Review: 'Furiosa'
George Miller returns to the Wasteland
Mad Max: Fury Road doesn’t need a prequel. One of the greatest pleasures of George Miller’s 2015 masterpiece – my favorite movie of that year and one of my picks for the best of that decade – is how dense its world-building is with hardly any overt explanation. Visually and through action, Miller tells us everything we need to know about that film’s alliances, characters and settings, and I’ve never once thought we needed a backstory for Furiosa or a look at how Immortan Joe came to power.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga doesn’t prove me wrong. There’s no missing piece to Fury Road that suddenly gets plugged in or twist that makes me view that film through a new lens. And yet, Miller's return to the Wasteland also never feels like a waste of time. It’s an exciting, sprawling epic that adds to the richness of his 2015 film even if it constantly lives in its shadow.
The film is told in five chapters, chronicling Furiosa’s abduction from her mother and The Green Place by warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). Along the way, she forms a bond with fellow soldier Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) and crosses paths with vicious ruler Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). Through mentorship and battle, she grows into the no-nonsense warrior who will one day form an alliance with Max Rockatansky.
Fans of Miller’s franchise might be taken aback by the saga's change in pace. Where each of the previous films has unfolded over a relatively short period of time – and, indeed, Fury Road was essentially one long chase – this is a more traditional, sprawling narrative, taking place over decades. Anyone expecting nonstop chaos might be disappointed, but Furiosa never drags. Miller’s world-building is still as weird and rich as ever; one chase stops to observe how a henchman cannibalizes his partner’s vehicle to stay in pursuit, the characters’ designs and dialogue carries the franchise’s askew reality, and Miller packs the story full of biblical symbolism to elevate Furiosa’s story to epic heights.
Anya Taylor-Joy gets lead billing as Furiosa, but doesn’t show up until about an hour into the film. Prior to that, Alyla Browne plays the character as a youngster, and it's a fierce, lively performance. Furiosa is intelligent and brave, but both actors capture the sadness behind the warrior. While both handle themselves well in the action sequences, what’s even more admirable is how Browne captures the looks and mannerisms of Taylor-Joy, and how both feel like they ultimately will grow into the icon portrayed by Charlize Theron (in the film’s final hour, Taylor-Joy’s vocal and physical resemblance to Theron is uncanny).
Furiosa is mostly a silent character, given only a handful of lines of dialogue in her own movie. It’s barely noticeable because Hemsworth’s villain never shuts up. Wearing a pointed prosthetic nose and talking in a nasally wine, he’s a blast as the theatrical, ego-filled Dementus, the leader of a group of scavengers with eyes on Wasteland domination. Hemsworth is charismatic and hilarious, and I like the subtle, sad backstory implied by the teddy bear he carries, but he can also be vicious and scary. Hemsworth has struggled to find himself outside the MCU – and with Thor: Love and Thunder, even struggled to avoid self-parody there – but this is a wonderful, iconic role.
As usual, Miller populates his film with colorful, weird characters, including some we met in Fury Road – like Immortan Joe’s gang, including his sons Rictus and, um, Scrotus – as well as a delightful strange cadre of scoundrels and villains dressed in rags, bones and masks. The only disappointment might be Burke, whose character just doesn’t feel rugged or gruff enough to be a hardened road warrior (and, indeed, had this film been made before Fury Road, probably would have been Max himself). I like the concept – Jack is a soldier of Immortan Joe who wants to do one noble thing and decides to help Furiosa – but Burke just feels a bit too modern to fit into Miller’s aesthetic, and the light romance he has with Furiosa feels a bit forced.
Furiosa’s story is engaging and emotional, although where Fury Road was spare and to the point in its dialogue, this one’s a bit more florid and fond of speaking its subtext. But don’t imagine this is a languid, dull affair. Miller packs its 150-minute runtime with chases and action, including an all-time of a battle between the war rig and some flying pirates. There’s a bit more CGI and green screen assistance this time out than in Fury Road, but there were only a few times it took me out of the story. Miller, as always, understands where to put the camera, what shot will most rattle the bones, and how to let an action sequence unfold and tell its own story. The film’s decision to end on a two-person tete-a-tete instead of an adrenaline-pumping chase might disappoint some, although it’s in keeping with the franchise’s roots as a revenge story. The action might not quite hit the highs of its predecessor, but Miller still does this better than almost anyone working in the genre today.
It feels a bit unfair to make the constant comparisons to Fury Road, but the film can’t help but invite them. Narrative cohesion between sequels was never a concern of the Mad Max franchise – one of its charms is how each earlier film feels like a myth told by someone new – and Furiosa is the first film to go to great lengths to tie itself into the film that preceded. Some bits, such as War Boys flying through the air screaming “witness me” and a brief cameo by an unnamed man watching from beside a V8 Interceptor feel like fan service designed to call directly back to Fury Road, and the result is that it’s impossible to not think about Miller’s 2015 film when watching (it doesn’t help that Miller reuses Fury Road footage over the end credits). And Furiosa can’t live up to it; how could it? Fury Road’s making-of was a chaotic struggle that resulted in lightning in a bottle. Furiosa is a very good action film that suffers from not being a flat-out masterpiece.
But it still feels like a piece of that bigger story, and if the worst that I came out of Furiosa thinking was about how much I can’t wait to re-watch its sequel, that’s perfectly fine by me. I highly enjoyed returning to the Wasteland and will follow this series to Valhalla and beyond if they keep making them.