Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

After Mad Max: Fury Road restarted the popular post-apocalyptic George Miller franchise in a vibrant, cinematic and adrenaline-pumping manner, the lingering question on people’s mind was what the next course of action would be. With only four films to its name which were all unique and wildly enjoyable, another film would’ve been welcomed if time was allowed to pass and give audiences the chance to miss the series. In 2024, it was revealed that a spin-off prequel would be released, this time focusing on the backstory of the secondary lead of Fury Road, Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron. While people were caught off guard to see a Mad Max film not star the titular character, the trailers did remind people of the same hype-inducing thrill ride Fury Road provided and waited in bated breath to see the results, which turned out to be pretty positive.

Set several years before the events of Fury Road, a young Furiosa (played by Alyla Browne) is suddenly taken from her tranquil life in the plentiful lands of the Green Place, by a group of raiders who work for a demented warlord named Dementus (played by Chris Hemsworth). Hoping to reach this land of abundance, but with Furiosa refusing to speak, Dementus has her mother, Mary (played by Charlee Fraser) killed in front of her, and keeps her as an almost pet, forcing her to witness his pilgrimage across the desert wasteland, jumping from location to location in hopes of gaining control over a strong foothold. This eventually comes when he finds the Citadel, run by Immortan Joe (played by Lachy Hulme), and forces a peace deal to be secured after holding a vital location named Gastown, hostage. After bargaining Furiosa away for more supplies, Furiosa (now played by Anya-Taylor Joy) grows into a more experienced warrior and has been waiting for her chance to take her revenge on Dementus, which can finally come now that she has the abilities, weaponry, and positional advantage over him. The long-awaited reunion will come to pass on the road, which will in turn shape Furiosa into the feared and formidable figure seen in Fury Road.

With strong reviews right out the gate but quickly being crippled with a weak box office due to audience’s seeming lack of interest, Furiosa may not be as strong as Fury Road, but contains all the same fantastic qualities, like amazing characters and performances, stylish action, a gripping narrative and very well-handled world building.

This movie, despite what would be believed, wasn’t created as a response to people’s reaction to the character, but rather just as a happy coincidence since Miller wrote backstories for all the characters present in Fury Road while writing the script, with Furiosa just being the one to get her own movie. While originally supposed to be animated and shot back-and-back alongside Fury Road, these plans were put on hold due to Miller changing his mind during shooting and having to deal with a lawsuit between himself and Warner Bros that lasted a few years. In order to retain the same sense of personality and attitude, a lot of people who worked on Fury Road returned to work on Furiosa, including composer Tom Holkenberg, costume designer Jenny Beavan, editor Margaret Sixel (who is also Miller’s wife), make-up designer Lesley Vanderwalt, production designer Colin Gibson, and sound mixer Ben Osmo, and since Beavan, Gibson, Osmo, Sixel and Vanderwalt all won Oscars for their work on Fury Road, it seems like a smart call to bring them back.

In comparison to its former movie, Furiosa is very similar in presentation, attitude, and cinematic scope, but is quite different in terms of its narrative structure and delivery. While Fury Road was an experience film that relied on visual storytelling and expressive acting to get across a straightforward yet still rich and engaging plot, Furiosa is much more direct and firmly planted with its story, with Miller and fellow screenwriter Nico Lathouris, concocting a backstory that is fairly atypical of most revenge tales, but is still done in a way that’s interesting, well-paced, beautifully acted, and in the interest of its audience. Much like other Miller projects, Furiosa (in spite of being the lead) almost gets pushed into the background during several portion, with the film taking time instead to showcase this deranged world and the bizarre people that inhabit it. While this should be a problem, it never comes across as one as the character is still focused on and made interesting when it’s important, and this world is just so interesting to be in that the audience is willing to just get lost in its craziness. With a pretty lengthy running time of 148 mins but with a steady pace and an effective sense of build-up to keep things from feeling dull, it manages a story that, while not new, is very well handled and delivered, offering the audience a nice mixture of slow-paced dialogue scenes and high-flying action sequences, with both being delivered very well.

