Time: 148 Minutes
Age Rating: R16 – Violence, cruelty & content that may disturb
Cast:
Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa
Alyla Browne as young Furiosa
Chris Hemsworth as Dementus
Tom Burke as Praetorian Jack
Director: George Miller

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga of my most anticipated movies of the year. A follow up to Mad Max: Fury Road has been in development for years, at first it was going to be Mad Max: The Wasteland, and then it ended up being a prequel to Charlize Theron’s character Furiosa. Finally its here, and with the casting of Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke, as well as Anya Taylor-Joy as the younger Furiosa, and of course George Miller returning to direct, I was excited. Furiosa absolutely delivered.

Something worth knowing going in is that Furiosa is a very different movie from Fury Road. Right off the bat, you can tell that Furiosa is operating on a different wavelength. First of all the pacing is very controlled and steady, lacking the adrenaline rush intensity of Fury Road. Furiosa really takes its time building up its revenge story, as well as establishing and developing the characters and expanding on the world. While Furiosa is definitely a prequel, the movie is almost framed like a myth or a biblical tale, it is even separated into chapters. Before its release, I might have complained about the movie’s unnecessarily long title, but in all fairness, Furiosa really is a Saga and you feel it by the end. As expected, there is also a lot of worldbuilding. While Fury Road definitely had a lot of it (generally through visual storytelling), Furiosa definitely leans into it more. It gives a lot more about the world and characters from Fury Road, including Immortan Joe and his group. While it is steadily paced, the action is applied quite well in the narrative and used very well. There will be some debate as to which movie is better, but for what its worth, Furiosa does add even further depth, emotion and weight to Fury Road, as that movie now essentially serves as the third act of Furiosa’s story.

The acting is great all round. Charlize Theron made Furiosa an immediate action icon, so having her role played by someone else would be daunting, but they definitely pulled it off. Anya Taylor-Joy gives one of her best performances as the title character, adding more dimensions to the character. She has limited dialogue, but conveys so much through facial expressions, adding depth and vulnerability, and channelling so much pain, anger and intensity. A lot of praise should also go to Alyla Browne who portrays the child version of Furiosa. For the first hour, it is Browne who has to essentially lead the movie, and she does an excellent job. Chris Hemsworth plays the main villain Dementus and gives possibly his best performance yet. He is very charismatic, larger than life and hammy with a lot of manic mannerisms, but also very menacing and conveys a lot of emotional depth. The rest of the cast are good too, particularly Tom Burke and Charlee Fraser who deliver some great supporting work in their parts.

Visionary George Miller is back, and once again has made something truly epic and beautiful. The world is so well realised here, everything is on such a massive scale and it is easily the grandest of the Mad Max films. The visuals are stunning and colourful, if anything they are more reminiscent of Miller’s last movie, Three Thousand Years of Longing, than Fury Road. The action as expected is absolutely spectacular, Miller has not lost a step between Fury Road and this. The set pieces are visceral, impressive and outstanding, with a lot of practical stunts and an intense and unhinged energy. The rest of the production team also delivered, the sound design, costume/hair and makeup were top notch. Junkie XL returns to compose the score, and while it is very reminiscent of Fury Road (unsurprisingly), it nonetheless adds a lot to the movie, especially the action scenes.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is an epic, excellent and expansive prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road that’s very different, while adding so much to it. Outstandingly directed with stunning visuals, stellar action, and amazing performances (especially from Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth), it’s one of my favourite films of the year. I won’t go into the debates about whether this or Fury Road is better. But once again, Furiosa makes Fury Road even better than it already was, which is saying a lot.