After the total lunacy & bonkers imaginative world in Mad Max: Fury Road that sprung from the beautiful & demented mind of George Miller, people were clamouring for the next installment. But the biggest surprise was the incredible newly created character Imperator Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron. Dominating the film, Furiosa was a magnificent character, with shades of Ellen Ripley, Clarice Starling & Sarah Connor, alongside the nuances that Theron added to the mix. So when it was announced that there was to be a prequel, focussing on Furiosa, a lot of people were delighted.
However, this delight turned to anger in some of the fandom when it was announced that Theron would not be returning to the role she made iconic, instead recasting a younger actress. How could, these fans raged, anyone else come close to Charlize's monumental ability & gravitas. Well, Anya Taylor-Joy (along with Alyla Browne as the child Furiosa) answered the call & showed just how incredible they both are in laying the groundwork & developing the character.
Both of them are magnificent. One thing I really liked was that, unlike some films showing the early years of a character, we spend over 40 minutes with Alyla Browne, not a few rushed scenes simply setting the narrative up. In some ways I cannot decide whether I like her or Taylor-Joy more, such is Browne's skill & ability. When Taylor-Joy does take over, the film really kicks into high gear. There is also good work from Tom Burke, as Praetorian Jack, who goes against his orders to help Furiosa to get her revenge. And rounding the craziness off, Chris Hemsworth is Dementus, who kidnaps the young Furiousa & then makes it his mission to rule over the barren & desolate Australian wasteland. Hemsworth really has a ball, chewing scenery for all he's worth, alongside a brutalness which you would expect from a despotic ruler.
But as much as I have talked about the characters, the production values are what made this film for me. Watching it in IMAX with an 11,000 watt sound system, it is BONE SHAKINGLY impactful. Whether it is the scream of the turbocharged engines, or the explosions of the Thundersticks, the sound in this film is unlike anything I have heard for years (only Dunkirk's Spitfire roars come close.) The cinematography & colour palette also sear your eyes, by turns showing you an idyllic, isolated world & a place so inhospitable you would fear spending more than 10 minutes in it.
Alongside all of this, you have the multiple & amazingly staged chases, utilising r-tic lorries, cars & motorbikes to name a few. And every few minutes I kept reminding myself that, although there was obviously post-production CGI in terms of removing wires & polishing the finished footage, everything in front of you was done for real, with the best stunt performers working in films & no digital trickery. In an industry bloated with CGI, it is so rare to have an insistence on everything being done practically. And that is worth it's weight in gold.
And front & center, marshalling this craziness, is George Miller. Despite being nearly 80, he has the energy & mind of a 12 year old, such is the adrenaline that shoots out of the screen at you. Furiosa is a powerhouse of a film, transporting you to a desperate world where the only thing standing between you & death is luck & courage. It is an incredible achievement & I hope that the film's lackluster 1st week box office takings don't mean this is the last we see of the Mad Max world.
Strap in, take a deep breath & enjoy the ride
Whilst Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) is a full on and an unrelentling chase film this prequel is a revenge narrative with a gut load of chase set pieces thrown in for good measure. Director George Miller has really nailed this dystopian wasteland world and he has produced here a worthy new film in the series. It's a bold, exciting action film with swift, bloody violence, awesome cinematography of the Australian desert land and also has a really well scripted story. This tells the story of Furiosa who was played in Fury Road by Charlize Theron and in this backstory of her character there's Alyla Browne as the young Furiosa and Anya Taylor-Joy as the older. The film tells of her abduction from her tribe by the narcissistic and psychopathic Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) the leader of a bike gang, who trades her to another tyrannical leader of grotesques, Immortan Joe (Lacey Hulme) where she rises to become a formidable driver of the 'War Rig' under the tutelage of Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke). But she is all the time plotting her revenge on those who have wronged her especially Dementus. With minimum dialogue and extended action sequences fans of the Mad Max series will love this. You do have to have seen Fury Road to understand the story and whilst there's no Max (if you're careful you'll spot that he does put in a small appearance) you do have Tom Burke whose character is a sort of pseudo Max here. I'm a fan so I absolutely delighted in this. The casting is impressive with Browne and Taylor-Joy uncannily resembling each other and Hemsworth is having a blast playing against type as the chief baddie. The longest Mad Max film to date this is a film to watch on a big screen. It's fantastic stuff, action cinema at its best.
