Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Cinema) 2024

Every once in a while, a movie comes along that I am compelled to watch in cinema instead of waiting for it to come to streaming. FURIOSA, the prequel to 2015’s surprise hit MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (which i absolutely adored) is just such a movie. It was supposed to the tale about Fury Road’s co-protagonist Furiosa; her tragic childhood, her violent upbringing under the cruel thumb of wannabe warlord Dementus, and her eventual rise to the rank of Praetor in the army of Immortan Joe. 

What I expected was an intimate character driven piece showing the rise of a warrior, a journey from frightened little child to a hardened rebel fighter. What I beheld instead was less of a Furiosa focused story and more of a story of the Post Apocalyptic Wasteland as a character; a world building story instead of character story. 

 Simply put, Furiosa as a character came across as rather bland. We do not really get into her head much. Her motivations are simple, straightforward, and she barely talks. Though Anya Taylor Joy is credited with playing the adult version of the character, I found myself more drawn toward Alyla Browne’s portrayal of the character as a child. 

She does some very impressive acting and mostly silent, acting only with body language and facial. By the time Anya takes over, there is not much left to the character than being angry and being badass, though credit where credit is due Anya does a great job at conveying those qualities of Furiosa. 

 The antagonists, with their crazy appearances, quirky personalities and general weirdness, tend to overshadow our titular protagonist, especially Chris Hemsworth’s deliciously unhinged, over the top bombastic manchild, Dementus. It feels like he had a ton of fun with the role. And yet Dementus is not the true star here.

 No, the star is the setting of the Wasteland. The “main characters” in this movie serving as counterpoints to each other conveying different aspects of this post apocalyptic world. Order and chaos, hope and hopelessness, sanity and insanity. There’s even a rather poignant moment at the climax with a delves into the reason behind all the madness we see in the wasteland. The Madness of the Wasteland itself. 

 I would go so far as to call this “Mad Max World Building: The Movie” because that is exactly what the focus seems to be. The focus did not seem to be on the action, which I found to be weaker than its predecessors’. The focus did not seem to be on pacing either as unlike Fury Road’s continuous high adrenaline pace, Furiosa’s was much slower and split into 5 distinct chapters across different time periods. Somehow despite having a reportedly larger budget than Fury Road, Furiosa felt cheaper in terms of the movie’s overall look and feel. 

 For me, I appreciated the world building. This is a fascinating world Director George Miller has crafted and I hope for more movies taking place in this world. Furiosa herself being a tad bland in her own movie mirrors the same complaint I had about Max in Fury Road. And somehow the lower budget feel of everything brought this movie more in line with the classic Mad Max movies, serving as a weird transition between the classic and modern eras of Mad Max. I would call FURIOSA a “must watch” if you are already a fan of the Mad Max franchise. If you aren’t, it is still a decent post apocalyptic tale, though with the various warts I mentioned, and a fun way to pass the time on streaming.