I’ve been excited but apprehensive for this movie. Fury Road is such an incredible film, and Furiosa is an amazing character. The trailer for this prequel looked pretty cool, and I like both Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, but I wasn’t sure if it could live up to the brilliant film that preceded it.
As a child, Furiosa is stolen from her home in the Green Place and taken across the Wasteland, where she’s held captive by the unhinged warlord Dementus. He and his gang are amazed by her health and vitality in a world full of “half-lives,” but she refuses to reveal the location of her home of abundance. When Dementus barters her to Immortan Joe, Furiosa does whatever she needs to survive, all the while dreaming of escaping back to the Green Place.
I really liked this movie. I haven’t seen any of the pre-Fury Road films in the franchise, but I love this world. It’s a series where the ensemble is just so important. In what’s maybe a weird analogy, it’s like a Broadway show where the dancing is on another level (looking at you, Newsies!) The main characters are all strong, but the minor characters and nameless extras add so much. I love any and all War Boy content, and we get plenty of epic fights against the war rig. I like the History Man who serves Dementus, defining words for him and holding onto the last remnants of knowledge from before the apocalypse, and I really like Smeg, who acts out Dementus’ speeches for him.
Unsurprisingly, the design is fantastic. The action is cool and hard-hitting, and the world-building is both overt and understated at once—everything we see onscreen is very obviously intentional, but not much is explained, leaving us to simply let this world and its characters wash over us.
The only place the film really falls flat for me is as a prequel to Fury Road. And again, I haven’t seen any other Mad Max films, so maybe I have no room to gripe. But I love Fury Road so much. I remember sitting on the edge of my seat in the theater, crying in the third act, and feeling invincible when I stepped outside afterwards. Fury Road is high-octane and brutal and brilliant. To me, Furiosa has a lot of the right pieces, but they don’t come together in the same gut punch for me. I think much of the disconnect is probably due to the Wives. I like the very specific focus and mission of Fury Road, and I like the rise and fall of hope as Furiosa, Max, and Nux fight to give these women the lives that have been taken from them. Furiosa’s story isn’t as tight, and I don’t feel it has as much to say. Which isn’t to say it’s just mindless entertainment—there are definitely hard-hitting scenes, and the final confrontation between Furiosa and Dementus is a thing of beauty. But more than anything, this time around, I left the theater wanting to watch Fury Road again.
Before this film came out, I wouldn’t have thought to cast Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa, but she turns in a strong performance, channeling Charlize Theron’s excellent work without feeling like just an imitation. Chris Hemsworth is wild and kind of fascinating as Dementus—it’s a performance I haven’t seen from him before, and I really like what he does here. Tom Burke also does a really nice job as Praetorian Jack, who drives the war rig, and I feel like this film gives us a little more of Immortan Joe, played here by Lachy Hulme. Finally, big shoutout to Charlee Fraser, who plays Mary, Furiosa’s absolute badass of a mom.
Warnings
Copious violence (included references to sexual violence,) gore, disturbing images, language, strong thematic elements, and disabled characters played by nondisabled actors.
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