Tag: Prequel

Furiosa Needs To Be More Like John Wick If This Franchise Is To Continue

Not even Mad Max can escape the inevitable franchise fatique that defines Furiosa. Had it offered something new in this prequel story that put it in par with Classical mythology, then some folks wouldn’t be screaming about it.

Furiosa A Mad Max Saga Movie PosterI really wanted to enjoy Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, but sadly, it didn’t have the same wow factor as Fury Road. When it clocks in at 148 minutes, I left the theatre feeling more exhausted than anything else. It could’ve been trimmed down to a more respectable run time, but I suspect writer/director George Miller didn’t want to. While he’s the master of the cinematic spectacle, it seems he can benefit from learning what to leave up to the imagination. With this latest, he may have fallen the way of George Lucas.

Some franchises are better off not continuing. But when every film has Miller involved, maybe he should’ve let Fury Road be the high-note to end at. Instead of offering prequel tales a la The Clone Wars, which is what this latest felt like, just offer a miniseries to flesh out those characters whom audiences love.

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Just Rewriting the Canon in Disney’s Cruella

This character is a devil in disguise when compared to this film’s primary antagonist, the Baroness (no relation to GI Joe here) wickedly played by Emma Thompson.

Cruella (film) - WikipediaBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

On Disney Plus
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Very few origin stories are going to live up to the stylish path that Disney’s Cruella is known for. When trying to deliver the goods, namely in creating an arc we can care for, this film nicely dodges some uneasy truths from past takes. In the animated version, she wore the soft furs of slain Dalmatians. In this live-action film’s case, she won’t touch an ounce of their fur, and it was an accusation made by her rival. The tables are turned as the story is more about who is the the alpha female. The black and white is more suggestive of which of the two personalities define this titular character.

Props go to director Craig Gillespie for having a solid vision in reveling in the punk rock subculture of London. The early 70s focus was a time of uncertainty and change, even though I sensed more of a 60s vibe. This backdrop does a little jump in time since it goes from showing how a very young Estella (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland) loses her mom to that of a young woman (played by Emma Stone).

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