Remember Her
November 30, 2023 4:45 PM Subscribe
It's time to go back to the sublime madness of George Miller. The "Furiosa" trailer is here.
I love George Miller, like Babe: Pig in the City is a top 10 for me. And I loved Fury Road. But this looks... really bad?! Like fake in the worst budget-CG, green screens everywhere, Zack Snyder style way! What is going on?! I feel dirty!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 4:55 PM on November 30, 2023 [16 favorites]
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 4:55 PM on November 30, 2023 [16 favorites]
It feels like Anya Taylor-Joy is in everything right now and often not to its benefit but… I’m going to watch this.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 4:56 PM on November 30, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by Parasite Unseen at 4:56 PM on November 30, 2023 [6 favorites]
Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron were so good in Fury Road, their understated charisma and ability to do a lot with very little was a big part of selling that film. It's a high bar to try and reach, and while I'm not optimistic, I will defer judgement until I've seen the film.
posted by Dysk at 5:06 PM on November 30, 2023 [20 favorites]
posted by Dysk at 5:06 PM on November 30, 2023 [20 favorites]
Only Miller could hope to match or top the high water mark that he set with Mad Max: Fury Road.
posted by senor biggles at 5:07 PM on November 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by senor biggles at 5:07 PM on November 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
> But this looks... really bad?!
Trailers are cut long before the VFX is final. I wouldn't sweat the specific look of the shots yet.
posted by riotnrrd at 5:12 PM on November 30, 2023 [9 favorites]
Trailers are cut long before the VFX is final. I wouldn't sweat the specific look of the shots yet.
posted by riotnrrd at 5:12 PM on November 30, 2023 [9 favorites]
Please don't suck please don't suck please don't suck.
Hell yeah I remember her. And Fury Road, what a phenomenal film that is. I just watched the Barbie movie this week and while I appreciate what they did, this speaks more to my mood right now. Fuck it up.
If somehow you haven't seen them, don't sleep on George Miller's Babe and Babe: Pig in the City. They may look like kid's films but there's a lot more going on, particularly in the second one.
posted by Nelson at 5:14 PM on November 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
Hell yeah I remember her. And Fury Road, what a phenomenal film that is. I just watched the Barbie movie this week and while I appreciate what they did, this speaks more to my mood right now. Fuck it up.
If somehow you haven't seen them, don't sleep on George Miller's Babe and Babe: Pig in the City. They may look like kid's films but there's a lot more going on, particularly in the second one.
posted by Nelson at 5:14 PM on November 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
I don't think I've seen Hemsworth as an Australian before.
posted by biffa at 5:14 PM on November 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by biffa at 5:14 PM on November 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm not blown away and (sigh) I was hoping he'd tone down the orange, but I have faith in George Miller and his team. Stray observations:
- First flying vehicle since Jebediah's small plane in Beyond Thunderdome (and something a little more akin to the gyrocopter in Road Warrior)
- I'm loving the Australian accents but if that's her mum in voiceover they're going to have to explain why Furiosa ends up sounding American in Fury Road
- very brief shot of the fabled Green Place - and echoes of Jessie getting pursued by the bikers through the forest in the original Mad Max
- Looks like Dementus is in peril at the Bullet Farm
posted by misterbee at 5:40 PM on November 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
- First flying vehicle since Jebediah's small plane in Beyond Thunderdome (and something a little more akin to the gyrocopter in Road Warrior)
- I'm loving the Australian accents but if that's her mum in voiceover they're going to have to explain why Furiosa ends up sounding American in Fury Road
- very brief shot of the fabled Green Place - and echoes of Jessie getting pursued by the bikers through the forest in the original Mad Max
- Looks like Dementus is in peril at the Bullet Farm
posted by misterbee at 5:40 PM on November 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
It seems just ok and yeah it doesn’t look real like Fury Road did.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:43 PM on November 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:43 PM on November 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
Margaret Sixel is once again doing the editing, so I’m maintaining the high hopes I’ve been lugging around for years now.
posted by hototogisu at 5:44 PM on November 30, 2023 [15 favorites]
posted by hototogisu at 5:44 PM on November 30, 2023 [15 favorites]
I was really excited when I heard Miller was doing a Furiosa prequel, but now I'm skittish. The character went through hell to get where we saw her in Fury Road and I'm not keen on seeing that level of violence. The world feels a lot meaner than when FR came out and my viewing habits these days learn towards avoiding a lot of violence. But it's George Miller and I have faith that he can pull this off.
