Directed by George Miller, Furiosa is set 15 to 20 years before the events of Mad Max: Fury Road and follows a younger Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) who is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and into the hands of a Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). While two Tyrants war for dominance over the Citadel, Furiosa survives many trials as she plots a way back home through the Wasteland.
In 2015, George Miller revived Mad Max with Fury Road, delivering not only the best installment of the series but also one of the best action films of all time, one that made a huge impact on pop culture. With the grand success of Fury Road, many people were eager to see another installment on the big screen and George Miller was eager to make another one, but he wanted to take a lot of time in making it. Nine years later we officially have the newest installment of the Mad Max series in the form of a prequel that doesn’t focus on Max himself but instead focuses on the origins of Furiosa, who was a major favorite for many in Fury Road.
Despite the absence of Max and the nine-year-long wait, it was very much worth it because Furiosa is one hell of an incredible film and a worthy installment of the Mad Max series delivered by George Miller. It is an epic odyssey that mostly lives up to the hype, offering phenomenal career-defining performances, a very well-written sprawling story that offers a grand enrichment of the Mad Max mythos, and amazingly crafted adrenaline-fueled action that goes to insane levels. Now does this film reach the same levels of perfection as its predecessor Fury Road? No, but it nearly does, and I feel it serves as a fantastic and praiseworthy prequel for Fury Road despite some of its faults.
Let’s dive into the grand, the good, and the slightly mediocre of this Mad Max saga starting with the cast. One thing you can never deny George Miller being good at is picking great cast members for all of his films and Furiosa is no exception as we get some truly talented actors and actresses that give it their all, making this hellish world feel alive in every way. But of course, the true stars of this film that make it as compelling as it is are none other than Anya Taylor-Joy as the titular Furiosa and Chris Hemsworth as the villainous Dementus.
If there was one person who was going to match the emotional power and intensity Charlize Theron brought as Furiosa it was Anya Taylor-Joy. I knew from the day her casting was announced that Anya was going to be absolutely phenomenal in this role and she did not disappoint at all. She may be playing a younger version of Furiosa but she emotes and embraces the same amount of rage and endless determination as Theron’s version of the character, making her feel like the exact same person we know and loved in Fury Road. You get to see her origins fully explored in this film and get a deeper understanding of what she has been through, leading her to the events in Fury Road in a tragic tale of loss, survival, and vengeance, all of which is mostly told visually through Anya’s performance. She has about 30 lines of dialogue in the entire film and yet was still able to display a full range of emotions without any need for consistent dialogue, in a similar manner to Tom Hardy’s performance in Fury Road.
She definitely lived up to my expectations but what I did not expect was for her to be rivaled and almost overshadowed by her opposition in this film, which is Chris Hemsworth as the warlord Dementus. Holy shit did Chris Hemsworth blow me away, delivering quite possibly the best performance in his entire career.
This isn’t the first time that Chris Hemsworth has played a villain but this is definitely the best villain he has played, giving us a truly sadistic and psychotic warlord that radiates with unsettling charisma and energy, stealing the spotlight every time he is on screen. Immortan Joe might be a villain you love to hate but even he is not as unhinged and dangerous as Dementus. Hemsworth truly transformed himself when it came to playing this role and exceeded my expectations of him in the best ways possible, making for a career-defining performance that further showcases his incredible range.
Another notable performance in this film that I found to be very underrated yet still impactful was Tom Burke as Praetorian Jack, a principal commander of the Citadel’s military forces who meets and mentors Furiosa in the ways of the wasteland. I have considered Tom Burke to be a really underrated actor after seeing him in certain Netflix films like Mank and The Wonder, so it was great to see him on the big screen and being part of this epic story as a pretty badass character that shares some truly great and unexpected chemistry with Anya’s Furiosa. He’s the one who teaches Furiosa how to survive, though he ends up meaning a lot more to her as the film progresses, making for a duo I did not expect to love so much.
Another underrated performance I have to highlight is that of Alyla Browne as young Furiosa in the first two chapters of the film. I wasn’t expecting to get as much time with this version of Furiosa but I’m honestly glad we did, not only for how it adds layers to her character but also for the incredible visual performance we get from Alyla Brown who showcases an amazing range of emotions.
