Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
George Miller fails to recapture lightning in a bottle but does make a fun action flick
Anya Taylor-Joy hopes to die historic on the fury road in George Miller's Mad Max prequel.
After the world ends, Australia plummets into dire straits. The whole continent seems to be a wasteland, but there are rumors of a green place that might provide clean water and food for all.
When marauders for warlord Dr. Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) stumble upon said green place, they’re thrilled. They kill a horse, steal fresh fruit, and kidnap a young girl they find sabotaging their bikes. The girl, Furiosa (Alyla Browne), fights to get back to her people but is caged like a pet by Dementus. Though she’s killed everyone who’s seen the green place to keep its location secret, Dementus lives in hope that he’ll be able to pry the secret from her one day.
Spending most of her life as a prisoner, Furiosa dreams of the day she can revolt and return to her idyllic home. As Dementus starts conflicts with other local warlords, a grown Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) must learn to navigate the cruel and callous wastelands if she ever hopes to find her freedom.
The prequel to director George Miller’s most lauded work, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was almost doomed to disappoint. A feast of visceral action, subtle character work, and epic storytelling, Mad Max: Fury Road was the best film of 2015 (sorry, Spotlight superfans). The production for the film was so legendarily arduous that Charlize Theron hired private security to protect her from Tom Hardy on set and the whole production was riddled with costly delays. It is therefore a minor miracle that Fury Road was completed at all. The fact that it became a cultural touchstone when we think of gonzo action epics is almost unfathomable given its production history.
But the problem with capturing lightning in a bottle is that it’s usually a trick you only get to do once.
In his follow-up, Miller gives us the same flavor of frenetic action, but the film itself seems rushed and worse, a rehash of past brilliance. Miller can still spin an action sequence that will leave audiences breathless, but while Fury Road’s action was mostly filmed using practical effects (ie: those war boys are really flying through the air at high speeds during chases), it’s pretty apparent that Miller and his team employed heavy CGI effects to accomplish some of the same stunts in Furiosa. On one hand, that’s probably safer for stunt performers, which is always a good thing. On the other hand, CGI effects NEVER age as well as practical effects no matter what George Lucas or James Cameron try to tell themselves. It’s distracting visually and takes you out of the moment.
But the biggest problem facing Furiosa isn’t a lack of action bona fides, it’s a script. Fury Road is a simple story — traumatized by his time in the waste, Max must learn to put trust and faith in humanity again — told with plenty of layers. Miller has things to say about feminism, climate change, and humanity, and enriches the story of Max with these themes. In Furiosa, it feels like the film is rushing to get us to the point where Max joins the story. By doing this, we don’t learn that much about Furiosa that we didn’t know from the first film, and it brings up more questions than answers.
Furiosa was originally sold to the evil Immorten Joe (Lachy Hulme) as a child so she could become one of his wives. When she escapes the harem, she becomes a mechanic. How? Did no one notice one of the wives went missing? Do you just show up for mechanic training at the warlord’s citadel and get onboarded? What happened when she got her period and developed physically? Is she Mulan?
Miller doesn’t seem to have an answer for that, because he’s too focused on racing through the years. When Furiosa does make connections, even they seem rushed and poorly thought out. The result is a lead character that seems more closed off and obscure than the one we meet in Fury Road. We get more development of Dementus and some tantalizing tidbits about Immortan Joe, but the main character is frustratingly sidelined in her own movie. It seems if your name is in the title, you’re destined to take a backseat in the Mad Max world.
And while the performances are good, there’s nothing here that feels new or necessary. Hemsworth is clearly having a blast hamming it up as the big bad. And while his prosthetic nose is distracting, it doesn’t take away from his gonzo performance. He really should consider a career in comedy or character parts once he’s done playing Thor.
Taylor-Joy does a decent job sounding like Charlize Theron (who played the role before her), but she’s not nearly as physically imposing as her predecessor. Taylor-Joy has an ephemeral, waifish quality that makes her expressive, but when she’s battling hulking people and winning, it looks a little absurd. The best version of Furiosa in this film is undoubtedly Alyla Browne’s young Furiosa, who gets a handful of lines and literally sinks her teeth into the fierceness of the role.
And while it certainly sounds like I’ve come to Furiosa to bury it, not praise it, I must admit that there was little Miller or the rest of the crew could do to surpass Fury Road. On its own merits, Furiosa is a fine action film: Nothing that will knock your socks off, but not something you’ll demand a refund for seeing. It’s a middle-of-the-road action film. And that might have been OK, had said road not been Fury Road.
Verdict: Even with Miller’s signature brand of chaotic action, Furiosa was destined to be a letdown.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is rated R and available in theaters.
