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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Review
Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
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Directed By: George Miller
Written By: George Miller and Nico Lathouris
Runtime: 148 minutes
MPA Rating: Rated R for sequences of strong violence, and grisly images.
Anya Taylor-Joy – Furiosa
Chris Hemsworth – Dementus
Lachy Hulme – Immortan Joe / Rizzdale Pell
Tom Burke – Praetorian Jack
Nathan Jones – Rictus Erectus
Josh Helman – Scrotus
John Howard – The People Eater
Richard Carter – The Bullet Farmer
Angus Sampson – The Organic Mechanic
Alyla Browne – Young Furiosa
Charlee Fraser – Furiosa’s mother
Visionary filmmaker George Filmmaker returns to his iconic Mad Max franchise with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. While the settings and locations resemble the acclaimed Mad Max: Fury Road, Miller opts for a completely different narrative style and structure. Furiosa is not one continuous, high-octane-driven action setpiece. Instead, Furiosa is paced more like an epic Odyssey and showcases the harsh, grim origin story of the Imperator Furiosa (Taylor-Joy). Miller exceptionally depicts how Furiosa emerged as the dark avenging angel of the Wasteland.
After the collapse of civilization, young Furiosa (Browne) lives with her friends and family in the Green Place, an oasis and paradise smack dab in the middle of the post-apocalyptic Wasteland. Despite its residents living in peace and relative tranquility, this virtual garden of Eden is a prime target for the brutal marauders and raiders of the Wasteland. While trying to sabotage some invading marauders’ vehicles, Furiosa is kidnapped and taken from her home. She’s delivered into the clutches of the execrable, yet charismatic, Wasteland warlord, Dementus (Hemsworth). Furiosa’s cunning mother (Fraser) valiantly attempts to rescue her daughter but is brutally tortured and murdered by Dementus’s minions.
After Dementus takes ownership of the poor girl as his new prized possession, the warlord soon discovers the Citadel controlled by Immortan Joe (Hulme) and his cadre of loyal War Boys. Of course, Dementus desires to take Immortan Joe’s empire under his dominion, sparking some Wasteland warfare. Through it all, Furiosa grows into a battle-hardened warrior who will stop at nothing to keep her promise to her mother to return home to their treasured Green Place.
While Fury Road worked as a long, continuous action romp, Furiosa takes a decidedly different approach. Miller offers an expanded, fleshed-out view of the Wasteland. The story delves deeply into places barely referenced in Fury Road. Locations such as Gas Town and the Bullet Farm are fully shown onscreen in Furiosa, lending more texture to the Wasteland and vividly bringing the post-apocalyptic setting to life. In depicting Furiosa’s origin, the Green Place is depicted at its peak, showing how a progressive and thriving society would operate in such an oppressive time in human history. As an epic Odyssey-like tale, Miller thrives in building out the setting of the Mad Max franchise, and the film’s world-building is exceptional.
Miller excels in visual storytelling, rather than using trite, banal dialogue and exposition as a crutch. Even with a more deliberately paced epic narrative, running almost two-and-a-half hours long, Miller shows his gift at depicting his stories with little to no dialogue. The dialogue in Furiosa sounds relatively incidental. That’s not to say the dialogue throughout the film is subpar, but the movie works best when there is no dialogue.
Chris Hemsworth is the true standout among the cast, delivering one of the best performances of his career. Hemsworth plays against type as the bad guy and brings his magnetic presence to deliver a fantastic performance as the despicable Dementus. It’s plain to see how an individual such as Dementus drew so many followers in a place like the Wasteland. Hemsworth still imbues an echo of humanity into the role. Dementus lost all his compassion in the collapse of civilization. The only way he can feel alive is to commit one atrocity after another because he’s become numb to life and kindness. Hemsworth plays Dementus as an indescribable scumbag, but the viewer still experiences an odd sense of empathy for the individual he used to be and the family he likely once had. It’s a fascinating character juxtaposition.
Anya Taylor-Joy gives a fine performance and creates a striking, stoic demeanor as the younger Furiosa. However, although she has some good moments sprinkled throughout the film, she does not have one crowning moment where she owns the role and fully transforms into Furiosa. Frankly, the casting here creates ambivalent feelings. Understandably, George Miller preferred to cast a younger actress to portray Furiosa. That said, considering many actors in Fury Road reprise their roles many years later, there is no reason that Charlize Theron could not have returned.
There is a perception the film wanted to avoid using de-aging visual effects for the character, but honestly, it feels like Charlize Theron could have returned and stepped back into the role she forged through fire and ash. The 54-year-old Nathan Jones returns as Immortan Joe’s son, Rictus Erectus, in a significantly expanded role with more screentime. He’s playing a younger Rictus, despite filming Furiosa years after Fury Road.
Casting issues aside, Furiosa works exceptionally well depicting the Odyssey of Furiosa’s journey from a young girl of the Green Place to a grim, battle-hardened warrior struggling to survive in the harsh, oppressive Wasteland. Furiosa excels as a companion piece to Fury Road and expansion of the Mad Max Universe.
