3 out of 5

Directed by: George Miller

While the first trio of Mad Max films can be said to have a linear chronology, one of the reasons the decades later Fury Road could work so well for both new and returning viewers was because the Max-verse was also very open-ended. The movies certainly benefit from viewing in sequence, but the Max of each entry, and the plot of each movie, felt of their own worlds in a non-conflicting manner – the characters and concepts were always proxies for things beyond what was directly happening on screen, handled via a visualist who (working with talented crews) knew how to make that stuff pay off in a cinematic format.

Perhaps one of the reasons for that flexibility, and the capability for such payoffs, is what allowed this Fury Road spinoff to exist in the first place: co-writer / director George Miller and co-writer Nico Lathouris had created an entire backstory for Fury’s Furiosa character, which informed Charlize Theron’s representation of her on screen in the preceding flick. That kind of background work, if we presume some form of it has always been employed, would allow a Max movie – when skillfully structured – to exist on its own terms, focused on themes that are informed by that background, and not weighed down by a necessity to present it all.

Of course, many movies are a balance of these things; I’m just making the case for the unique flavor of the Mad Max movies.

And then with Furiosa, you can see how this formula goes awry: as this is that heretofore unseen backstory. Furthermore, as a prequel, we have a destination in mind, rather limiting the tone – for a Max-verse flick – both coming and going. While the end product still has Miller magic all about it, and satisfies dramatically and on an action front, it’s a more formal beast than the others, and maybe frayed at the edges with some tough casting choices, and an unfortunate sequel-ness to it in some callbacks and bigger-is-better approaches, which were surely affected by the long wait between movies, i.e. remind the folks why it was worth that wait. …Which is also then kinda foiled by how this entry, again, is more reliant on others for context.

To counter expectations, Miller / Lathouris split our Furiosa tale into chapters, calling to mind the storytelling framing of the director’s previous work, Three Thousand Years of Longing, and which is similarly applied here, telling us the story from afar in chronologic sections themed to the hero’s journey. Starting in the green lands of Furiosa’s youth, this set up properly signals a different approach from the non-stop, get-up-and-go immediacy of Fury Road; the next 2.5 hours will track young Furiosa’s (Alyla Browne) loss of family and home at the hands of one of the desert’s opportunistic dwellers, Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and then how she came to the citadel, becoming a praetorian as a young adult (played by a different actress, Anya Taylor-Joy) via the tutelage of fellow praetorian, Jack (Tom Burke).

Quirky characters? Check, including iterations of those we’ve previously known, such as Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme this time around) and his sons, Rictus Erectus and Scrotus. World building? Absolutely – the consistently fractious exchanges between the Citadel, Bullettown, and Gastown help firm up the shape of these consistent Maxverse locales. Wild action? Absolutely, inclusive of stunts that don’t repeat Fury’s, still impress, but also make sense as precursors.

Again, though, this all comes bound in a sort of set frame; there’s an inevitability looming that makes set pieces and stunts feel like set pieces and stunts instead of inspired and organic; the characters have to exist on a weird balance of being totemic – we know them, or know of them! – and also “new” enough for the audience to be intrigued by them and their emotional experiences / evolutions; a struggle for any sequel, admittedly, but more notable here due to reasons I’ve hopefully outlined above regarding the unique vibe of this franchise.

The casting feeds into these same dualities. There are those actors who supercede their presences on screen; we’re not necessarily blessed with that here. This is separate from a good performance, which both Hemsworth and Taylor-Joy absolutely deliver, but the former does the assignment without really embodying the character – which, frankly, just isn’t his style of acting. Miller loves Chris’ blend of charming swagger and threatening recklessness, but even with prosthetics and a slimmed down build, Dementus, as presented, doesn’t feel like he “belongs” in the movie, except conceptually. It’s the balance: you got an Aussie, but also a star to sell the film. Taylor-Joy is definitely capable of providing more immersion, but she’s compared to Alyla Browne, carrying the Furiosa role in the first hour, whose silent menace brings exactly the weight the character should have and which Joy can’t exactly match. Especially when, once unleashed, Joy can’t help doing a Theron impression. Damned if you do, etc., but if you’re keeping count, neither of our top-billed leads are on par with their predecessors in Fury Road, though thankfully there are plenty of Maxverse oddballs in there to add color, and a reliable, if stiff turn from Burke.

Effects-wise, the remarked upon digital qualities of the film nigh wholly work, as George / d.p.___ upcycle the look of Furiosa to be over-real, and there’s plenty of grounding practical stuff. Excepting some overreach in the first citadel scene where there are some truly rare (for a Miller film) hastily edited / sequenced moments with distracting (digital?) camera shakes maybe added to mask transitions or dodgier effects, the visual style of the flick and its action are totally on the level.

All to say:

Furiosa bears several filmic hallmarks, stewed together: of being a crowd pleasing sequel, a passion project, and a fantasist thinkpiece. It’s definitely a Mad Max movie – and a George Miller movie – though of a different breed that requires a lot of qualifiers from a no-name reviewer like m’self.