The origin story of renegade warrior Furiosa before her encounter and teamup with Mad Max. Let’s cut right to the chase. George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the greatest action films ever made and a riveting experience from start to finish. I love all the movies in the Mad Max saga, including the sillier Thunderdome, but it’s very clear that Fury Road is the best entry in the series, aside from The Road Warrior. Nonetheless, Fury Road now gets this prequel that focuses on Furiosa’s life leading up to her team up with Mad Max. Keep in mind, this review is coming after only having seen the movie once, so future viewings may sway my thoughts one way or another, or not at all. I came out of Furiosa a bit disappointed, if I’m being totally honest. That’s not to say the film is bad, because it most definitely is not, but there are some things that didn’t work for me on initial viewing. Running at 148 minutes and spread out over five chapters, Furiosa lacks the seamless pacing that made Fury Road such a smooth ride. The first half hour in particular drags quite a lot, and the detailed exploration of Furiosa as a child just did not hook me that much. Sometimes, as wonderfully displayed in Fury Road, less is more. I liked the shrouded mystery of Furiosa’s past and the way it’s shown here didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t already suspect. Once we get to the Citadel and start seeing familiar characters like Immortan Joe, Rictus, and the War Boys, then things start to get interesting. Chris Hemsworth absolutely CRUSHES it as the warlord known as Dementus and it’s evident that Hemsworth had a blast in this role. Unlike the cold, calculating and menacing Immortan Joe, Dementus has an eccentric personality, a sense of humor, and much more spontaneous sadism. His chariot powered by motorcycles is one of the coolest contraptions in the entire movie.
What this movie does best is world building. In Fury Road, we heard murmurings about other fortresses in the Wasteland called Gas Town and the Bullet Farm, but we never got to actually see them, until now. George Miller does a fabulous job establishing the importance of these two places and how different groups come and trade goods. The industrial inspired sets are truly immaculate and these two locations help expand the Mad Max world. Anya Taylor Joy as a younger Furiosa does not have much to say, which is why she did an excellent job giving a mostly physically driven performance, showing character, emotion, and motives through her actions. Do I believe a 110 pound woman can fight off a bunch of strong testosterone fueled men? Definitely not, but this is a fictional movie, and I thought Joy did as good of a job as she could making me believe her as a capable action star. As expected, the high octane vehicle chases are the highlight of the movie, and there are a few really awesome new additions to those sequences. On top of people jumping from vehicle to vehicle, there’s a part where some use these paraglider things to swoop in from the air and cause damage to other vehicles. You’ll know what I mean when you see it. Tremendous stunt work, absolutely sublime. Miller makes the action feel visceral, brutal and in your face without ever resorting to shaky cam or a million jump cuts. There are many long takes during the chases that made me wonder how a nearly 80 year old man was able to make action look so good. 168 million dollar budget, and just like in Dune Part II, it looks so much better than a majority of modern CGI dominated blockbusters.
While Junkie XL’s score is a reasonable soundtrack for an action movie, it does not have nearly the same level of memorable tracks that Fury Road did. Nothing hit me in this movie straight to my core like his track “Brothers in Arms” or “Storm is Coming” did in Fury Road. I know I am comparing this movie to Fury Road a lot, but it’s almost unavoidable given how similar they are tonally, aesthetically, and visually. I am now writing this review having only seen the movie once, and I do intend on watching it a second time, so my opinion is subject to change. My first impressions are as I said before, mixed positive. On one hand, Furiosa is a sprawling decades spanning epic with incredible action sequences and intricate world building. On the other hand, I did not find myself invested the way I wanted to, which is perhaps the result of wonkier pacing and some clunky storytelling. Overall, despite being a prime example of “less is more” and lacking the simplicity of Fury Road, George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has high octane vehicle chases/stunts, dynamic world building, and a wildly unhinged Chris Hemsworth performance to make most viewers overlook these flaws. I personally will need to view the film again to form more conclusive thoughts, but my initial impressions are mixed positive.
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