"Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga": review

Anya Taylor-Joy as Imperator Furiosa

[WARNING: spoilers.]

2024 gave us "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga," a film that was liked by critics and audience members alike, but that flopped at the box office, probably from lack of interest about Imperator Furiosa's backstory. Directed by George Miller and starring both Alyla Browne and Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa at different stages in her life, the movie tells the story of how Furiosa came to be the character we meet in "Mad Max: Fury Road." As the story progresses, there are one or two scenes that make it vague as to whether Taylor-Joy's portrayal of Furiosa somehow overlaps with the portrayal we got from Charlize Theron (who also appears through archive footage in the end credits of this film).

The story begins Edenically in the Green Place, a post-apocalyptic patch of land in Australia as yet unaffected by desertification. A young Furiosa (Browne) is picking peaches with her friend Valkyrie when they spot some strange bikers who have intruded into the Green Place and stolen some meat. Furiosa tries to sneak over and disable their bikes, but she is caught by them and taken to their leader Dementus of the Biker Horde (Chris Hemsworth). Furiosa's mother Mary (Charlee Fraser) gives chase, but she is eventually caught by Dementus, who crucifies her in front of her daughter.

Dementus proves to be clever on a personal level but not much of a leader. He and his Horde eventually run into the Citadel, led by a young Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), already wearing his trademark mask and armor. Dementus at first unsuccessfully tries attacking the Citadel before making a deal with Joe that involves taking over the nearby Gastown and handing over Furiosa, who catches the perverse attention of one of Joe's sons, Rictus Erectus (Nathan Jones, reprising his role from the first movie). Furiosa escapes from Rictus, disguises herself as a boy, and moves up in the ranks until, after several years (and now played by Taylor-Joy), she is on a team that is working on the construction of a War Rig to transport gas and supplies. Furiosa ends up working with one of Joe's top lieutenants, Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), who finds out Furiosa is a girl, and who develops a bond of mutual respect with her. Unfortunately, Dementus ends up capturing Furiosa and Jack, and Jack gets dragged to death while being eaten by wild dogs. Furiosa is hung by her injured arm (which she loses) and is forced to watch Jack's death, just as she'd been forced to watch her mother's crucifixion.

Furiosa's two sources of motivation are (1) to get back to the Green Place and (2) to avenge her mother and Jack by killing Dementus. The rest of the movie is mostly about the latter. We already know the fate of the Green Place from what we saw in "Fury Road."

Visually, "Furiosa" is just as sumptuous-looking as "Fury Road" was, but as many critics complained, the new movie is way more obvious about its use of CGI. Plot-wise, the story feels like one long chase, a bit like the first movie, and the running time of 148 minutes could have been cut down to 120. Another complaint I saw, and would have to agree with, is that the "young Furiosa" prologue, with Alyla Browne as the very young Furiosa, is too long. I'm also not convinced that Chris Hemsworth's Dementus was all that great of a villain. As written, he's an awful leader who can't hold on to the things he captures, and his underlings end up rebelling against him. Dementus therefore survives on luck and the cunning that arises in him during emergencies. Aside from that, his defeat was telegraphed before the movie even began, and that's one of the major problems with making prequels.

All in all, I'd say "Furiosa" was entertaining, and it didn't deserve its status as a bomb. Sure, Chris Hemsworth's latex nose looks fake mainly because we all know what Chris Hemsworth really looks like, but the problems of pacing, prequelitis, and lack of interest in a side character who is decidedly not Mad Max may have been what really dug this movie's grave. I'd recommend "Furiosa" to people looking to pass their time in an interesting way, but they shouldn't expect this movie to be anything like the masterpiece that "Fury Road" was.