Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

It’s been nearly a decade since director George Miller gave us a new film in his Mad Max franchise. Now we have Furiosa, the prequel to the 2015 box office success Fury Road. It has everything that fans of this franchise have come to expect: spectacular action, worldbuilding, and all the madness that we’ve seen in this dystopian wasteland. In Fury Road, Max was certainly there, but it was Charlize Theron as Furiosa who stole the show. Now we see her backstory, which is divided up into multiple chapters throughout two-and-a-half hours.

What is remarkable is how well so much of it works, particularly watching how Furiosa is shaped by the events over the course of her life, from an innocent young girl to the ferocious heroine (or anti-heroine). Miller presents us once again with a bleak, unforgiving apocalypse where there are only survivors, no heroes. Men slaughter each other for a precious drop of gas, and the women are treated as property, only kept alive to breed and produce milk. If you are a ruler of any kind, there is always someone who seeks to usurp you. The worldbuilding here is just as good as any of the previous entries.

Anya Taylor-Joy does not even appear until about the half-hour mark. For a stretch of time, we follow child actress Alyla Browne, who remarkably resembles and behaves like Taylor-Joy. The older actress, who has of course made a name for herself, is as terrific in the role as you would expect. She is extremely convincing, and you buy her as Furiosa. Furthermore, Miller and co-writer Nick Lathouris (who has frequently collaborated with the director) does an excellent job of not making her a “Girl Boss”. Yes, Furiosa is good at fighting, but she is incredibly resourceful as well and sustains some serious injuries in the heat of battle.

But as great as Taylor-Joy is, it is Chris Hemsworth who really steals the show as Dementus, the villain who Furiosa is hunting because he killed her mother. You can tell that he is having a blast here, chewing the scenery. It is nice to see Hemsworth in a role other than Thor, especially one that is decidedly different. He rides a bizarre and creative contraption that resembles an apocalypse-era chariot, bellowing commands through a microphone.

And of course, you get many action sequences and spectacle. Other elements that have become synonymous with the franchise at this point are all here: big trucks with big wheels, characters strapped to them, and painted kamikazes who will die for their masters, including Immortan Joe, the antagonist from Fury Road.

Even though this prequel has a lot going for it, there are several instances where the green-screen effects used here are pretty noticeable. Yes, there was CGI in the previous installment, but it meshed better with the practical stunts. This film also could have lost about twenty minutes and benefited from tighter pacing.

But these drawbacks should not prevent you from experiencing this blockbuster on the biggest screen that you can find. Even with some considerable flaws, Furiosa is well worth your time and money. The previous entries have focused more on the bombastic, wall-to-wall action than the human characters. Where this film succeeds is in its surprising focus on the character development, especially on the lead character. It is a worthy entry in the franchise, just as filled with unapologetically full-throttled madness and revenge as the others.

Rated R for sequences of strong violence, and grisly images.

2 hours, 28 minutes