This film’s narrative is told as a sprawling five-chapter odyssey that follows the epic journey of Furiosa and takes many subversive turns while also expanding upon the Mad Max Mythos. Similar to Fury Road, it is mostly told through compelling and very well-executed visual storytelling without a heavy reliance on dialogue or exposition. But unlike Fury Road, this film goes at a more slow-burn pace, and while that may end up bothering some people I was completely fine with it. Much like I did with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes I will defend the pacing of this film because I feel it was necessary to take the time to explore the characters and world of the wasteland and get us more attached them, while simultaneously adding more context to Fury Road and improving that film in the process.
There are certainly numerous moments of non-stop adrenaline fueled action sequences that occur back to back in parts of the film like in Fury Road, but it’s not as constant and I honestly liked this new approach George Miller went for because it prevents from being a rehash of the previous film. Plus the slower moments in between each major action sequence builds up to the next one with very well-crafted tension, making all the action and the most intense scenes feel very satisfying and more emotionally compelling thanks to the narrative build up.
However, there is one particular event that this film was seemingly building up to that had a very disappointing pay-off; it felt like a massive missed opportunity to have one of the coolest cinematic battle sequences that could have been on par with or even surpass the phenomenal third act of Fury Road. I can’t go into detail about what the scene is but it basically is a big battle that was being built up over the course of the film, but rather than seeing it in all its glory we only get brief glimpses of it before suddenly skipping to the aftermath. It felt like a total cop out and I really don’t understand why they did not commit to the epic battle they were setting up. Was it for budget reasons? Pacing reasons? Studio interference? I’m not sure at the moment but I definitely feel like we were denied from seeing something truly amazing.
That being said, this unfortunate cop-out from an epic battle is made up for by a phenomenal final chapter and conclusion that serves as the ultimate payoff for Furiosa’s journey, which to me was the most important part of the film that the filmmakers needed to do right and thankfully they did it right.
When it comes to the technical elements of this film a majority of it is awesome and is nearly on par with all the technical elements of Fury Road, but there were some issues I felt dragged it down from being completely on par with Fury Road. The practical effects in this film for the action, sets, makeup, stunts, and vehicles are all perfect and phenomenal as one would expect, but I couldn’t help but notice there was a higher usage of CGI effects in this film over practical compared to Fury Road. I can understand that this was maybe a choice that was made in an attempt to keep a majority of the cast and crew safe during filming after how dangerous the process of making Fury Road was, but if that was the case then I feel that the George Miller and his team should at least be able to make some convincing CGI effects in the amount of time they had making this film, right? Well, while a majority of the CGI effects looked great in this film there was a substantial amount of CGI effects that looked extremely unpolished and were visually distracting.
In one of the initial trailers and TV spots for this film several people, including myself, pointed out how there were some action sequences that looked visually unappealing due to unpolished effects, but we collectively agreed to wait for the finished product since most of the time the effects look better in the final product than in the marketing. Unfortunately, that wasn’t entirely the case here as a lot of those same scenes criticized in the trailers looked exactly the same in the final product but were now more visually distracting being on the big screen. They had a lot of time to go in and polish these particular effects so there is no real excuse for them to turn out the way they did.
On top of that, I feel the high usage of CGI takes away some of the tension and anxiety the action scenes should be providing. The practical danger and realism that Fury Road had I feel personally helped the film visually as well as narratively, giving it more impact on the big screen than this film does with its heavier reliance on CGI. Again I feel a majority of the CGI looks great in the film but it feels like such a step down in quality compared to the gnarly yet masterful look and feel of Fury Road.
One thing I can say is still masterful in this film is the stellar cinematography that enhances the epic scale of this film and some of the best effects featured throughout. For the number of bad effects present, there are far more beautiful frames oozing with vibrant colors and energy that more than make up for it. I can also say the editing and sound design are really excellent and add to the tension-filled atmosphere of the action.
And of course, we have composer Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL) back once again delivering a hardcore and epic score to get the heart pumping and raise the adrenaline of this film to the highest levels possible.
Despite some of its missteps, this film is still another grand epic and an extremely worthy prequel for Fury Road that was definitely worth the long wait and should be seen on the biggest screen possible. I am going to give Furiosa an A = 97.
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