Forty-five years after George Miller welcomed audiences to the Wasteland with “Mad Max,” the 79-year-old Australian auteur is still pushing the limits of what he can accomplish on screen. That film spawned three sequels, each bigger and more ambitious than the last — a trend that continues with the latest addition to the dystopian saga.
The first of the films to not revolve around Max Rockatansky, “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” trades the protagonist portrayed by Mel Gibson in the original 1979-85 trilogy and Tom Hardy in the 2015 reboot “Fury Road” for an origin story on the latter’s buzzed-haircut-wearing, mechanical-armed Imperator Furiosa, with Anya Taylor-Joy stepping into the role previously helmed by Charlize Theron.
A departure from the propulsive, near-nonstop action of that film, however, “Furiosa” is a years-spanning epic that spaces out its thrills in favor of a stronger narrative. Fans looking for a repeat of that film’s adrenaline rush may find some disappointment in that, though it ultimately earns its accolades in sidestepping expectations — and creating plenty of spectacle on its own terms.
Though “Furiosa” is visually in conversation with its predecessor, it’s comparable in some ways to the divisive final installment in the original trilogy, “Beyond Thunderdome” — not in that film’s lighter, more family-friendly exterior (Miller doesn’t shy away from violent material to earn a PG-13 rating here) but more so in its efforts to tell a story across a wider scope.
Equal parts dark and even funny when it wants to be, it knowingly leans into its cartoonish villains. A prosthetic-nosed Chris Hemsworth, sporting long hair and a scraggly beard and mustache while riding a motorcycle-pulled chariot, chews up the scenery as the villain Dementus, exaggerating his already Australian accent in a caricaturistic fashion. Lachy Hulme assumes the role of rival Immortan Joe from the late Hugh Keays-Byrne, the skull-respiratored antagonist of “Fury Road.” Much of the film centers around a conflict between the two warlords, who strive for control of the Wasteland’s resources.
Interestingly, top-billed star Taylor-Joy doesn’t make an appearance for what feels like half the running time. The audience is first introduced to a child Furiosa (Alyla Browne) as she’s captured by Dementus’ Biker Horde from the Green Place of Many Mothers, a rare region of abundance surrounded by the sparse deserts in which most of the franchise takes place. The scene quickly turns to tense motorcycle chase with Furiosa’s mother Mary Jo Bassa (Charlee Fraser) in rapid pursuit, long-range rifle scoping out the abductors. But Dementus and his lackeys gain the upper hand and kill her, with their quest to retrace their steps back to the Green Place instead leading them to the Joe-ruled Citadel. There Dementus reluctantly relinquishes Furiosa to Joe as part of a bitter trade, the girl eventually planned to be one of his wives like those she was previously seen leading on an escape mission in “Fury Road.”
Furiosa is ultimately able to flee and disguise herself as one of Joe’s War Boys, with Browne handing the role over to Taylor-Joy right around the film’s standout set piece, a gripping raid by marauders on the Citadel’s War Rig steered by Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke). Commanding her screen time while speaking few words, it quickly becomes apparent that the stowaway Taylor-Joy is a fitting stand-in for a younger Theron. This scene is just one indication of the expertly staged action that can be found throughout the film, its many moving parts including an aerial assault by parachuting attackers while vehicles ambush from all around.
While it’s notable that the practical and digital effects aren’t as seamless here as in “Fury Road,” an artificial quality that can at times distract from the events unfolding on screen, it’s no deal breaker. Nor is the film’s admitted unwieldy scale, even if the pacing sometimes suffers in exchange for its two-and-a-half-hour chaptered structure. Despite its record length for the franchise, somehow the film still manages to in the latter portion speed through the full-scale warfare it teases but never truly realizes between Joe and Dementus.
