Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga review: The unexpected, exhilarating road to Fury Road

By and large, I’m not a fan of prequels. I prefer to relegate my “what ifs” to daydreams about the cinematic characters of note that live rent-free in my noggin. That’s because most often what is formally presented in official prequels comes across like a reverse-engineered writing exercise. Do I need a whole film to tell me where Han Solo’s dice came from? Or, from whence the first xenomorph unfurled? Or why Cruella, the Dalmatian killer, started down that path? That’s a big nope across the board, especially these days when prequels are inclined to be the ideal setting for corporate IP miners. It takes an extra special prequel to shake my cynicism, films like David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, or Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. They both rank for me because, for the most part, they’re busy doing their own thing until they need to touch the original work. So when I found out that George Miller wrote the screenplay for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga before Mad Max: Fury Road, that had promise—it was more like an original screenplay with a faux-prequel patina.

But could Miller make it feel that way?

The answer is yes. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga officially enters my tightly regulated library of highly regarded prequels because Miller is entirely interested in building up an inner life and history for Furiosa that can exist without Fury Road and still be a damn fine movie. And then Miller executes the pinnacle prequel trick of turning the relationships, connections, and losses collected in Furiosa into subtext that makes the already sublime Fury Road even better.

Furiosa’s story is told in five chapters, opening when we meet her as a child (Alyla Browne) living within the hidden, idyllic community of the Green Place of Many Mothers, then through 15 years of her life, ending in her mid-twenties when she’s become the Imperator Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) within a much younger Immortan Joe’s (Lachy Hulme) Citadel.

The first two chapters take their time coming to a simmer, with Miller and Nico Lathouris’ script primarily concerned with establishing why Furiosa is such a stubborn and loyal child even when separated from her beloved steely mother (Charlee Fraser), sister, and community. In parallel, she (and we) observes the ascendance of her captor, the Wasteland warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). A flamboyant Jesus figure of the desert, he ostentatiously prowls the land in a gladiatorial three-bike chariot, as described by his pet History Man (George Shevtsov). Grandiose and overly confident, Dementus is an insatiable predator who weaves in and out of Furiosa’s life. He fancies that Furiosa might be a rare, intelligent kindred spirit, one that he tries to unsuccessfully tame before she moves onto her next captor.

While Dementus is almost cartoonish upon our first meeting of him, in Hemsworth’s hands, he deftly shifts between blowhard buffoon and terrifying monster without ever dipping into the kind of camp that would undermine the character’s power. His motivations and cruelties are his own until he chooses to share them, which makes him a formidable presence in a film already teeming with characters writ large.

It takes until chapter three, when Furiosa is taken along for the inaugural run of a massive, fortified Citadel provisions truck she helped build, for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga to explode past its simmer and hit a rolling boil. It’s the first time Miller stages an extravaganza of stunts, choreography, and explosions like he executed in Fury Road. And it’s just as glorious to witness, as Miller’s gift for action hasn’t waned. But here it’s got a particular purpose in revealing Furiosa’s years-long, honed skills as an unflappable mechanic, problem-solver, acrobat, and driver. Her actions during the raid earns the respect of Immortan Joe’s trusted convoy driver, Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) and forges a bond between the two.

Jack and Furiosa’s relationship is what elevates Furiosa into special territory. To a degree, Furiosa is just one more expansion of what Miller’s already established in the Mad Max world, adding more dimension and specifics to locales, factions, and character archetypes he’s been working through for five films. But the soulmate bond between Jack and Furiosa is the unexpected beating heart that distinguishes this film from the pack. They express a tenderness towards one another so fragile that it shouldn’t exist in a world like this. It sends the film into new territory that fuels the second half of the film and, retroactively, Fury Road. As fleeting as it is, Miller frames their powerful connection, and how Burke and Taylor-Joy play it, for all it’s worth. When they look at one another, it has all the chaste angst and heat of hands touching in an Austen period piece. Mark my words: Their forehead touch is this summer’s swoon moment to beat.

Other things to admire include the excellent, mostly Aussie cast who breathes life into every bizarre character, and each member takes their moment to shine through the dirt. Also, kudos to Alyla Browne, who plays young Furiosa. I thought she was actually blood related to Taylor-Joy, which makes Browne’s mostly silent performance all the more remarkable for how she captures the actor’s stare, subtle body movements, and overall countenance. Hers is an impressive performance in its own right, and not mimicry. Then there’s Taylor-Joy herself, who forges her own path with this character, adding so much to the whole woman that is Furiosa. It’s impressive how she gently tip-toes towards the silhouette of Charlize Theron’s Furiosa, with subtle choices that nod towards the establishing performance.

As for spectacle, Furiosa is still an experience. It swallows you up like the sand and holds you tight until the very end. Cinematographer Simon Duggan (The Great Gatsby) doesn’t miss a step when taking the visual baton from Fury Road’s cinematographer John Seale. Furiosa overwhelms the senses, especially in IMAX, as Duggan and Miller immerse you within the vehicles as they rumble over the dunes, or pound the strips of road that connect the Citadel to The Bullet Farm and Gastown. Almost every piece of Furiosa comes across visceral and real, which reminds you how special it is to get this kind of experience at the movies every once in a while.

And if you’re wondering if the presence of Max Rockatansky is missed? Not a lick. This is Furiosa’s story, a legend made in two parts. It is Miller’s opus, honoring love and hope in its least likely setting.