Director: George Miller
Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Alyla Brown, Tom Burke, Lachy Hulme, Goran D. Kleut, Nathan Jones, Josh Helman, Charlee Fraser
Genre: Action/Adventure/Sci-fi
Run Time: 149 min
Opens: 22 May 2024
Rating: NC16
Mad Max: Fury Road almost immediately became canonised as one of the greatest action movies ever made. Receiving ten Oscar nominations and winning six, it is a genre piece that was taken very seriously and beloved by audiences and critics alike. Director George Miller returns to the wasteland for this spin-off.
Young Furiosa (Alyla Brown, Anya Taylor-Joy) lives in the Green Place of Many Mothers, an oasis in the middle of barren, post-apocalyptic Australia. She is kidnapped by the Biker Horde, followers of the tyrannical warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). Furiosa’s mother Mary Jo Bassa (Charlee Fraser) attempts to rescue her. Furiosa eventually becomes caught up in a negotiation between Dementus and rival warlord Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), who holds court in the Citadel. Furiosa teams up with war rig driver Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), learning to drive the rig herself and earning the title of Imperator. She plots to take revenge on Dementus and find her way back to the Green Place.
While some might have wanted Miller to make another mainline Mad Max film instead of a spinoff, there’s no arguing that Furiosa is suffused with the franchise’s spirit. Making this movie as a follow-up to Fury Road was always the plan; it was just going to be with Charlize Theron at first. There’s an authenticity to the weirdness, the grotesque and idiosyncratic elements, and the explosive action sequences that makes Furiosa feel like it more than belongs in the franchise – and why not, seeing as Miller remains at the helm. This is a world he has lovingly crafted for decades, a world of beautiful desolation and vehicular carnage. Action designer, supervising stunt coordinator and second unit director Guy Norris returns alongside other key crew members from Fury Road, making the elaborate action in this movie feel of a piece with those in Fury Road. A 15-minute-long war rig chase sequence involving powered paragliders swooping down onto the rig and Furiosa clambering underneath the chassis is a genuine showstopper.
Fury Road is often described as one long chase sequence, and while Furiosa does have extended set-pieces, it is structurally different and doesn’t feel like a rehash. The movie earns being called a “saga” as viewers follow Furiosa across a span of 15 years, witnessing the events that make her into the woman she is in Fury Road. This is a complete, satisfying story that works even if viewers are unfamiliar with the larger Mad Max milieu.
The Mad Max movies are synonymous with practical vehicular stunts and set-pieces, and while there is plenty of that in Furiosa, there are also moments that feel ever so slightly more synthetic than in Fury Road. It’s not as big a deal as some were making it seem when the trailer was released, and it is true that Fury Road employed lots of digital visual effects work too, but Furiosa does feel different. Maybe it has to do with Simon Duggan replacing John Seale as the cinematographer, even though much of the movie is still beautiful.
Anya Taylor-Joy and Theron do not resemble each other, but the casting works. Taylor-Joy has an undeniable screen presence and brings an intensity and physicality to her performance as Furiosa that most other roles don’t typically demand of her. As much as Furiosa is an action hero, she also has a lot of interiority and Taylor-Joy has fewer than 30 lines, meaning a lot is conveyed with just a look. Alyla Brown plays the young Furiosa and has a considerable amount of screen time (it’s about an hour before we see Taylor-Joy). Brown portrays a defiant child facing myriad horrors face-on – we know young Furiosa will make it through this, but we also can’t help but feel protective over her. \
Chris Hemsworth steals the show, playing against type as a blowhard villain. Dementus is both frightening and funny, a different type of villain from Immortan Joe. While Immortan Joe is more inhuman and monstrous, Dementus feels like a cross between a circus ringmaster and a gym bro. Hemsworth relishes lines like “Do you have the balls, the bollocks, the testes to ride with Dementus?”
Tom Burke might quietly be the movie’s MVP as Praetorian Jack, who is kind of a proto-Mad Max. The character becomes Furiosa’s ally when it feels like she can trust nobody and becomes something of a mentor to her. Burke isn’t much of an action star, but he has a steadfastness that makes him feel convincing at the wheel of the war rig.
Summary: Furiosa is an action epic that very much contains the spirit of the Mad Max franchise. Director George Miller has spent decades crafting this post-apocalyptic world, which is further explored in this spin-off. Anya Taylor-Joy might not look much like Charlize Theron, who played Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road, but she does an excellent job channelling the character’s intensity, resourcefulness, and bottled rage, further proving her movie star bona fides. Chris Hemsworth is having the best time playing against type as the villain Dementus, a sadistic hybrid of circus ringmaster and gym bro. While some of the visual effects work feels a little more synthetic than in Fury Road, the action sequences are still spectacular, elaborate, and hard-hitting.
RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars
Jedd Jong