cinema

g'day

well, well, well. no, i didn't really (or particularly) except to go to the cinema all that much this year. especially not when there's no Val Kilmer or David Bowie related films scheduled, look you see. but that, or even this, is now twice i have been so far (2024 for clarification).

for this second instance i went off to see Furiosa. yes, once again this was at the cinema known as the Ealing Project, known as that because that is its name. where is it? funnily enough, Ealing. it was when i went there to go see Civil War that i became aware of it coming out (so to speak), so it seemed somewhat apt to return. 

any good? as in a quick review, free of spoilers and for those in a rush? yes, as it happens, overall it was excellent. which feels kind of strange as a whole load of whines, moans and groans are likely about to follow. none of them, however, take away from this being superb. 

no idea why but all of a sudden it's quite tricky for me to do stuff like select and change colour for the text. so, rather than it being all shiny and bold for you, i will trust that you are reading carefully and accept that one of them "spoiler warning" things is in place. but i would (reasonably) assume to presume anyone reading this is aware of what Furiosa is about. 

if not, plot? an "origins" story for the character of Furiosa out of Mad Max Fury Road. which was an attempt to resurrect the Mad Max character, presumably in the hope of creating a lucrative franchise. quite fair, since the film studios exist to make money. anyway, what most (and it may be worth remembering that it wasn't a big commercial success) took away from Fury Road was how excellent the character was. or rather how brilliant the Charlize Theron performance was. 

so, to get this straight, they elected to make a prequel to a barely successful (yet brilliant) film eight years later, and decided to focus on the most popular character but decided to use a different actress in the role. credit to Warner for throwing a huge amount of money at a film that part of a niche audience kind of had a slight interest in just shy of a decade ago. 

popcorn and coke were, of course, bought. in this instance i went for the slightly smaller sizes but ended up paying more. how and why? not due to inflation created by our brilliant government, but rather due to me taking an unexpected shine to the Ghostbusters cup chalice drinking thing. quite class it is, and now that i have it at home, no i do not regret it. 

what Furiosa gets right is the inclusion of staggering, breath-taking action sequences. but this is also an area where it kind of lets itself down in its brilliance. easily the best part of this film is a major assault on an oil tanker being driven from point a to point b. which, yes, was one of the most excellent bits to be found in Mad Max 2, or "Road Warrior" if American. i cannot stress how amazing this part of the movie genuinely is, yet all the time i was aware it was a full tilt homage. even down to having a vague Max rip off character (who looked embarrassed to be so) and basically Furiosa simply taking on the role of the Feral Kid, sans class boomerang. 

worst part of the film was, easily and regrettably, Chris Helmworth. glances at him in the trailer and on the poster had me thinking "why didn't they make a Mad Max film with him as Max?". here, as supposedly the "big bad", he is terrible. no, not due to his acting. for some inexplicable reason they have put on him a ludicrous prosthetic nose which immediately brings to mind Peter Sellers as Inspector Cluseaou (spelling, sorry), as well as some daft novelty teeth. the effect of this is to be distracting and annoying, and you just look forward to him being not on screen. 

as for the supposed main character, well, i doubt even if they had brought Charlize Theron back things would have got much better. you just don't ever really care for her, not in the way you do or would for Max, or even the Feral Kid. or Wez out of Mad Max 2 for that matter. undoubtedly all of the physical stuff in the immense action sequences was quite a thing, but in terms of character, story and development, all they have her really do is have her stand around and look mean. 

but, that said, there's an awful lot of talking in this one. far too much. the film runs for north of two hours, which never ever really feels a drag, yet cutting some of the needless dialogue would have taken twenty or so minutes out. just what was it in the political discourse scenes in Phantom Menace and the subsequent audience reaction that made them think it was a good idea to shove it in here? 

quite the frustrating experience, then. it's like they have just used the Furiosa character to go about recreating some of the superb moments from Mad Max folklore, with a female lead being deployed as an excuse to look trendy and with it. a thoroughly enjoyable experience in the cinema, but just feels so flawed and so "why do this". 

up to now no, no further cinema adventures planned. well, unless i go see this one again, which i may well have done before this is published, should chance permit. certainly i am not going to see the new film off of Bad Boys - even if the previous ones weren't terrible, the trailer for this new one looks like they have quite deliberately set out to make a very bad film. oh well, will see if anything decent comes along and if i am within walking distance of a cinema to see it.

be fair dinkum to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!