A decade ago saw Australian director George Miller bring back a dormant series swinging with surprising success through Mad Max: Fury Road—a full kinetic crumplezone-mangling blast on the senses that felt like a breath of fresh air amid other choppily shot CG-abusing action schlock—and still does. Despite being another over the top post-apocalyptic action movie on the surface, it’s actually surprisingly very tight in terms of presentation and character—you can view the whole thing without dialogue and still get a good sense of what every wants, needs, and where they’re going. Not to mention, the breathtaking stunts often involving actual vehicles fully built and operational to tear over the dunes.
Miller did talk about doing a prequel involving breakout character Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron (even if she was perhaps the true lead there!), but only now did it finally surface. With this being a rather different entry to Fury Road, how does it turn out and does it match the standard set before?
Set of course in an Australia following a total collapse of nations and economies in the midst of nuclear war, this one starts off right away with our heroine scooped away by raiders already taking to wearing the over the top getups more or less iconic to the series by now—one thing I did notice earlier on in the film was rather noticeable green screen, which was something much more elegantly executed in Fury Road. Still, it’s also not long before we get introduced to our antagonist and someone who does indeed steal the show for the most part—it’s Chris Hemsworth, letting loose every over the top acting impulse with his Aussie mode fully turned on. Here, he plays a biker gang leader with sights set on taking over the wasteland, using both his charisma and brutality to try and forge a young Furiosa into a protege of sorts.
Eventually we get into an older lead played by Anya Taylor-Joy—I know some people who don’t seem to like her, and here, for me at least she mostly did fine for a role somewhat minimal on dialogue—but she doesn’t match Theron, who really did convey that sense of grit and determination all too well. We do meet some characters from last time with all their memorable schticks, but another slightly weak link is Tom Burke as Jack, who seems to be a mentor figure and love interest of sorts, but really doesn’t have the screen presence to make it all come together.
However, the film does at least do well on the spectacle front—it doesn’t quite have the same metal-tearing punch as the others but it does the job for sure, with all sorts of manic vehicular clashes and set pieces galore. More importantly, at least Furiosa’s own arc is done competently enough—even if part of it comes down to another monologue by Hemsworth setting some of the better dialogue we see in the piece.
That does overall leave Furiosa worth at least a one-off watch—as long as you set your expectations right, as it doesn’t mark itself as a modern classic like Fury Road did. That doesn’t mean it’s bad by any means—but with but a few casting changes and some slight alterations here and there, it certainly could’ve been better yet. You’ll at least get your road rage quota and some outback-flavored ham for your buck, and while it remains to be seen what else Miller can deliver from the series, at least it doesn’t end on a complete dud.
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