Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga review

To borrow a quote from Rictus, George Miller has crafted a prequel that’s “nearly perfect in every way” and expands the terrifying depth of Furiosa’s character.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Directed by George Miller
Starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Alyla Browne

Runtime: 2 hours, 28 minutes

Synopsis

Kidnapped at an early age, Furiosa (portrayed by Taylor-Joy & Browne) is forced to stay with her captor, Dementus (Hemsworth), until the right opportunity to escape arises. As Furiosa grows stronger and learns the ways of the wasteland, can she survive the Fury Road long enough to make it back home?

**Content warning: womanhood / bodily autonomy**

Can You Explain it to Me Like I’ve Never Watched Fury Road?

Sometimes, sequels or prequels set out to “fix things” that didn’t need correction or try to address plot points that the majority of fans weren’t losing sleep over. If I invoke the name of Star Wars, I know I’m going to get an earful in the comments, but even that rabid fanbase would agree that the “galaxy far, far away” is rife with this issue: it can explain way too much or too little, or make some baffling decisions that split the fanbase down the middle.

To be clear, it’s not that sequels or prequels can’t do this well. Aliens (1986) may be one of the best examples of this: within the confines of questions left open from Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), James Cameron developed his own ideas without straying so wildly that the resulting product felt off. However, to be fair to Cameron and George Lucas (creator of Star Wars and director of multiple installments), this is a fine balance to walk.

Luckily for George Miller, he set himself up well before Fury Road (2015) ever started filming by developing backstory guides for the major characters, Furiosa especially. He had pitched it as a connected movie to Fury Road from the very beginning, though Warner Bros was less keen on green-lighting a two-movie project. So, Charlize Theron had this Furiosa guide to help in her characterization and approach to her role, and Miller would eventually expand that guide into what we’re witnessing with this prequel.

Furiosa is portrayed by Alyla Browne – who worked with Miller on Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022) – as her younger self, which takes up roughly a third of the runtime before Taylor-Joy takes over by playing the last years of her childhood and early adulthood. There were a few overblown reports about how limited Furiosa’s dialogue is, but when you understand the context, it makes complete sense. She’s a child trying to avoid giving sensitive information to diabolical warlords; she’s probably not going to be super chatty until she finds someone she can trust. Together, Browne and Taylor do a great job in the aggregate but don’t hold a candle to Theron’s overall performance in Fury Road. There’s no individual scene that hits as hard as Furiosa’s scream / lament after learning that the Green Space soured and died many years ago, but the beginning of her ferocity and intensity are definitely seeded well, making her younger selves convincing.

The result, for the most part, is tonally consistent with her Fury Road character. We understood in the first movie that protecting the Green Space or any place in the wasteland that represents peace was a dangerous proposition that required diligence, and potentially sacrifice, to maintain. Furiosa continues that thread, giving us two factions to keep an eye on that could ruin or corrupt what they built, giving Furiosa her first great challenge after she’s captured: Do I have enough skills to survive on my own? Is it worth going home if it gets everyone I love killed in the process?

This dynamic echoes a central theme among the great action heroines of the past, like Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) from the Alien and Terminator franchises, respectively. In Alien, Ripley wants to desperately escape the xenomorph but also intrinsically understands the danger if it gets to Earth. While the theme of motherhood is especially strong in the sequel Aliens as she forms a surrogate bond with Newt (Rebecca Jordan), there was always a theme of humanity’s protection by motherhood woven into Ripley due to her diligence and self-sacrifice. Sarah Connor experiences this in the form of actual motherhood – giving birth to John Connor, who will eventually save humanity – but first has to learn to protect herself in The Terminator (1984) and decides to make her own destiny by eliminating Skynet altogether in Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1992).

Some may bristle at the inclusion or focus on motherhood in these two classics, but neither is saying that motherhood is the only way save to humanity, as these heroines are joined by different characters that represent different gender identities and approaches to humanity. And even our classic heroines have shifted over time, as Sarah Connor most notably becomes more of a shepherd in Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) as a new generation of women are charged to protect humanity in various roles. It’s here that Furiosa’s addition to the ranks of action heroines pushes this idea further, as she shepherds both the fate of the Green Place and the women in her charge, exacting terrible retribution when needed to ensure their safety, and is less focused on her individual relationship with motherhood as Ripley and Connor.

Control Over Bodies

**Content warning: womanhood / bodily autonomy**

Fury Road touches on the state of womanhood in the wasteland, specifically with how hardened Furiosa acts and exists in comparison to Immorten Joe’s “wives” who are protected from the harshness of the desert but lose all autonomy and agency, being forced to produce heirs or cease being useful to him and his gang.

