FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA– 2 STARS

With hot rod heat, unmuffled growls from a herd of stripped-down engines, and zero doubts, George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road roused the movie world nine years ago like few films of this young century. The inclusion of the A-list talent of Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron and daring technical prowess for practical stunt work stoked life back into Miller’s dormant franchise after years of development hell. The excessive praise, fanboy excitement, box office earnings, trophies, and hyperbole that followed were out of this world. Many folks (though not this writer) have been parched for nearly a decade, longing for more. Satiation finally arrives with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. 

This new sequel promised the origin story of Mad Max: Fury Road’s scene-stealing and far-and-away best character. The enigmatic starlet Anya Taylor-Joy of The Queen’s Gambit walks into Charlize Theron’s past and shadow to take viewers into the campfire tale history that would forge cinema’s toughest broad this side of Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor. Fill up the gas tank and toss us the keys to the multiplex, right? Not so fast. Pump the brakes and skid across the sand to a stop.

Want to know how to cool Mad Max’s steaming radiator cauldron boiling a vile apocalyptic landscape? Want to know how to render the many roaring engines present down to a ho-hum hum? Want to marginalize off-the-charts production design, costume work, and makeup flamboyance from previous Oscar winners Colin Gibson, Jenny Beavan, and Lesley Vanderwalt? Want to know how to water down stakes and drama? Want to know how to sap a dynamically strong character’s aura and taint their quest with thrill-killing predictability? The answer is embarrassingly damning and simple at the same time. 

Waste all that substantial effort in a prequel.

LESSON #1: THE CURSE OF PREQUELS– No matter how much “but it’s about the journey, not the destination” hand-wringing and brow-furrowing a diehard fan wants to express for this determination, the been-there-done-that burnout for prequels is real. For the most part across other properties, they have done more harm than good. Movies are always better with unknown destinations and non-regurgitated familiarity. While there is interesting lore possible to mine, too much of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a forgone conclusion. Have the courage to put this movie first where Mad Max: Fury Road becomes the tipping point middle chapter of a trilogy rather than the misshapen film that needed a prequel like this to unknot its own convolution.  

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga opens in the idyllic “Green Place” of abundance where the all-female Vuvalini clan live in tucked-away tranquility amid the arid desert and societal decay that dominate the countryside beyond their natural borders. When a pre-teen Furiosa (Alyla Browne of the recent Sting) is captured trying to sabotage the motorcycles of three unwanted scavengers who have discovered her oasis’s protected agricultural riches, her mother Mary Jo Bassa (Anyone But You model Charlee Fraser) gives chase with the goal of rescuing her daughter and preventing information about the “Green Place” from reaching outside parties.

Furiosa’s captors are part of the Biker Horde controlled by Dementus, played by Marvel icon Chris Hemsworth. A bulbous nose, wild long hair, a chained old teddy bear, and a makeshift parachute cape of self-appointed regality adorn Hemsworth’s muscled physique to form a brutal and narcissistic leader. Despite Furiosa’s selective muteness, Dementus senses and safeguards her potential, making her one of his inner circle slaves. 

When Dementus’s conquering ambitions bring him to the high cliff doorstep of The Citadel and pit him against the Immortan Joe (Lachy Hume, replacing the late Hugh Keays-Bryne) and his legions of devout Warboys, the two leaders broker a merger where Furiosa is part of the deal. Immortan Joe adds her to the collection of untainted women he grooms to be his wives. When young Furiosa rebels and jumps ship from that awful fate, she hides herself androgynously as one of the gate workers in The Citadel for years. Now grown and played by Anya Taylor-Joy, Furiosa has climbed the ranks to be on the mechanic construction team of Immortan Joe’s next war rig working with top driver Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke, seen briefly in Mank after a hearty career in British television).

