flames coming out from either side of her. Just an outstanding visual. So fucking cool.
And the trailer ends with a question posed by Dementus.
“The question is, do you have it in you to make it epic.”
I think we all know the answer to this question. Miller doesn’t know how to do subdued. It is going to be loud, unforgettable, and expertly crafted. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has some remarkably high expectations to live up to, and that’s not just from an entertainment standpoint, but also from a critical and craftsman point of view as well.
Mad Max: Fury Road won six Academy Awards and was nominated for 10 at the 2016 Oscars. Fury Road won for Film Editing, Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Production Design. I forget about the awards when watching Fury Road, and hell so do most people. Miller created something that flows like most dangerous white water rafting ride you can be a part of.
Now we are getting more. More action, more explosions, more carnage, more beautiful anger put on screen with artistic genius. Ladies and gentleman, it is time to fuel up because once the this adrenalin race starts, it won’t stop.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will arrive in theaters on May 24, 2024.
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