Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Review: George Miller returns to the Wasteland in Fury Road prequel

George Miller‘s ability to defy expectations with the Mad Max franchise continues with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

Fury Road was my favorite film of 2015. Furiosa doesn’t quite match those heights. However, Miller finds a way to revere Fury Road while telling a surprisingly different story in Furiosa.

Fury Road was a taut, adrenaline-fueled action film that told a linear story. Furiosa spans multiple years and focuses on the title character’s quest to return home above the action. Character direction in Mad Max films is usually aimless. Providing Furiosa with a physical goal to achieve instills the character with a drive that’s rare in this universe. Miller still delivers excellent action setpieces, but it takes a while to build up to them.

Furiosa begins with Dementus’s men kidnapping Furiosa from Green Place of Many Mothers. Following being kept as a pet of sorts by Dementus, she finds a way to earn employment with Immortan Joe and eventually enacts a plan to return home no matter the obstacle.

The performances in Furiosa match the quality of Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron in Fury Road. Few actors can generate a range of emotions with a stare than Anya Taylor-Joy. She delivers a largely silent performance and can tap into Furiosa’s seething rage at will. Chris Hemsworth is the best villain in the Mad Max franchise, as is Dementus. Hemsworth plays the horde leader who kidnaps Furiosa, who is the source of her fury. The most surprising performance goes to Alyla Browne who plays a younger Furiosa and is probably onscreen more than Taylor-Joy. Through Browne’s portrayal, Furiosa’s ingenuity as an adult comes through. She also can generate plenty of hatred with a look that makes the transition to Taylor-Joy smoother. It took me a minute to realize the switch happened.

Tom Holkenborg‘s booming score continues to be the perfect sonic complement to Miller’s wasteland.

There aren’t too many issues in Furiosa, but enough to prevent the prequel from reaching the heights of Fury Road. There’s an attempt to create a romantic connection of sorts between Furiosa and Praetorian Jack that feels unnecessary. Practical action sequences are great, but the CGI falls short.

Overall, Furiosa is a compelling prequel thanks to the performances, surprising story, pulse-pounding score and inventive action sequences.

With the overview complete, let’s dive deeper into Furiosa’s quest. Fury Road is available to stream on Max.

The Green Place

Furiosa begins in the Green Place of Many Mothers with a young Furiosa enjoying the vegetation and fresh water. Miller and his screenplay co-writer Nico Lathouris immediately establish Furiosa’s intelligence and where she gets her violent disposition from.

Furiosa and her friend find a group of Dementus’s bikers. Furiosa tells her friend to stay silent and hide. Meanwhile, Furiosa cuts the fuel line of one of the bikes. Eventually, one of the bikers sneaks up, and the numbers game is too much. She’s captured and taken. Furiosa’s friend warns her mother.

Furiosa’s tenacity comes from her mother Mary Jo Busser (Charlee Fraser). Dementis tries to warmly encourage Furiosa to give up the location of the Green Place. Furiosa keeps her head throughout the ordeal cutting the fuel lines to leave a trail for her mom. Mary follows the trail to Dementis’s camp, where she momentarily saves Furiosa.

She makes Furiosa promise to return home and goes to face Dementus and his followers alone. Furiosa tries to return to save her, but it is too late. Dementus takes her away.

Miller and Lathouris excel at showing how resourceful Furiosa is while still making it clear that she’s hopeless at this point.

Furiosa vs Dementus

Following her mother’s execution, Dementus takes Furiosa into the group. Furiosa never speaks while in his custody. She mostly stares a hole through Dementus.

Like other obvious names like Rictus Erectus and Scrotus, Dementus is quite demented. His followers are devout. He seems to take a liking to Furiosa. Dementus even offers her a teddy bear to comfort Furiosa right before beginning an initiation where recruits fight to the death.

Their relationship changes after the Biker Horde arrives at Immortan Joe’s domain, The Citadel. Dementus tries to claim Furiosa as his daughter, which Immortan Joe doesn’t buy. Furiosa tells Immortan Joe the truth and Immortan Joe trades goods for fuel.

Hemsworth is incredible. Hemsworth can summon the right level of intelligence depending on who he’s addressing. Dementus uses a Trojan horse strategy when approaching Gastown to breach the gate and outsmart his opposition. Hemsworth can also switch into the overwhelmed, dumb, comedic mode that’s worked wonders for him as Thor. He feels impotent, opposite Immortan Joe.

Controlling the wasteland

One of the improvements over Fury Road is the focus on building out the power players in the wasteland. In Fury Road, Immortan Joe has all of the power. While Immortan Joe’s control over water and vegetation gives him an advantage, other power players are in the region.

Gastown controls all of the oil in the region. Meanwhile, Bullet Farm is a mining facility that produces ammunition and weapons for the area. Currently, there’s a trade agreement between the three parties. However, after Dementus takes control of Gastown, the relationships deteriorate.

Dementus is running Gastown into the ground, and it is clear war is all but inevitable as both Bullet Farm and The Citadel recognize control over oil is vital. They seem interested in working together to usurp Dementus.

This focus on the three strongholds shows what a different film Furiosa is from Fury Road. The latter film is a linear experience with the only slowdown being small character developments. Furiosa takes time to flesh out the world.

Furiosa final thoughts

Miller’s ability to carve out new cinematic life out of a barren wasteland setting continues to be remarkable. In Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, he crafts a story featuring a rich world, a memorable villain, and an intelligent heroine who makes herself unforgettable.

Imoten Joe and Dementus recognize something different in Furiosa from the moment she steps before them. The same can be said for the movie itself. There’s just nothing quite like Miller’s vision of a post-apocalyptic world.