If you consider yourself at all a believer in how movies can be art, you'll remember where you were when the unparalleled cinematic masterpiece Mad Max: Fury Road hurtled its way into theaters in 2015. With kinetic action and gorgeous visuals, it was a modern epic that rips the air right from your lungs. Revisiting it, one can only remain in awe of how amazing it looks and feels. It's a film that still has the power to punch you right in the chest just as it did the first time, demanding its pound of flesh and then some.
Nearly a decade later comes Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. It's a prequel that could not be more different in pacing and scope, serving as a fascinating accompaniment to Fury Road while still standing on its own. Questions over which is better will certainly rage through the wasteland, with it being hard to say this new entry surpasses its predecessor, but that is a less interesting discussion to have than how they work together. Furiosa is a film that compliments everything Miller was doing in Fury Road, deepening our relationship to the character and adding texture to the desolate world he has now spent decades building. Spanning years as we follow the iconic Furiosa from her abduction to finding a way to survive a constantly perilous existence so that she can escape back home, it's about her life at the end of the world.
Previously played with a perfect sense of poise and pain by Charlize Theron, we now see Furiosa in her younger years. Split into various parts, she is first played by relative newcomer Alyla Browne, then by Anya Taylor-Joy. While each has big shoes to fill, they more than rise to the occasion. Browne embodies a youthful bravery that is soon broken into pieces as Furiosa endures immense loss and suffering. By the time Taylor-Joy takes over, she has built walls between herself and the rest of the cruel world that surrounds her. She speaks very little, often surveying scenes with a necessary wariness and caution. This isn't a problem as Taylor-Joy is a uniquely expressive actor, embodying everything from sadness to eventual rage and determination with just her eyes saying more than anything else. While nobody could ever replace Theron, it's smart casting and the best performance Taylor-Joy has given to date.
There are some other great performances, including a delightfully chaotic one from Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, who shakes off the Marvel malaise with aplomb to play the new antagonist Dr. Dementus.
That said, this is all Miller's show. Compared to his previous film before this, the often interesting though ultimately lackluster Three Thousand Years of Longing, Furiosa is a truly spectacular return to form. All these years later, he hasn't missed a step. From a tense early chase sequence on motorcycles through the desert to a thrilling battle on the road that launches into the sky, all the action remains impeccably constructed.
It's just about as exciting as Fury Road with distinct emotional heft, drawing out unexpected moments of poignancy as we see Furiosa navigate the constantly-shifting hellscape she has been dragged into. She also forms a passionate connection with a fellow road warrior in Praetorian Jack (played by the always terrific Tom Burke of The Souvenir), which gives the film a beating, bloody heart. Even with some iffy effects, their relationship and the film itself crackles with such electricity that it still bowls you over.
However, the driving force is deeply personal for Furiosa, as she desperately wants to return to the small remaining sliver of utopia left in the world — The Green Place. That may be her only salvation.
Furiosa is a film about someone willing to do whatever they need to survive to fight another day, forging a new identity in the gates of hell and paying dearly for it. As this all unfolds, it becomes a magnificent tapestry of violence and redemption that — while incomplete until seeing Fury Road again (which you'll want to anyway right after) — is still absolutely brilliant to behold. To paraphrase one of the closing lines, Miller more than has it in him to make it epic. What a glorious film and character Furiosa is to witness. ♦
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
