Game of Thrones author Martin is also eager to give Miller his flowers for Furiosa, though Martin maintains that The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome are still better than the latest Mad Max saga entry, and indeed are both better than the widely acclaimed Fury Road. Check out Martin’s remarks below (via Not a Blog):
Saw FURIOSA last week on an Imax screen. The latest Mad Max movie… though, oddly, without Mad Max. I don’t think there’s a better action director in the field than George Miller. The fights in FURIOSA are spectacular, especially on Imax.
Of course, Miller had a much bigger budget this time. I think the original MAD MAX was made with the loose change he found in his couch pillows. FURIOSA probably cost more than the first four Max movies put together. Given its structure, it could just as easily been five features, or maybe three seasons of a television series. I liked Anya Taylor Joy, who played Furiosa this time around. The girl who played Furiosa as a child was good as well. I liked Tom Burke (Praetorian Jack) and Chris Hemsworth as Dementus too… and the Citadel is a cool set, though it was used with more impact in FURY ROAD.
Overall, though, ROAD WARRIOR is still my favorite Mad Max movie. FURIOSA and FURY ROAD both had their merits, but I’d still rank them below the second and third Mel Gibson films. The new ones are bigger and more expensive, and the action scenes are huge… but the worldbuilding, the secondary characters, and the stories cannot compare.
Here is my reply from a few weeks ago after I had watched the movie:
Watched it over the weekend and was rather underwhelmed. It felt “cheap” compared to Fury Road. The CGI was quite terrible in comparison, especially when they showed some scenes from the last movie during credits. It’s just so obvious they paid less detail to the effects and it seemed like a significant decrease in their use of practical effects. Add to that some of the effects were just plain bad. AND worse of all
Tap for spoiler
They skipped the final fight scene completely!
Also there was just too much talking. Fury Road was great because the world building was done without extra dialog. Furiosa just felt like any other Hollywood film with nothing special at all.