I wanted to love “Furiosa: A Mad Max” saga. In some ways, I did.
The prequel to “Mad Max: Fury Road” gives us the complete backstory to Furiosa, the fierce praetorian who eventually befriended the titular Max to help the “five wives” of warlord Immortan Joe escape to find safety and freedom in that film.
We start from her childhood, where she grew up in a hidden society tucked away in greenery — an apparent rarity in this world. Furiosa (played by Alyla Browne as a child and teenager) is a timid child who finds herself abducted by raiders. Her mother, Mary Jabassa (Charlee Fraser), a sniper with combat training, proves to be a terror in her own right, easily dispatching all who dare challenge her one-one-one. The raiders, led by Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), a cult-like figure, eventually overwhelm her and kill her in front of her daughter, whom they abduct.
Dementus takes a strange liking to Furiosa, taking her in like a daughter. Sometime in the past, he lost his biological daughter and wife and he’s never been able to move on; his daughter’s Teddy bear, which he carries with him at all times, is emblematic of that.
He eventually attacks Gas Town, a fiefdom of Joe responsible for gasoline production. He threatens to blow it up, which creates a stalemate. Joe takes a liking to Furiosa, and he proposes taking her on as a wife in order to make Dementus one of his warlords, which he accepts with little hesitation.
This puts Furiosa on track to where we meet her in “Fury Road.” Once Joe’s meathead son, Rictus Erectus (Nathan Jones) pursues her, she fakes her death and escapes, but she stays in Joe’s castle, the Citadel. Pretending to be a mute boy, she works her way through the ranks of Joe’s men, with her crowning achievement being her help constructing a War Rig (a huge modified truck made for transporting goods and people across the perilous Fury Road).
Now played by Anya Taylor-Joy, she proves crucial in the Rig’s defense when it comes under attack by one of Dementus’ former lieutenants. This catches the eye of Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), who decides to keep her secret and sees the potential in her. Jack becomes another surrogate father for her, but is much more loyal and morally uncorrupted. He does what he has to do to survive in the wasteland, but he’s a man of his word, unlike Dementus.
“Furiosa” is a stunning tale of survival that does justice to one of the most captivating characters of “Mad Max: Fury Road.” In a brutal world where women are often subjugated by men, Furiosa pushes up against the grain with grit and resilience like her mother before her.
Her relationships with Dementus and Jack are intriguing. Jack fits the mold of a traditional father figure, giving Furiosa mentorship and guidance as needed, but he never uses her for his own personal gain outside of their mutual partnership. Dementus, however, is a broken man who bets big and is lucky to have his wagers pay off for the most part. He also wields brutality masterfully to keep his men in line and obedient, but he suffers the same flaws most authoritarians do, as he drives away everyone who would criticize him and is both ego-driven and incompetent. He gets everything he could have hoped for when he takes over Gas Town, but he runs it into the ground, causing its citizens to revolt.
Hemsworth outshines Taylor-Joy, who is miscast as Furiosa. Dementus is not only a much more complex and interesting character — mostly because of his pronounced flaws — but Hemsworth’s performances eclipses Taylor-Joy in every single way. He is charismatic, maniacal, but also at times very human and vulnerable. Taylor-Joy became one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood after “The Queen’s Gambit,” but she has extremely limited range and the industry needs to admit that, like Chris Pratt, her name doesn’t make a film instantly more attractive to viewers, if the poor box office performance of this film didn’t already indicate that.
With that being said, Taylor-Joy’s performance isn’t terrible, the script and director George Miller just doesn’t demand that much of her. Still, compared to Charlize Theron’s portrayal of the character in “Fury Road,” Furiosa feels like a shell of herself in this film. To some extent, that’s intentional — this is her origin story where she comes into her own — but it’s also a result of Taylor-Joy talents being vastly inferior to Theron’s.
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” is still a great film, but it is nowhere near the level of “Fury Road.” Much of this can be attributed to Taylor-Joy’s miscast performance, but it’s also considerably lower octane than that film by design. This isn’t a tale about an unassuming nobody taking on a huge empire in the middle of the desert; it’s a survivor’s journey in which she teams up with the lesser of two evils.
In some ways, I like this film better than “Fury Road” because it’s a much more intimate tale. It’s lower in scale, providing echoes to earlier “Mad Mad” films that I enjoyed. It surprisingly cost about the same to make (over $150 million) and somehow looks cheaper than “Fury Road.” But its heart and soul are still there and Miller hasn’t lost a step as one of the most exciting modern action directors.
With a better lead and clearer marketing, this film would have been a hit.
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” gets an 8/10
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