In 2015, Mad Max: Fury Road revitalized the Mad Max franchise, a rare legacy sequel that improves upon its forebears, and a film that is, in its own right, a contemporary classic. Fury Road roars with action, a bastion of practical stunts and the judicious implementation of CGI that arrived in a landscape dominated by the smooth, glossy CG of superhero movies. Fury Road looks different, sounds different, feels different to everything around it, so how will a prequel building on Fury Road’s spare storytelling fare? The answer: mostly well.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga winds the clock back to the early life of Furiosa, first introduced as a hardened road warrior as played by Charlize Theron in Fury Road. Here, is she a young girl growing up surrounded by bountiful life and a world of women. Alyla Browne portrays the young Furiosa, who sticks around far longer than you expect—over a third of the film features the youngest iteration of Furiosa. When she is captured by raiders, Furiosa becomes a pawn between two warlords: Dr. Dementus (Chris Hemsworth, having a ball playing against type), the leader of the raiders, and Immortan Joe, the leader of The Citadel, which has fresh water (Lachy Hulme takes over as Joe after the passing of Hugh Keays-Byrne).
Furiosa, which is co-written by George Miller and Nico Lathouris and once again directed by Mad Max impresario Miller, follows its eponymous character as she grows up under the cruel control of Dementus and Immortan Joe. It has more story than Fury Road, filling in Furiosa’s backstory from a doomed love affair to how she lost her arm to the formation of her grit and determination to return to her home in The Green Place. Arguably, Furiosa doesn’t need backstory, as she arrives fully formed and tangible in her desire for revenge, so there is a feeling of treading water in Furiosa, but the film is so wildly entertaining, it’s easy to dismiss.
The film is once again edited by Margaret Sixel, with an assist by Eliot Knapman, but this time, the cinematography comes from Simon Duggan, and the thumping score from Tom Holkenborg. It sounds amazing, Holkenborg’s score is particularly good, and it looks good, too, though there is more obvious CGI here than there was in Fury Road. It’s well used, but there are moments where the stakes feel lowered because you can tell you’re looking at pixels, not people, so the sense of danger is lessened overall. But there are those big, wild action sequences that define this franchise which are completely bonkers and eye-popping, and which are each mini-masterpieces of action cinema.
Anya Taylor-Joy takes over as the grown Furiosa in the later part of the film, and she balances both a sense of youth and the hardening resolve of the Furiosa that exists in Fury Road. She barely says anything, but no one since Robert Eggers has used Taylor-Joy’s physicality to better purpose than Miller. He lets her eyes do most of her talking and uses her waifishness as a sharp contrast to her increasingly daring and capable physical feats. We can see Furiosa hardening before our very eyes, though Taylor-Joy retains an edge of humanity in her performance that connects to the older Furiosa who will risk so much for others.
Furiosa suffers in comparison to Fury Road, but that film had the advantage of surprise, and by not having so much story, it was able to adhere to a leaner, meaner narrative structure. Furiosa sprawls in multiple directions and runs a little long, so it’s a little messy and shambolic, but Miller still has consummate command of his post-apocalyptic world. His vision remains wholly distinctive, and the production design is off the charts good (from Colin Gibson; with set decoration by Katie Sharrock; art direction by Nicholas Dare, Jacinta Long, and Sophie Nash; and costumes by Jenny Beavan). Nothing else looks like a Mad Max movie, and half the pleasure of a Mad Max movie is how it looks.
Shelve the comparisons to Fury Road, though, and Furiosa works well unto itself. It’s big, it’s loud, it’s fun, the action is unbelievable, and the combination of Alyla Browne, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Chris Hemsworth makes for a captivating central trio of performances. Hemsworth, in particular, brings an unnerving glee to Dementus that really makes him stand on his own as a Mad Max villain. Maybe there’s a little less verve in Furiosa simply because we know what to expect this time, but even with high expectations, Furiosa manages to stand on its own as a worthy entry into the Mad Max saga, and it cements Furiosa as one of cinema’s greatest heroines.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is now playing exclusively in theaters.