Furiosa was a pretty cool character that Theron played very well, but it’s hard to say anyone was really scrambling for her origin story. In truth, it really does just feel like Miller wanted an excuse to return to this universe, but it does work out as despite not requiring it, this backstory is delivered pretty effectively and is assisted by some really strong performances. The Mad Max world must be so fun to act in as the people are allowed to go full feral and dirty in a sense that can be tragic and gruesome at the same time, playing on familiar apocalypse tropes and cliches, but still manages to feel organized and purposeful thanks to its elaborate world building and established cults and tribes which add plenty of personality. Most of the side characters adopt a similar kind of manic insanity that is only strengthened by the world they inhabit, yet they still have distinct identities and aren’t just genre tropes of the genre, it’s very well done. Immortan Joe was recast due to the former actor, Hugh Keays-Byrne, passing away, but Lachy Hulme still does a good job with the role, his crew are made a little more memorable this time around with actors like John Howard, Angus Sampson, Nathan Jones,  and Josh Helman standing out pretty strongly, and even relatively minute roles like Charlee Fraser, Elsa Pataky, Peter Stephens, and Sean Millis still come out looking pretty good.

The starring roles are obviously the lead and the villain, and while it is strange that Charlize Theron wasn’t asked to return, Anya-Taylor Joy and Alyla Brown do a great job bringing the character to life once again. Even though Anya-Taylor Joy doesn’t appear until halfway through, Brown still does a great job getting across a lot of character and personality through just her expression alone, which is something Taylor Joy also excels at (which is a given considering how amazingly expressive and cool-looking her eyes are). While not looking like an actress that could be an action heroine, she really captures the gritty, competent, and even intimidating factor that should come with a role like this, it’s a great showcase of her range and just her talents in general. Chris Hemsworth is also having a ton of fun as Dementus, using his strengths as a comedic actor to bring a lot of over-the-top zealousness to the role, but never too much to the point of being overboard as he still retains a hint of an intimidation role. It’s a pretty great role, and Hemsworth eats it up beautifully.

The look of Fury Road was extremely striking and stood out from the previous Mad Max films in a notable way, featuring a heavily-saturated colour palette, effects and theatrics that were on a much grander scale than the low-budget apparel they had to work with previously, and created a world that still felt vile and crazy, but now had a creative energy that was more akin to a comic book or graphic novel (and acted accordingly with that personality). It didn’t work for everybody as some preferred the more grounded look and feel of the original three film, but no one can deny it created an unforgettable style that Miller was undoubtedly ravenous to return to. With that said, there was a worry that this prequel wouldn’t be interested in evolving its style and would just present what had already been shown, which is something that Mad Max hadn’t really fumbled with yet. Each Mad Max film felt like they brought something visually new to the table, so just returning to the same world without any changes might be a little disappointing, especially since Fury Road was such an overt visual change.

While it would’ve been nice to see something a little unique and different, this world is just so entrancingly filthy, sweaty, and dripping in non-toxic hyper masculinity that it’s hard not to keep enjoying it, especially due to the returning talent still making it look and sound great. The action is certainly not on the same level as Fury Road (it’s a little hard to top what was essentially just an extended action sequence that functioned as a movie), but the sequences featured are certainly not poorly down. They’re engaging, continue building upon themselves with each passing minute, and still have a nice balance of practical and digital effects to result in a hyper exaggerated but still believable thrill ride. The effects did face some criticism from the trailers for looking more noticeably fake, but that comes more from certain camera tricks used in the film rather than a dip in quality. While some do look shinier and more digital, it’s not to the point of feeling that much lesser than previous as it’s still a gorgeous looking film with several shots handled by Simon Duggan that look ripped right out of a comic panel and keep adding onto the stylish yet still messy nature of this world.

While not to the same calibre as Fury Road and has had its legacy poisoned due to being a pretty embarrassing bomb, Furiosa: A Mad Max Story doesn’t really lack anything that its predecessor didn’t also have, so its failings don’t feel like a fault of its own. No one really requested it, but what was delivered feels very much in line with what Miller has presented previously, and considering how it feels like he really knows how to have fun with this franchise, it would be nice to see it continue in a way that doesn’t become over saturated but enough that it becomes more than just a popularly niche Australian property. It has great acting, a straightforward yet engaging story, and still provide its audience with the same kind of excitable action and stellar world building that made them fall in love with this section of the world in the first place. Even if this doesn’t have Mad Max in it, Furiosa is still worthy of existing within this legend.