I'm less interested in whether or not the "CGI looks real" and more interested in what the filmmaker is using their digital tools for. Every frame has a stylized look to it as if it were ripped out of a graphic novel and every single camera movement is made with clear intention to elicit emotions. Basically pulling off what Zack Snyder claims he has been doing his entire career. Just like Fury Road, this would work as a silent film. Miller may actually be the greatest action filmmaker to ever live. Up there with James Cameron
Saying it adds nothing is insane. It adds so much depth to the character of Furiosa and makes Fury Road even better because of it.
I and the other person that I watched it with, disagree. And sequels and prequels can add things, but it doesn't mean they're of value, or answer questions that the audience had, or add anything to the original on re-watch. I was disappointed in most of what this movie did in that regard. It's completely fine (and obvious) that most of ya'll disagree. I'm not here to convince anyone to dislike it, or even to tell ya'll that I 'hated' it (as I didn't). I just thought it was meh and I'm disappointed about what I got vs what I thought was possible from a prequel. I'll lurk and read and I'll re-watch it at some point and maybe change my mind with some of that (or maybe I won't). But after a hyped up, first weekend viewing, it had way less of an impact on me than Fury Road did in many aspects. I just wasn't that hot on it.
I found the story about what vengeance/justice look like the in the face of the overwhelming forces opposed to those values worth telling
I don’t personally think this movie “adds” to Fury Road insofar as that movie is already a perfectly focused and successful thing on its own. But, it does add to my life insofar as it… fucking rules, and does a different enough thing narratively to not feel like “Fury Road again” so much as a different story in that world (while also having similar strengths that most other movies don’t have)!
I fell asleep around the time Dementus tried to take the Citadel with young Furiosa and I woke up around the time she partnered with the not Max guy, so I will have to go back and watch that part eventually. The rest was good, but it felt more like an extension of Fury Road while Fury Road didn't feel the same way with the original trilogy. Like all prequels, you are waiting for the new characters who weren't in the original film to die and you have to wait for the haircut and the arm injury and the facepaint. People keep pointing out the big budget in comparison to the box office, but the way they showed a quick montage of the big battle near the end felt like they ran out of money. It reminded me of the television show Rome where they couldn't afford to shoot Caesar's funeral and the riots so they just had a scene of a guy in the bar talking about it. The best parts were the guy with the fake nose who rubs his nipples arguing with the guy who looked like Walton Goggins.
I was able to see the portion I missed and the truck chase that ends with her teaming up with not Max is really strong. Those long shots are so difficult to pull off with all the moving pieces, and directors would usually rather just cut and cut and you have no idea where anyone is or what they are doing. Here it is very clear who is who, their positions in the battle, and who is winning or losing.
I personally did have a brief thought in the theater, like, “huh, so she was named ‘Furiosa’ as a child?” But not in a bad way, lol; just like, oh, huh, interesting. The whole “this is a story passed down” thing is certainly key, but also. Her mom was such a badass that, I believe she’d give birth, see that squirming, crying newborn, and go, “I shall name her ‘Furiosa.’ ”