In the prequel, we see this theme expanded in subtle and overt ways that will make rewatches of Fury Road hit harder. Women are traded around like cattle, rated by their exposure and genetic defects to the wasteland, and we see that warlords are desperate to find women who may aid them in restarting a new society. Furiosa nearly succumbs to this fate but is able to escape due to her cunning and training from her mother. That fate doesn’t happen for everyone else, as many wives of Immorten Joe are likely killed as they are unable to produce healthy offspring for him. Considering Joe’s actions in both films, his arc plays out like the infamous English King Henry VIII, marrying and divorcing wives to figure out which one will produce him an heir, not realizing that he’s the problem.

Sure, King Henry didn’t understand genetics, but after 6 wives, you think he would have connected the dots. With Immorten Joe, it’s clear the men understand that their exposure to the wasteland has likely altered their DNA, but they are still marching nevertheless forward, hoping beyond reason and logic that the next time will work, raping and destroying countless bodies of women in their wake. The prequel doesn’t graphically show this lineage of destruction to be clear, but the implication is very clear: women aren’t causing the genetic defects, but they will be punished for them.

Under this backdrop, the Many Mothers’ focus on protecting the Green Space takes on an even greater importance. They aren’t simply trying to preserve a lush environment, they are also by extension, literally protecting a lineage of women and their genetic legacy / history from being corrupted for a cruel and evil purpose. While the younger version of Furiosa doesn’t understand this completely, her older versions here and in Fury Road clearly demonstrate that she understands the stakes involved.

Hemsworth’s Dementus

Chris Hemsworth’s portrayal of rival warlord Dementus doesn’t steal the show necessarily, but he’s easily earned himself a high ranking among the various Mad Max villains over the past decades. While he reportedly had a difficult time at first engaging with this character, his ability to ham it up and give his whole energy and body to this role really showed up on screen. Hemsworth borders and flirts with being too hammy, but the script has his character removed for certain sections and arcs, which likely kept his portrayal fresh rather than becoming goofy to watch. The decision to break this film into segments was an odd one that I’m not sure entirely worked, but it did keep Dementus from becoming too much and allowed us a better look at how Immorten Joe’s operation started and see how far-reaching it was.

The Fury Road

No Mad Max film would be complete without amazing stunt work, and Furiosa doesn’t disappoint. Fury Road had 3 distinct chases: when Furiosa first leaves the Citadel, when they are chased by Immorten Joe / deliver the gas, and when they return to the Citadel. Each of these sequences were usually long, complex moving set pieces with varying stages and escalating moments of action. Furiosa has smaller moments interspersed between the film, which may be the reason they don’t stand out the same way for me, but they are nonetheless impressive in their own right. Furiosa’s first escape attempt from Immorten Joe features some amazing aerial combat / stunt work, along with some unbroken camera shots that will likely be talked about come award season. Furiosa’s mom, Mary (portrayed by Charlee Fraser), gets quite a great sequence in the early segment as she hunts down Furiosa’s captors, requiring a great deal of motorcycle work and helps set the tone for chases later in the film. Unfortunately, the other set pieces are mired from poor narrative decisions that rob some of their energy, like the 40 Day War, which barely shows any fights between Immorten and Dementus’ gangs and grinds the action to a halt. Had Miller found a way to incorporate another sequence into this final act, it likely would have elevated the final segment. As it stands, it sends Furiosa off with an action-less whimper, even though in the final minute, we know Furiosa’s kick-starting the events of Fury Road.

Conclusion / Recommendation

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga works well as a companion piece to Furiosa’s story and while certain elements may fall just short of the excellence we received in Fury Road, that difference is incredibly small. While it will rank high within the Mad Max universe, a change here or there and we might have talked about this one in the same breath as iconic action films of the past.

This film was designed for the biggest screen possible so don’t short change your experience by waiting until it’s streaming on Max, go see it in IMAX or the biggest format available in your area.

Score: 9 out of 10

• The Cinematography of the Wasteland- 9
  • Miller continues to showcase why he’s one of the best action directors of all time, with stunts employing high degrees of difficulty and stellar camera work, using unbroken shots that for great immersion.
• Furiosa and Dementus- 9
  • While neither character runs away with their performances by Browne, Taylor-Joy, or Hemsworth, the aggregate is a solid hero vs. villain dynamic that we can thoroughly enjoy.
• The Overarching Story- 9
  • Creating a bookend for a newly-minted, iconic action character can be extremely difficult, but Furiosa finds a way to thread that needle well.

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