After the astonishing Fury Road, I had high hopes for this film more and it starts well enough with a kick-ass motorbiking mum battling Chris Hemsworth’s motorbiking gang across the desert wasteland to rescue her kidnapped young daughter Furiosa. Then it degenerates into adolescent intertribal bickering, with Chris chewing the scenery as the Great Dementor. More chase/battle sequences interrupt the pantomime plot, with lots of motorbikes crashing as they chase the War Rig (a big truck). Alyla Browne is a real find as the young Furiosa and Tom Burke as an ally brings some much needed character interest later on, otherwise Anya Taylor-Joy as the grown-up Furiosa has nothing to do except look blank while the rest of the cast ham it up, take the money and run. There’s no denying the excellent stunt work and visceral film-making, but it soon becomes repetitive, goes on forever and we’ve seen it all before in Fury Road. The minimalist score doesn’t help either (it’s louder on the enticing trailer). Disappointing.
The Mad Max world is a fascinating one to explore beyond its protagonist. With the many odd factions and strange customs born from the apocalypse, it’s fascinating to get lost within. This is why Furiosa works so well and succeeds at being far more than a side-story prequel. The origins of the badass woman warrior who rebelled against Immortan Joe are more compelling for the environment surrounding her, even though her revenge quest before Joe is a story worth telling. In other words, it’s more of what made Fury Road such an astounding action cinema.
Making the film more distinct from Fury Road is its structure. While Fury Road was one extended and impressive car chase, Furiosa’s tale is more like a fantasy epic, complete with chapters and light narration. She grows from being a curious kid, played by Alyla Browne, to the vicious wasteland warrior, played by Anya Taylor-Joy. Her pathos is established after being kidnapped by the violent cult leader Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), a bearded showman with a surprisingly restrained amount of restraint for a dude who dresses in robes, carries around a teddy bear and rides a chariot powered by motorcycles. As Dementus thirsts for more resources, he tries and fails to force Furiosa to reveal her people’s paradise stronghold. He keeps her around to relive his days as a dad, which is thankfully never given enough weight to make him entirely sympathetic. If anything, his loss serves as a warning sign to how nihilistic Furiosa might become.
Director George Miller doesn’t diminish one bit in amping up the high-octane allure of Furiosa. He expands his scope with more convoy chases of attacks coming from land and air. He takes us into the dangerous territories of Gastown and The Bullet Farm. He lets us in on more of Immortan Joe’s empire that was only glimpsed in Fury Road, taking us from the war room helmed by The People Eater to the corpse-stained tunnels of those who eat people. There’s just enough time spent on this world to appreciate its details when the bullets fly as the tires grind across the dunes.
Those hoping for more intense convoy battles won’t be disappointed in the least, considering the abundance of carnage with heavy body counts. Even though we know Furiosa will survive these encounters, she takes so much damage that it’s enough to make one grip their seat at the violence she encounters. After all, we know she will get that mechanical arm eventually. The action is staged beautifully, where the camera smoothly showcases every car exploding, and everybody brutalized as it tumbles to the zooming sands. The increasing dangers make each one of these sequences a treat for the eyes. I especially dug the anticipation for the Bobby Knocker weapon of Joe’s convoy, employed at just the right moment for extreme carnage.
Special attention should be paid to how Furiosa develops much differently than Max. While the other wasteland hero succumbed to the violence of the land, Furiosa learned to grow something from the chaos. The cynical nature of Dementus directly challenges her, and she must find something more to fight for in the wasteland than herself. Her growth from anti-hero to liberator is a fantastic journey, and it’s told in the engaging style of Miller’s lavish depiction of legends.
Furiosa has all the grit of past Mad Max movies and succeeds at reigniting that post-apocalyptic allure with gritty chases and intoxicating world-building. It succeeds at being more than a prequel trying to connect the dots of a Mad Max character and triumphs over being a meandering wander through more of the wasteland. George Miller hasn’t lost his touch, keeping the Mad Max saga refreshingly bold, brutal, and endlessly creative.