Warner Bros. Pictures
When George Miller returned to the Mad Max universe for the first time in 30 years with 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, he not only reinvigorated his own franchise but reinvented it. Miller needed the technology of the time to catch up to his vision, the financial resources to make it all happen, and apparently a few Happy Feet entries under his belt before he felt ready for another. Returning to the universe again nine years later, Miller brings us Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga — a Fury Road prequel collapsing under the weight of those prequel duties. Anya Taylor-Joy takes over the title role (Furiosa, that is, not Max) from Charlize Theron and makes a case for being a surprisingly daring actor willing to take difficult risks, but the same cannot, unfortunately, be said of the film.
The film begins with the even younger Furiosa, played by Alyla Browne. She’s kidnapped from the wasteland haven known as the Green, the only place in this russet-stroked landscape that’s, well, green. We can only assume that her kidnapper, Dementus (a full-of-himself Chris Hemsworth), simply enjoys invoking terror upon the locals, which includes but is not limited to torture, abuse, rape – you name it. When Furiosa witnesses Dementus inflict this pain upon her own mother, she swears revenge. When she’s bargained off to the Citadel’s infamous Immortan Joe in exchange for some gasoline dealings, she must escape sexual slavery before she can put her revenge plans in motion.
And motion is something that comes in no short supply. There’s plenty of road warrioring on the Fury Road. Motor vehicle action of all types, from tankers to motorcycles to souped-up cars, is once again the bulk of the film’s kinetic energy. Unlike the previous entry, however, the plot does seem to be separate from the action. In Fury Road, the film’s set-pieces encompass just about the entire plot, creating a two-hour non-stop thrill ride. In Furiosa, it’s much more traditional, following conventional act structure — even going as far as to label chapters in the story. Miller is still a man of few words, storyboards over screenplay, and the comparison to the heydey of silent cinema is obvious. Could you watch Furiosa with the sound off? Probably. But then you’d miss Junkie XL’s revamping of his 2015 score.
And that really seems to be the issue at the heart of the film: so much of it is a retread of the superior previous entry. It’s shackled with being a prequel and everything feels in service of setting up the mechanics of the other film. Remember how much we groaned when Han got the last name Solo, met Chewbacca, met Lando, and commandeered the Millenium Falcon all in the span of his 135-minute origin film? The same thing can be said of Furiosa. Want to know how she lost her arm? (The most mild and obvious of spoiler warnings: how could it have been anything other than a car wreck?) Want to know why she’s got that far-out, blanked, expressionless stare? Or why she’s so hell-bent on saving the white-worn wives of the first film? It’s all here. Luckily, Taylor-Joy is convincing in all of it despite the fact that Furiosa doesn’t age up for an hour. This is no easy task, taking on another actor’s character while making it your own, all with little or no dialogue to help you get there.
When the film does repeat the trappings of Fury Road, it’s often a lesser approximation. The world is still populated with its peculiar inhabitants, or ‘genetic absurdities’ as Hemsworth’s character calls them. All of those weirdos are back, including a quick two-second clip of the fan-favorite guitar guy. The action scenes are still well-choreographed and intense, but often much worse looking. Simon Duggan takes over as cinematographer and the look of the film is reminiscent. Daytime is orange and nighttime is blue and I don’t like either color as much as they seem to.
Miller has, in some form or fashion, been working on the Mad Max saga for roughly 50 years. He took such an exponential leap with Fury Road that it catapulted the franchise to new heights. For damn good reason, it’s considered one of the great films in action cinema. It would be unfair to expect similar bar-raising with this film, but it’s not unfair to expect something new or fresh. Being good because the last one was good is not enough. Fans of Fury Road who go in wanting more of that will be satisfied. Folks wanting more worthwhile world-building or mythology-spouting will have to keep waiting.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has a run time of 2 hours 28 minutes, and is rated R for sequences of strong violence, and grisly images.
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