Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Review

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a prequel to the epic events of Mad Max: Fury Road. I went into the theatre with some trepidation considering how average the CGI looked in the movie's trailers. Well, rest assured that it does not look bad on the big screen whatsoever.

George Miller had initially planned for Furiosa and the 2015 Mad Max film to be shot in succession as one continuous story. Unfortunately, there were a lot of background delays involved in filming Fury Road that made this vision unsustainable. Fortunately, Charlize Theron's Imperator Furiosa was an amazing character who deservedly needed her own story fleshed out, and we are very glad it came to fruition - better late than never!

A couple of decades before the events of Max Max: Fury Road, a young girl called Furiosa (Alyla Browne) is kidnapped from the Green Place by the minions of weirdly verbose warlord Dr Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). Dementus' political schemings cause Furiosa to end up at the Citadel - yes, the same one from Fury Road.

And here we get reintroduced to the adult Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy), who overcomes countless setbacks to get recognition from Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke). Honing her skills up further in order to return to the Green Place where she came from, Furiosa frustratingly finds out the hard way that even the best laid plans can go awry remarkably quickly in the Wastelands.

I'll get to the point straight away: while Furiosa is not quite at the level of Fury Road, it is still the most fun yours truly has had this year, closely edging out Dune: Part Two. Fury Road has a cult following among action movie fans, quite deservedly so, and the prequel manages to evoke almost the same sense of vicious urgency that drove the 2015 movie. Of course, this may seem like an unfair comparison considering that Furiosa is not a chase movie like Fury Road - it is a poignant reminder about the ultimate futility of revenge.

The film is cleverly divided into five acts, each of which is about a specific period in Furiosa's life. The Pole Of Inaccessibility (a geographical term used to denote the farthest and most difficult to access location in a given landmass, sea, or topographical feature) is a stark reminder to fans of the series of the cruelty and hopelessness of the Wastelands. It is followed by Lessons From The Wasteland, where Furiosa goes from being a child to a teen watching the brutality of Dementus' reign. The Stowaway sets her on a path towards being an adult and the battle-hardened survivor we see in Fury Road - as she actively learns to navigate the ways of Wasteland from Praetorian Jack. Homeward is where Furiosa becomes a Praetorian herself, forged by the pain she had to endure and is tormented by. Finally, Beyond Vengeance is where Furiosa becomes the "fifth rider of the apocalypse" - paying Dementus back for everything he inflicted on her, her mother and her inamorato. It is also the act that sets the tone for the events to follow in Fury Road.

Anya Taylor-Joy has big boots to fill, considering how Charlize Theron's portrayal of Furiosa is so iconic. She does live up to it, for the most part, but she does feel overwhelmed in a few parts - especially towards the end when she is the sole focus of attention. I was immediately struck by how much more commanding she appeared when the very next scene was a conversation with Chris Hemsworth's character - she seems very much more in control when she has someone to play off of.

Chris Hemsworth nails the comedic aspect of Dementus' character, but seems a bit lacking when it comes to looking menacing. Dementus as a character should have been as intimidating as Immortan Joe considering his actions and the fact that they were rivals - but he seems more whimsical than terrifying. He still makes the audience cackle the most, credit where it's due. And Tom Burke is fantastic as the one person who believes in Furiosa and gives her a chance, being patient and understanding and generally a stand-up guy.

The real stand-out performance, though, comes from Alyla Browne. Not only is she a dead ringer for Taylor-Joy, she also manages to portray both the traumatic loss of the innocence of a young girl and the steely determination that follows said kidnapping. Seldom do we come across a movie where the transition of a character's portrayal by a child actor and an adult actor seems so effortless - but we legitimately feel that nobody would bat an eyelid if Browne continued the whole movie as Furiosa.

Tom Holkenborg's score is top-notch, and the music really elevates the spectacle. Speaking of spectacle, cinematographer Simon Duggan's camera weaves in sweeping wide shots of the desert alongside close-ups of characters giving us an equal insight into both the scope of the Wastelands and the raw emotions of its characters. George Miller's wife Margaret Sixel helped realise his vision with some crisp editing alongside Eliot Knapman - managing to keep the viewers' eyes glued to the screen despite its almost two-and-a-half-hour running time.

Dr. Dementus' query to Furiosa, "The question is, do you have it in you to make it epic?" is perhaps the mantra by which George Miller goes about the Mad Max series of films. Furiosa is a well-crafted work of art that definitely should be seen in all its glory in theatres. Even though it is not quite at the level of Fury Road, it is still a damn good watch. Go for it!