LESSON #2: THE WILL TO RETURN HOME– At each location and post of Furiosa’s captivity, she has sought to plan an escape and bolt across the desert back to her original people. In addition, part of her mother’s dying wish was to plant a single peach pit seed– Furiosa’s only remaining possession and proof of her home. The traditional Mad Max struggle of scavenging for resources takes a backseat in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Furiosa finds an understanding and supportive confidante in that crusade in Praetorian Jack at a point where the tenuous alliance between Immortan Joe and Dementus to control Gastown and the Bullet Farm is breaking and heading for a showdown.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga lives up to the final word of its title. Divided into five specific chapters spanning nearly two-and-a-half hours, the years-long campaign to flesh out the rise of the title figure counts as a boost of character compared to the singular exodus route of Mad Max: Fury Road. Granted, this isn’t a perfect place where actions speak louder than words. More of the reverse would have gone a long way to better bolster the swell of this future leader. When the tally comes out, Anya Taylor-Joy might have as few lines of dialogue as the pitiful 63 Tom Hardy had resurrecting Max Rockatansky in 2015. While Anya has always had undeniable screen presence staring holes in cinematographer’s lenses and her co-stars, she could have been given more to cement her dominance. 

Between the two co-stars Furiosa shares the most figurative quality time with, only one shines, and it’s unfortunately the smaller of the two roles. Tom Burke’s Praetorian Jack is an invigorating presence of stoicism this movie sorely needed. The accelerator is pushed when his guidance arrives. Somewhere, there’s a tighter version of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga that skips the kid years, broadens his involvement, and centers itself right in their intriguing and solid relationship built on grizzled camaraderie and survivalist empathy over any suggestions of a forced love interest.

The other co-star is the popular and beefcake fellow headliner to Anya Taylor-Joy. For a while, it’s a treat to see Chris Hemsworth bend his charisma to a villainous role after Spiderhead scratched the surface of that capacity in his range two years ago. As unhinged as Hemsworth tries with the extra latitude to smear his dreamboat image, his heavy heel is an unscary one, especially when compared to current and future Immortan Joe looming across the Wasteland battlelines. Dementus is closer to Kenneth Branagh’s Dr. Arliss Loveless in Wild Wild West than anything truly imposing. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga needed Hemsworth to be frightening and deplorable and he doesn’t fully get there to rattle the cages of drama. 

Nevertheless, all the possible punch of this limited tension still falters due to its very nature, again, as a borderline unnecessary and bloated prequel. The shock level of the self-appointed “purposeful savagery” of this film is low. If you can shuck this label and its encumbrances, you’re a better man than me. What will likely help is another summer blockbuster’s worth of the signature vehicular mayhem– overseen by the three hats of the returning mad genius Guy Norris (second unit director, action designer, and supervising stunt coordinator) and set to the pounding score of Junkie XL’s Tom Holkenborg (Zach Snyder’s Justice League). It’s the goods and bread-and-better which have redefined this brawny and steely franchise.

LESSON #3: COME FOR THE SPECTACLE– Indeed, the harrowing action sequences– and the craft to create them– are second to none and more than worth the price of admission at the tallest, widest, brightest, and loudest movie theater you can find to watch Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. In particular, the first fuel run gauntlet of Praetorian Jack at the wheel of the gleaming stainless steel and semi-length war rig is as good as anything from Mad Max: Fury Road. That high octane battle and ample proportion of others are the surges that bring you to the edge of your seat, making action vehicle coordinator Lauren Wolf and stunt coordinator Jim Wong the behind-the-scenes superstars of the whole movie.

Regrettably, to reach the next epic pantheon fitting of the emotional gravity for the “saga” title, Furiosa required more than jaw-dropping stunts and their high attention to kinetic detail. Straight-line speed such as this can be impressive, but it’s the perilous swerves that kick up the real dust, multiply the risks, and amplify the bigger suspense. The Joy-to-Theron arc has a tangible level of myth and mystery and a high value of importance for a very worthwhile character, albeit it is limited here by having a telegraphed journey towards an inevitable destination.