Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga ~ Review

The Conan stories written by Robert E. Howard begin with the character Conan as an old king weighing the burdens of leadership. The following stories bounce around in chronology. One story might follow Conan as a teenage thief, while another might have the character be a pirate in his thirties. These stories have a loose continuity with each other, but Howard’s concern is more about the emotional state of his protagonist. I bring up Conan, because George Miller’s Mad Max films are the best cinematic incarnation of this mythic idea – as we witness the episodic wanderings of Max Rockantansky in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. The latest entry Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga follows suit with a dizzying, sprawling epic centering around the iconic character Furiosa, introduced in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, then played by Charlize Theron.

Making a prequel is no easy task and making a prequel to one of the best action movies of the past decade is even harder. But George Miller has never steered away from a challenge, and has managed to craft one of the wildest cinematic experiences in recent memory.

A young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) lives in peace with her tribe in the Green Place, an eden sheltered from the horrors of the post-apocalyptic world around. However, that peace is shattered when Furiosa is captured by bandits. Her mother Mary Jabassa (Charlee Frase) gives chase, leading eventually to the cruel and brutal wannabe warlord Dr. Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and his biker gang horde. Dementus wants nothing more than to rule the wasteland, and figures the best way to do that is to take the Green Place by force. However, both the young Furiosa and her mother refuse to give up the location of their home. In retaliation, Dementus kills Mary Jabassa in front of her daughter.

Dementus takes Furiosa under his wing, trying to teach her the ways of the wasteland. However, when the crew find themselves in front of the Citadel ruled by Fury Road’s Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme taking over from Hugh Keays-Byrne), a tenuous truce is brokered between the two warlords. Furiosa, initially taken as one of Imortan Joe’s brides, manages to escape into the throng of War Boys (those white painted kamikaze-esque soldiers from Fury RoadAnya Taylor-Joy) spends the next fifteen years becoming an invaluable part of the Citadel, biding her time to take revenge on Dementus and return home.

I have to admit that I’m finding it hard to write this review. Fury Road was a very straightforward narrative with a whole lot of subtext under its hood. However, in Furiosa, Miller tells a sprawling epic saga that spans decades – from the time Furiosa is seven right up to the beginning of Fury Road. It’s a lot to process in one viewing and I keep turning the film over and over in my head, finding an idea here, or an image there to discuss – and there’s just too much to put into this review. But the more I think about the film, the more I like it. It’s a very different beast than Fury Road, much weirder, more stylized, with an impossibly huge scope. If I had to compare it to another film in the franchise, I’d compare it to Beyond Thunderdome, with its truly bizarre worldbuilding.

The various political factions of the Wasteland, like the Bullet Farm or Gastown, that were glimpsed or mentioned in Fury Road are explored here and a lot of time is given over to the jockeying of power in the Wasteland. This might turn off some viewers, but it reminded me of the martial arts post-apocalyptic manga/anime series Fist of the North Star, which is to say, I really enoyed all of that.

The cast across the board is fantastic, particularly Anya Taylor-Joy whose enormous eyes tell volumes of story without her even uttering a word. Chris Hemsworth fits comfortably among the franchise’s unique villains, at times terrifying, hilarious and even heartbreaking. Also worth shouting out is Tom Burke as Praetorian Jack, Furiosa’s mentor and love interest – who brings much needed warmth to the film. As should be expected from George Miller and action designer Guy Norris, the action here is absolutely incredible, particularly a sequence in the middle where the war rig is besieged by bandits from the road AND from the air.

Ultimately, Furiosa doesn’t have the adrenaline rush that Fury Road had, instead giving its story over to a mytho-poetic aesthetic. Indeed, the film feels like an epic poem told around the campfire about how hope can grow from the literal pit of despair. I loved this movie in all its weird unwieldy glory.

Four out of Four Stars