A review of the action-packed movie “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”
In the beginning, there was “Mad Max” (1979), “Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior” (1981), and “Mad Max Beyond The Thunderdome” (1985) – none of which I’ve seen – and then, an amazing thirty years later, we had “Mad Max: Fury Road” which was simply stunning. In “Fury Road”, Max was aided by the one-armed, feminist freedom fighter Imperator Furiosa, played wonderfully by a shaved-headed Charlize Theron. Now, a lengthy nine years later, we have a fifth film in the franchise which overlooks Max totally and tells the origin story of Furiosa.
As a young adult, this character is portrayed by Anya Taylor-Joy. The role is a real challenge for her: she only appears after a a younger actress plays the warrior as a child, a lot of the time her face is covered or painted, and she only has about 30 lines of dialogue, but she is terrific. Another piece of clever casting is Chris Hemsworth as the cruel, yet comical, Warlord Dementus, leader of the Biker Horde a million miles from his “Thor” persona.
The location shooting – back in Australia, after “Fury Road” in Namibia – is glorious, the zany characters and inventive vehicles are gloriously colourful, and the action is furious and brutal. “Furiosa” does not quite have the drive and drama of “Fury Road”, but it is marvellously entertaining. “Fury Road” was not a massive success at the box office, so director George Miller has done well to win the funding for this prequel. In turn, “Furiosa” has not performed as well as expected, so sadly the franchise may be finished.
Director of all the “Mad Max” movies, Miller is now 79 and, if this is his last work (as well as his longest at two and a half hours), he can retire with dignity.