Otherwise, the trailer seems fine at this point. Not great and certainly not terrible, but it's lacking a mood that the FR trailer had. Visually stunning, with a powerful score that mixed well with the snippets of dialogue from the movie. Plus the unfinished CGI doesn't help, obviously.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:55 PM on November 30, 2023 [7 favorites]
Otherwise, the trailer seems fine at this point. Not great and certainly not terrible, but it's lacking a mood that the FR trailer had. Visually stunning, with a powerful score that mixed well with the snippets of dialogue from the movie. Plus the unfinished CGI doesn't help, obviously.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:55 PM on November 30, 2023 [7 favorites]
Witnessed.
posted by mhoye at 6:56 PM on November 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 6:56 PM on November 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
If it’s even half as good as Fury Road, it’ll still be amazing, so I’ll be in the biggest theater as early as I can to see it.
The only thing that felt a little off to me was the establishment of the timeline. If Furiosa is around 10 “45 years after the collapse” it messes a bit with what I thought was the established idea, that a) Furiousa and Max are vaguely the same age, and that Max was an adult, even if only mid-twenties, when the collapse happened, and that his story was essentially that of a man from the old world trying to make his way through a new and terrifying changed society.
There’s something to that, an idea that people like the Bullet Farmer, Immortan Joe, the Vulvalini were all adults, even middle aged during the fall, and somehow they (unlike most of their cohort) managed to make their way into the new world, and have a way in shaping it, and that those just younger than them (Max, Furiosa) would know the truth, and what had actually happened, yet were confronted at every turn by children and young adults who’d never known any other world, and were utterly incapable of understanding tales of the old world in any way that conflicted with the indoctrination they’d received from the new masters (Immortan Joe, etc).
Defining the timeline like that is sort of like making it canon that Bond is single person, not a series of agents using a code name; it limits the scope of stories that could have been told for no clear benefit.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:05 PM on November 30, 2023 [9 favorites]
The only thing that felt a little off to me was the establishment of the timeline. If Furiosa is around 10 “45 years after the collapse” it messes a bit with what I thought was the established idea, that a) Furiousa and Max are vaguely the same age, and that Max was an adult, even if only mid-twenties, when the collapse happened, and that his story was essentially that of a man from the old world trying to make his way through a new and terrifying changed society.
There’s something to that, an idea that people like the Bullet Farmer, Immortan Joe, the Vulvalini were all adults, even middle aged during the fall, and somehow they (unlike most of their cohort) managed to make their way into the new world, and have a way in shaping it, and that those just younger than them (Max, Furiosa) would know the truth, and what had actually happened, yet were confronted at every turn by children and young adults who’d never known any other world, and were utterly incapable of understanding tales of the old world in any way that conflicted with the indoctrination they’d received from the new masters (Immortan Joe, etc).
Defining the timeline like that is sort of like making it canon that Bond is single person, not a series of agents using a code name; it limits the scope of stories that could have been told for no clear benefit.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:05 PM on November 30, 2023 [9 favorites]
A theory that someone told me that I like is that the Max in Fury Road isn’t actually the original Max, he’s the Feral Kid from Road Warrior who has taken on the persona of the hero of his youth. I don’t know if that’s canon, or if it’s some other guy, or if Max is an ageless ghost, but it would bring the timeline into line.
posted by rodlymight at 9:26 PM on November 30, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by rodlymight at 9:26 PM on November 30, 2023 [8 favorites]
If you showed me this with no description/title/intro i would assume it was a trailer for a video game. it looks like really good pc game graphics.
Nothing is allowed to just be anymore, like they just wouldn't let a(for the modern age) low budget mostly practical effects film get a sequel of the same. Everything is a marvel movie now and it makes my head hurt.
posted by emptythought at 11:33 PM on November 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
Nothing is allowed to just be anymore, like they just wouldn't let a(for the modern age) low budget mostly practical effects film get a sequel of the same. Everything is a marvel movie now and it makes my head hurt.
posted by emptythought at 11:33 PM on November 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
There was so much CGI in Fury Road as well. Virtually every shot had a CGI background. The cars and stunts were largely physical, but there was a lot of computer graphics involved in near everything else.
posted by Dysk at 12:15 AM on December 1, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by Dysk at 12:15 AM on December 1, 2023 [6 favorites]
This looks like an interesting story, although it contradicts the sacred timeline. During the before times, Furisoa was Lorraine Broughton, a Cold War espionage agent who learned hand to hand combat while undercover in East Berlin. In the years following the fall of the Wall she became disillusioned with the government agencies and went freelance as a super villain. She changed her name to Cipher and, after a tangle with Dom’s team involving a nuclear submarine, she joined the family and he taught her to drive fast and furiously. When the collapse happened, her fighting and driving skills brought her to the attention of Immortan Joe who offered her a job. She changed her name again and started driving the war rig, which is where we met her in Fury Road.
