‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ Review

When ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ came out in 2015, it was met with immediate critical acclaim. It somehow managed to expand the Mad Max universe while resisting the urge to fixate on the mythology, instead providing a ruthless thrill ride careening from action set piece to action set piece with barely a moment to catch your breath.

In many ways, ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ takes the opposite approach. It plays out like a B-Side to ‘Fury Road’, taking all the little tidbits and details of world building from that film and going deeper. Remember the Bullet Farm, Gastown and the Citadel? Here they are up close! Remember Immortan Joe? Here he is again! It’s the type of gambit that can frustrate with prequels: the use of a previous movie’s minutiae as a crutch that can undercut the charm and mystique of the original without offering anything new or interesting. The way ‘Fury Road’ just breezes through its world, without dawdling on any specifics, is a testament to its confident story telling.

And yet ‘Furiosa’ does the improbable: it successfully delves deeper into the world established in ‘Fury Road’ while also standing on its own as an entertaining and thoughtful self contained story. There are much bigger, more ambitious ideas at play here than in ‘Fury Road’, and yet the resulting film still provides exciting action sequences and fascinating characters.

The movie opens with voiceover narration from The History Man (George Shevtsov), explaining how the world fell into such chaos. His narration will appear throughout the film, offering insights both fantastical and philosophical on the nature of war and people. It all takes on the feel of a disturbed fairy tale, introducing us to a young Furiosa (Alyla Brown) in her homeland of abundance before she is kidnapped by a biker horde that reports to Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), an unhinged warlord who scavenges throughout the wasteland. As Furiosa grows up, she experiences the different factions and cities within the wasteland and all the violence and desolation therein. When Dementus finds the Citadel and Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), Furiosa is given away in exchange for Gastown and a standing trade agreement, food for gasoline. This also introduces the superpower conflict between Dementus and Immortan Joe: two power hungry tyrants who are willing to use and kill their own people to gain any advantage.

Neither Dementus nor Immortan Joe are presented as good people, even as we struggle to identify the stoic Furiosa’s thoughts and feelings. They are both oppressors, they only differ in their demeanors; Dementus is sloppier, more impulsive. When governing proves hard, war is the answer that unites the people, even if it is pointless and hopeless. Furiosa, and all of the innocent people, find themselves at the violent whims of these monsters and the world they create.

George Miller is a virtuoso director; his camera is dynamic, constantly moving, gliding over the desert sands. Those who come into this film expecting a two hour action sequences à la ‘Fury Road’ will be disappointed, but that’s not to say there are not enthralling set pieces here as well. About midway through the film, Furiosa finds herself serving on her first War Rig, and the resulting action scene matches anything from ‘Fury Road’ in its imaginative power. Parachutes, hang gliders, a three-motorcycle-chariot, all of the little engineering details on the War Rig that make it equal parts machine of destruction and amusement park ride: these are the joyous and terrifying ideas only George Miller can bring to film.

The acting is a little hit or miss throughout, with the two main performances being Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa and Chris Hemsworth as Dementus. Taylor-Joy does well in the vulnerable moments, but doesn’t quite carry the same gravitas as Charlize Theron from ‘Fury Road’. This partially makes sense, as it’s an origin story and Furiosa as a character is not expected to be fully formed yet, but it is nonetheless a notable shortcoming in some of the scenes in which Furiosa needs to be menacing and intimidating. It doesn’t quite land.

Hemsworth gives a very striking, playful performance, bordering on cartoony. He hams up his dialogue, balancing the tyrannical, horrifying elements of Dementus with silliness, relishing some very on the nose dialogue. While the performance is very fun, it is much campier than all the surrounding performers and stands out as such for better or worse.

At almost two and a half hours, the movie is quite long but it hardly ever lags. The story is told with clearly labeled chapters, marking the evolution of Furiosa and her worldview, all the way up to her final meeting with Dementus. In this way, ‘Furiosa’ is just as straightforward a film as ‘Fury Road’. From a young girl, Furiosa wants her revenge on Dementus, and the entire film, even with all of its tangents and ideas, plays out as an inevitable march toward that confrontation. The result is emotionally satisfying without offering an easy fairy tale ending: the world is still scary, hope is still hard to come by, but when you fight hard enough for long enough, you might just get a chance at redemption.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Rated R for sequences of strong violence, and grisly images.
Running Time: 2 hours and 28 minutes

Director George Miller
Writers George Miller, Nico Lathouris
Stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Alyla Browne
Rating R
Running Time 148 Minutes
Genres Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller