Movie Review: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Back in 2015 (has it really been that long?), writer and director George Miller breathed new life into his long dormant Mad Max franchise with Fury Road. Effectively comprised of one giant chase scene, that movie was rightfully hailed as one of the best action films of all time and garnered several Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, a rarity for the genre. It was only a matter of time then until we were treated to more stories from that universe, and while this prequel doesn’t quite live up to Fury Road, it’s still an exciting and impressive film in its own right.

Focusing on the character of Furiosa, we are introduced to her as a child (Alyla Browne), who lives a peaceful life in the Green Place of Many Mothers. While exploring and gathering fruit with her younger sister, she comes upon a group of raiders and attempts to sabotage their motorcycles to prevent them exposing the garden’s existence to the outside world. Unfortunately, she is caught in the act, and the group flee with her as a prisoner. Her community is quickly alerted to her plight and so her mother (Charlee Fraser) goes in pursuit, picking off members of the gang one by one, but she is unable to prevent one final member from reaching his camp with Furiosa in tow.

There, he brings the girl to his leader, Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), with the plan to reveal the existence of the Green Place, but Furiosa seriously wounds him first, preventing him from speaking. Her mother attempts to rescue her during a sandstorm, but gets captured and murdered by Dementus. Unwilling to give up her home, Furiosa remains silent and winds up being taken with the biker gang as they roam the desert wastelands in search of food and supplies. They ultimately wind up at the Citadel, ruled over by Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme) and his army of War Boys, where they threaten to assail the fortress before being fought off. Instead, Dementus captures Gastown and forces Joe to bargain with him for the Citadel’s much-needed fuel, leaving Furiosa behind as a part of the deal. In the Citadel, she reaches young adulthood (now played by Anya Taylor-Joy), and becomes a formidable fighter so that she might exact her revenge against Dementus.

Furiosa focuses much more on its plot than Fury Road did, which leads to more lulls in the action. Luckily, the title character’s origin story is more than compelling enough to make up for it, and both Browne and Taylor-Joy do well at embodying the role originated by Charlize Theron. Hemsworth clearly relishes playing against type as the aptly named Dementus, fully inhabiting the chaotic malice of the detestable character. Tom Burke also leaves an impression as the war rig commander Praetorian Jack, an unexpected and effective love interest for our lead.

As with Fury Road, the action scenes are stunning and feature several inventive and elaborate sequences. Occasionally the CGI becomes a little too obvious, but these moments are brief and don’t really detract from the mayhem. The attention to detail Miller and company put into their world is astounding, with so many memorable (if impractical) vehicles, costumes, and sets that it is nigh impossible to take stock of it all. Likewise, with cinematographer Simon Duggan, Miller stages several scenes that look like classical paintings, elevating nearly every moment towards high art. It is unlikely we will ever get another movie of this sort that reaches the heights of Fury Road, but if we keep getting more like Furiosa, I will gladly venture back into the Wasteland time and time again. ★★★★