posted by autopilot at 12:52 AM on December 1, 2023 [12 favorites]
posted by autopilot at 12:52 AM on December 1, 2023 [12 favorites]
do a lot with very little
this was what Miller did so brilliantly with "Fury Road" (they run over here, then turn around and run back) - as do most good stories - be pithy. This looks like the obverse - but it's just a trailer, so who knows? Sure is noisy and colourful!
posted by From Bklyn at 1:50 AM on December 1, 2023
this was what Miller did so brilliantly with "Fury Road" (they run over here, then turn around and run back) - as do most good stories - be pithy. This looks like the obverse - but it's just a trailer, so who knows? Sure is noisy and colourful!
posted by From Bklyn at 1:50 AM on December 1, 2023
All trailers lie but good ones get you excited and this barely rates an eyebrow twitch. Looks like absolute ass and I don't care for the casting but of course I'm going to watch this as soon as it hits the cinema and I do hope there's a Chrome version—the inevitable six film marathon at the PCC will be glorious (the FR sequel is still in the pipeline).
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 1:52 AM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 1:52 AM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
I’ve watched this like five times, and I don’t understand the “too much CGI” complaints. There’s one clearly CGI shot - vehicles driving into Bullet Town - and of course the sky is fake (as it was in FR). But the rest of it is just real people, real vehicles, real sand. I trust Miller with my moviegoing life, and I’m hyped as hell.
posted by schoolgirl report at 4:10 AM on December 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by schoolgirl report at 4:10 AM on December 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
I think the colourising of the shots is a little heavy-handed in the trailer compared to Fury Road, and maybe that's where some of the CGI comments are coming from? I have to admit that it did stick out to me as looking a touch 'fake' somehow, but I would hope the final product strikes a better balance, or builds up to some of the more extreme colourised scenes compared to just jump-cutting to them in the trailer.
posted by Dysk at 4:21 AM on December 1, 2023
posted by Dysk at 4:21 AM on December 1, 2023
I remember not being blown away by the first few trailers for Fury Road as well so it probably means the film is going to be amazing.
posted by SageLeVoid at 5:39 AM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by SageLeVoid at 5:39 AM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
what Miller did so brilliantly with "Fury Road" (they run over here, then turn around and run back)
Before "run back," you forgot "turn left". Turn left was critical.
God I loved that movie.
posted by mcstayinskool at 5:40 AM on December 1, 2023 [5 favorites]
Before "run back," you forgot "turn left". Turn left was critical.
God I loved that movie.
posted by mcstayinskool at 5:40 AM on December 1, 2023 [5 favorites]
Agreed that this trailer didn't do much for me. Also agreed that trailers, especially early trailers, often don't have much to do with the final film. It's a wait and see!
posted by SoberHighland at 5:45 AM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by SoberHighland at 5:45 AM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Disappointed it's not Charlize Theron, but Anya Taylor-Joy is a good actor, so I think it can work.
posted by Room 101 at 6:18 AM on December 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Room 101 at 6:18 AM on December 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
I am primed against this movie (I wish it were Charlize Theron, the trailer looks a bit too cheesy CGI for me) but Fury Road was so good that I will probably end up seeing this on the big screen regardless. Hopefully it is good!
posted by hepta at 6:42 AM on December 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by hepta at 6:42 AM on December 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'll watch this but I'll almost for certain be disappointed because Fury Road was mostly about being a very shockingly new and unique aesthetic and a sequel-prequel just can't deliver that novelty.
posted by srboisvert at 7:10 AM on December 1, 2023
posted by srboisvert at 7:10 AM on December 1, 2023
This being George Miller, I was kinda looking for more of a Lorenzo's Oil, family in crisis vibe. Really go a different direction from Fury Road.
