Nine years have passed since George Miller reached the stratosphere of Valhalla with Mad Max: Fury Road, a film that remains as unique and awe-inspiring now as it did back then. We have not, and most likely will not, see anything quite like it again. If Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is anything to go by, Miller seems quite content with if not resigned to that fact. A prequel focusing on Fury Road’s non-titular protagonist, played so memorably by Charlize Theron, Furiosa shows that Miller is still the cream of the crop when it comes to action-packed storytelling on an epic scale.
Set years before the events of the previous film, a young Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) is kidnapped by members of the Biker Horde, led by the egotistical and violent Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). Dementus adopts Furiosa as his daughter, but gives her up in a trade deal with The Citadel’s leader Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme) who imprisons Furiosa as one of his future wives. Escaping that fate, Furiosa disguises herself as one of Joe’s war jockeys, and over the next fifteen years tries to fight her way home amidst an all-out war for control of the wasteland breaking out around her. All the while, the highly distinctive style and sense of humour remains scorched into every frame, with some daft new character names to boot; Octoboss, Piss Boy, and Scrotus (looking somewhat different from his part in the 2015 video game).
If you go into Furiosa expecting another Fury Road-style juggernaut, you will be disappointed. Make no mistake, the action is stratospheric, with Miller still finding the most inventive, chaotic ways to launch full-blown gas-powered attacks when the opportunity presents itself. But the prequel is altogether slower, investing more in worldbuilding and mythos. In terms of locations and history, this is easily the most expansive Mad Max film we have ever seen. Places only heard in whispers are brought to life, the only frustration being perhaps that you don’t see as much of them as you would like. You can however have too much of a good thing, and this lavish, methodical process comes at the expense of the relentless tirade of skull-splitting action that made Fury Road so distinctive. But Furiosa makes the most of being an altogether different beast.
Such was Theron’s immaculate, vicious performance in the last film that the thought of anybody stepping into her shoes (or her arm brace) seemed incomprehensible. But Taylor-Joy rises to the mantle, as does Sting’s Alyla Browne who delivers a remarkable showing as a young Furiosa. Fury Road’s theme of sacrificing traditional femininity in the name of survival returns, with Taylor-Joy finding a steely balance between a younger Furiosa’s naivete and her distinctive, hardened edge. It is also a performance of impressive restraint, her lack of dialogue befitting a character who can say far more with her actions or a look than she ever can with words. The same cannot be said of Hemsworth’s cocky, charismatic performance as the violent centrepiece villain Dementus, who rides a gloriously daft-looking motorbike chariot and who doses himself with fits of barbaric cruelty amidst his idiosyncratic cunning. Hemsworth loses himself in the role with frightening ease, particularly as the years take their toll and Dementus cuts an increasingly beleaguered, desperate figure.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga seems at once keen to deflect immediate comparisons to its predecessor while apparently relishing the fact that it lives in its shadow. This can make it frustrating at times, almost as if it is holding back in reverence for what came before it. That being said, it still puts almost everything else out there to shame, and Miller is exactly the pair of hands you would want to steer you face-first into an apocalyptic oblivion of this scale and ambition. A dieselpunk feast for the senses that puts as much emphasis on hearts and minds as things that go boom, this is a thrill-ride story to savour.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is out in cinemas now.