Anika Patel
At last, the missing pieces of the Mad Max: Fury Road puzzle have been found.
Don’t take this the wrong way, especially if you appreciated Fury Road for its minimalistic approach to characterization and plot. It’s often frowned upon to label a film as “overrated,” as it indirectly questions the judgment of those who have every right to their opinions. However, it’s been a solitary journey believing that Fury Road was neither a divine gift to cinema nor the ultimate action masterpiece. Yes, the choreography and aesthetics were impressive, but the characters felt underdeveloped, and the villain was dispatched so swiftly it was easy to miss.
The Missing Element: Inaction
For those who share this sentiment, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga fills in the gaps, except perhaps for Tom Hardy’s Max, who is absent here. It provides the necessary world-building and motivation leading up to the events of Fury Road. It’s a story that was clearly already in George Miller’s mind, but needed a successful proof-of-concept first due to its expansive scope.
On a side note, it’s puzzling how Mad Max, a franchise ripe for action figures and marketing, remains underutilized in this regard. There’s a scene in Furiosa that practically begs for a LEGO set, but it’s unlikely to happen.
If you ever wished to explore Gas Town and Bullet Farm from Fury Road, now’s your chance. If you wondered how a defiant feminist like Furiosa (Alyla Browne and Anya Taylor-Joy, replacing Charlize Theron) ended up serving a vile abuser like Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme, replacing the late Hugh Keays-Byrne), you’ll find your answers. You’ll also discover her unexpected fondness for men in leather jackets with shoulder pads. While Theron undoubtedly has star power, Taylor-Joy is given much more material to work with.
Nuclear Family Values
Like Fury Road, Furiosa begins with disaster audio clips and nuclear test footage, but this time we start in the Green Place before its destruction. It’s an ecological paradise amidst nuclear devastation, complete with modern windmills and solar panels that seem more suited to a Microsoft campus than a Mad Max movie. Young Furiosa’s life takes a turn when she encounters skull-masked intruders and is taken away, with her mother in pursuit. The Green Place must remain a secret, or it will inevitably attract the worst of humanity. This foreknowledge adds a layer of fatalism to the adventure, enhancing the apocalyptic atmosphere like never before.
Furiosa’s origins bear a striking resemblance to She-Ra’s, setting a high bar for any potential movie adaptation. She’s abducted and raised by an evil horde, groomed by a warlord as his daughter, and caught in a tense peace between him and a skull-faced warrior who resides in a monstrous mountain. Thankfully, George Miller isn’t a Princess of Power fan, so Mad Max doesn’t turn out to be her secret twin. However, her preference for vehicles and guns eerily mirrors his (or perhaps, Miller’s).
The Thunder Road Warrior
The film is divided into chapters, which help denote the passage of time between young Furiosa and young-adult Furiosa. The latter hones her survival skills under the guidance of the handsome, Max-like Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), who discovers her true gender and respects it. Meanwhile, tension is brewing among the wasteland’s three primary leaders: Joe at the Citadel, The People Eater (John Howard) at Bullet Farm, and Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), the biker leader who abducted young Furiosa and seized control of Gas Town.
Dementus is a unique Mad Max antagonist, destructive yet unusually needy. He pays lip service to a more egalitarian society, but struggles to maintain control in the survival-of-the-fittest wastelands due to his lack of dictatorship. Hemsworth clearly enjoys playing a character that’s not a heroic god, making Dementus suitably unhinged. Meanwhile, character actors from Fury Road like Howard, Nathan Jones, and Angus Sampson are given more to do. Burke unexpectedly becomes the emotional core of the film, and arguably would have been a better Max replacement than Tom Hardy.
Balls to the Walls
While there are plenty of anticipated vehicle clashes, the biggest action setpiece occurs at the film’s midpoint rather than the climax, leaving the ending for more personal stakes. By this point, Miller trusts that we care enough about the characters and their personal issues to let the actors, rather than their equipment, drive the story. This is particularly important when one character delivers a speech about the emotional numbness that can result from escalating action sequences, a sentiment that feels as out of place as James Cameron advocating for world peace in the Terminator movies. However, in retrospect, it helps justify the abrupt demise of Immortan Joe in Fury Road.
Like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome more than The Road Warrior, Furiosa offers a broader view of a world that could evolve in any direction — after it follows the inevitable path through Fury Road, of course. It’s an unabashedly R-rated universe, filled with enough crucifixions and tortures to make Mel Gibson wish he was still part of it, the deadliest “truck nuts” ever, and characters who proudly proclaim, “I am Scrotus!” It can be ridiculously adolescent at times, but the spectacle is so grand that there’s little time to dwell on it. Thankfully, Miller remembered that spectacle alone can be overwhelming if we don’t care about the characters being crushed under the wheels. Like Cameron, he always excelled at sequels.
2 Film 2 Furiosa
Furiosa seamlessly leads into Fury Road, suggesting that a combined edit or double-feature might be even more satisfying than the individual films. The final credits tease highlights from Fury Road, daring you to rewatch it the moment you get home. Even a mild skeptic like me is tempted to do just that, which speaks volumes about the quality of Furiosa.
Grade: 5/5
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga hits theaters on May 24th.