My biggest hope is that he actually ignores any continuity whatsoever and had Furiousa return home to the Green Place and live happily ever after at the end. Make the lore-hounds heads explode.
posted by Laura Palmer's Cold Dead Kiss at 7:13 AM on December 1, 2023 [8 favorites]
My biggest hope is that he actually ignores any continuity whatsoever and had Furiousa return home to the Green Place and live happily ever after at the end. Make the lore-hounds heads explode.
posted by Laura Palmer's Cold Dead Kiss at 7:13 AM on December 1, 2023 [8 favorites]
Wondering since this is between Max and Fury, will there be a Thunder Dome scene? Anya vs some hulking giant? Woo! Even better a chess crossover;-)
posted by sammyo at 7:15 AM on December 1, 2023
posted by sammyo at 7:15 AM on December 1, 2023
well. if this was in a colourist's reel, i would not hire them. soooo blotchy.
but i think the performances are fine. miller tells a great story, and sixel will edit to perfection so, yeah, i'm into it.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:19 AM on December 1, 2023
but i think the performances are fine. miller tells a great story, and sixel will edit to perfection so, yeah, i'm into it.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:19 AM on December 1, 2023
Man, the Auteur Director is such a fiction, but George Miller holds a unique place in my heart. It was 2017 when I first discovered his wikipedia page and learned that Babe and Fury Road, probably two of my five favorite movies of all time, were made by the same person, and with the exception of Happy Feet 2, every movie he's made has been special to me.
But Happy Feet 2 exists, much like the Apple Newton, Cars 2 or the later seasons of Scrubs. I'm a little worried. GM is 70 this year, and it seems like he's at his strongest when ping-ponging from wildly different genres.
But whatever, more George Miller! I won't say no.
posted by midmarch snowman at 8:06 AM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
But Happy Feet 2 exists, much like the Apple Newton, Cars 2 or the later seasons of Scrubs. I'm a little worried. GM is 70 this year, and it seems like he's at his strongest when ping-ponging from wildly different genres.
But whatever, more George Miller! I won't say no.
posted by midmarch snowman at 8:06 AM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
I really want to see this in a theater!
Yay, more costume ideas for next year's Wasteland Weekend!.
posted by luckynerd at 8:32 AM on December 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yay, more costume ideas for next year's Wasteland Weekend!.
posted by luckynerd at 8:32 AM on December 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
The last shot in this really reminds of the covers from old "Heavy Metal" and "Omni" magazines back in the '70s and '80s.
posted by Ipsifendus at 8:36 AM on December 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Ipsifendus at 8:36 AM on December 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
I will accept any amount of CGI in this film as long as it is a CGI pig, and we get a shot of it leaping from an overturning tanker on to a souped-up tractor running parallel, passing over a dune buggy with a warboy in it who, eyes wide, yells "SOOOME PIIIIIIIIG" in slow motion just before the tanker falls on to the buggy and they both pinwheel in a fantastic crash
posted by phooky at 8:45 AM on December 1, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by phooky at 8:45 AM on December 1, 2023 [8 favorites]
I just don't understand the stakes of this kind of prequel. I already know the character will survive for another ~10 or 15 years!
posted by pmv at 9:25 AM on December 1, 2023
posted by pmv at 9:25 AM on December 1, 2023
It's not about the destination, it's the journey.
posted by Dysk at 10:18 AM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Dysk at 10:18 AM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
MEDIOCRE!
(Actually, I'm hoping for the best.)
posted by SPrintF at 10:55 AM on December 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
(Actually, I'm hoping for the best.)
posted by SPrintF at 10:55 AM on December 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
The "lore" of the Mad Max movies is deliberately mutable. Outside of the first movie, every entry in this franchise has been a story told in the past tense. From The Road Warrior onwards, these movies are legends/folktales narrated by other people about Max, Furiosa, etc, so the internal continuity is going to be vague. These storie 1are more related to Myth than History.
posted by KingEdRa at 11:52 AM on December 1, 2023 [14 favorites]
posted by KingEdRa at 11:52 AM on December 1, 2023 [14 favorites]
I agree: trying to pin a coherent chronology on the Max stories is like declaring you have worked out the exact date Arthur pulled the sword from the stone: bully for you, but don’t pretend anyone else has to agree with your work.
Only Miller could hope to match or top the high water mark that he set with Mad Max: Fury Road.
I liked Fury Road, albeit less than the consensus on it (I thought it was merely pretty good). I will say, though, that it was something that hugely exceeded any plausible expectation: a septuagenarian director well known for a solid if very uneven action trilogy which wrapped up several decades previously, revisiting this setting when all he’d done for thirty years was the middlebrow medical drama Lorenzo’s Oil, the fun but lightweight The Witches of Eastwick, and some CGI-heavy kids’ movies? There was pretty much zero reason to expect anything great out of that setup. Let’s hope he can maintain that level. I for one see scope for cautious optimism.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:01 PM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Only Miller could hope to match or top the high water mark that he set with Mad Max: Fury Road.
