Imperator Furiosa
I’m someone who grew up in the 80’s–I graduated high school in 1987–and yet somehow managed to never see any of the first three Mad Max movies. My only real memory associated with any of them is Tina Turner’s Thunderdome song and the video that went with it, ’cause yeah, that song was pretty awesome.
This meant, though, that I came into Fury Road with pretty much no preconceptions of what to expect in a Mad Max movie, other than the buzz I’d seen all over The Mary Sue and Tor.com about it. It’s that buzz which sold me on having to see the movie, since if I hadn’t heard in advance how well it treated the female characters, I would have had no interest in seeing it. It helped, too, that my housemate Paul went ahead and saw it before Dara and I did, and reported to us that it was the most metal movie he’d ever seen and that he was absolutely ready to see it again with us. Likewise, another local friend of ours, 
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So what did I think? Picoreview: gracious, there sure was a lot of driving in this movie! And shooting! And explosions! I didn’t find it quite the religious experience that the Mary Sue reviewer or the Tor.com reviewer did. And I do have to admit that I found the non-stop action a bit too wearying for my personal tastes, even though I could also see the cinematic artistry involved in portraying it.
But I was mostly there for the female characters, so all that was rather okay. And I was definitely quite satisfied with them–not only Furiosa, who was awesomeness incarnate, but also the escaping Wives and the Vuvalini. Of the Wives, I think my favorite is Capable. Not only because of her name, but ALSO because I just discovered that the actress who plays her, Riley Keough, is Elvis Presley’s granddaughter. 😀
Additional interesting commentary I found on the film:
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- I saw Mad Max: Fury Road and it was awesome
- Sleeps With Monsters: Mad Max: Fury Road
- We All Agree that Mad Max: Fury Road is Great. Here’s Why It’s Also Important.
- My Reaction to Mad Max: Fury Road and the Utter Perfection That Is Imperator Furiosa
And now, some spoiler-specific commentary of my own behind the fold.