Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga review - "George Miller has done it again with a prequel that finds new ways to surprise"
May. 15, 2024This action franchise set in sun-blasted sandscapes is evergreen. A special place in Valhalla awaits George Miller.
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Fury Road, the fourth instalment in Miller’s franchise (which dates back to 1979’s DIY Ozploitation classic Mad Max), had a lean-machine plot threading its outrageous vehicular mayhem. This fifth outing goes deeper and wider to give us the coming-of-rage origin story of Fury Road’s Furiosa.
The journey includes Furiosa’s revved-up, hatred-fuelled rampage of revenge against Dementus, and takes in Gastown, the Bullet Farm, and the Citadel, three fortresses that rise up amid the dust and dirt of the post-apocalyptic Wasteland.
Taylor-Joy is up to the task, her smaller build highlighted by the army of outsized leather-clad men who make up Dementus’ Congress of Destruction, but selling it with steely silence, fierce eyes, and rageful spirit. Hemsworth, too, is a whole lot of fun, finding just enough depth to keep the vicious villainy the right side of cartoony, despite a vivid streak of camp. The sight of Big D. riding a chariot behind a trio of motorbikes like Ben-Hur making his way to a fetish club is a hoot, while snatches of dialogue are joyously juicy. “Adorable!” he cries upon first seeing Immortan Joe’s horror-show get-up. A taste of Furiosa’s tears, meanwhile, has him declaring, “Sorrow is… zesty.”
The apex of the action is the ‘Stowaway to Nowhere’ sequence that forms the centerpiece of the film. Lasting 15 minutes of screen-time, it took 78 days and hundreds of stunt workers to capture, a gruelling endeavour worth every bead of sweat, every drop of gasoline. In it, the new, improved War Rig (“Bigger, faster, stronger, further!”) is again besieged by all manner of colourful characters wielding outlandish weaponry as they cling to kamikaze vehicles. Miller, at his most inventive, catapults the attackers at the speeding War Rig from every angle (yes, that’s a motorbike dangling from a swooping parachute), and treats long-time MM devotees to several of his signature crash zooms into the clenched faces of drivers.
It’s an astonishing scene, rivalling Fury Road’s Pole Cats sequence as the finest in the series. The car-nage of Mad Max 2, some of the best in action cinema, can’t compete with this. And it’s made more impressive still by Miller’s dedication to accelerating character development as he pumps the nitro: the attacks and counter-attacks establish just how enterprising Furiosa is while cementing her bond of trust with War Rig driver Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke, commanding), who’s a pocket of optimism in a world of fire and bones.
Is Furiosa as magnificent as Fury Road? No, though not because it’s the first Mad Max movie without Max, whose absence barely registers. At 140 minutes minus credits, it’s a touch unwieldy, while its lament for the inevitability of war and the emptiness of revenge feels hollow given the giddy excitement it stirs from just these things. But what can’t be disputed is that Miller, the Mad genius, has done it again, once more refusing to simply repeat himself and instead choosing to kick up dust rather than gather it as he forges a new path through the Wasteland in often spectacular fashion. Oh, what a day. What a lovely day.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is in UK cinemas and US theaters on May 24.
Jamie Graham is the Editor-at-Large of Total Film magazine. You’ll likely find them around these parts reviewing the biggest films on the planet and speaking to some of the biggest stars in the business – that’s just what Jamie does. Jamie has also written for outlets like SFX and the Sunday Times Culture, and appeared on podcasts exploring the wondrous worlds of occult and horror.
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