I liked Fury Road, albeit less than the consensus on it (I thought it was merely pretty good). I will say, though, that it was something that hugely exceeded any plausible expectation: a septuagenarian director well known for a solid if very uneven action trilogy which wrapped up several decades previously, revisiting this setting when all he’d done for thirty years was the middlebrow medical drama Lorenzo’s Oil, the fun but lightweight The Witches of Eastwick, and some CGI-heavy kids’ movies? There was pretty much zero reason to expect anything great out of that setup. Let’s hope he can maintain that level. I for one see scope for cautious optimism.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:01 PM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
You guys, fury road was storyboarded for like, 20 goddamn years
There is no way on god s earth that this will be as good, just get that out of your head now.
That said, seems foolish to make any judgements, especially on color and vfx, based on the trailer, when the color and vfx are going to be way different
Did miller even make the trailer?
I am excited and grateful that this exists so I get to type
WHO KILLED THE WORLD?!?!?!
posted by eustatic at 4:47 PM on December 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
There is no way on god s earth that this will be as good, just get that out of your head now.
That said, seems foolish to make any judgements, especially on color and vfx, based on the trailer, when the color and vfx are going to be way different
Did miller even make the trailer?
I am excited and grateful that this exists so I get to type
WHO KILLED THE WORLD?!?!?!
posted by eustatic at 4:47 PM on December 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
> "I just don't understand the stakes of this kind of prequel. I already know the character will survive for another ~10 or 15 years!"
Surely there exist other stakes than the possibility of death.
posted by kyrademon at 1:41 PM on December 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
Surely there exist other stakes than the possibility of death.
posted by kyrademon at 1:41 PM on December 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
Fury Road is probably my favourite film of all time. Very much looking forward to this. I decided a long time ago that when someone creates something that has such an effect on me as Fury Road I work to ensure that whatever comes next just gets to be itself, otherwise the weight of expectations will be too great.
(It happened forty years ago with The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome - the former was so enmeshed in my brain that it got in the way of my enjoying the latter. When I watched them all again after Fury Road came out, I realised that Beyond Thunderdome was also a wonderful movie, but on its own terms, and a lot more like Fury Road than The Road Warrior.)
Watching the trailer a few times, I'd suggest (from cues in the trailer itself), that the reason IMDB doesn't have a casting credit for Immortan Joe is that Joe is Dementus. Which will probably annoy some people, but fits with Miller's model that the liberator becomes the oppressor and has to be resisted in their turn (perhaps Furiosa in The Wasteland would turn out to be an aged empress as corrupt in her own way as Joe was).
Alternatively, Joe could turn out to be Tom Burke or any other of the as-yet-unattributed actors listed.
posted by Grangousier at 3:10 AM on December 3, 2023
(It happened forty years ago with The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome - the former was so enmeshed in my brain that it got in the way of my enjoying the latter. When I watched them all again after Fury Road came out, I realised that Beyond Thunderdome was also a wonderful movie, but on its own terms, and a lot more like Fury Road than The Road Warrior.)
Watching the trailer a few times, I'd suggest (from cues in the trailer itself), that the reason IMDB doesn't have a casting credit for Immortan Joe is that Joe is Dementus. Which will probably annoy some people, but fits with Miller's model that the liberator becomes the oppressor and has to be resisted in their turn (perhaps Furiosa in The Wasteland would turn out to be an aged empress as corrupt in her own way as Joe was).
Alternatively, Joe could turn out to be Tom Burke or any other of the as-yet-unattributed actors listed.
posted by Grangousier at 3:10 AM on December 3, 2023
Miller's model that the liberator becomes the oppressor and has to be resisted in their turn (perhaps Furiosa in The Wasteland would turn out to be an aged empress as corrupt in her own way as Joe was).According to Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, Miller's original plan was for Fury Road to end with Toast the Knowing making a move to step into Immortan Joe's shoes as the survivors (including Max) ascend to the Citadel, though the way this would have happened depended on multiple elements that didn't make it into the final film (this also made one of the pieces of production art included in the section of The Art of Mad Max: Fury Road covering the coda make more sense to me).
Much as I'm looking forward to Furiosa, I do kind of lament the embrace of what seems to be a stricter sense of continuity for the series. Assuming The Wasteland comes to be, I still hope it will start with Max driving his Interceptor with zero explanation as to how he has it again.
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 4:07 AM on December 3, 2023
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But I'm quite confident George Miller can be trusted to deliver another movie in the same league, so this trailer made me almost giddy.
posted by tclark at 4:52 PM on November 30, 2023 [11 favorites]