George Miller's follow-up to Mad Max: Fury Road takes us back to the formation of Furiosa, played first by Alyla Browne, then later by Anya Taylor-Joy. Young Furiosa is kidnapped by a gang of motorcycle marauders who are looking the land of abundance, an oasis in the dry wasteland of post-apocalyptic Australia. Noticing that she's in good health, it occurs to them that she might know of this place, so they take her back to their leader, a nutter called Dementus (Chris Hemsworth, fake nose and all). Furisosa's mother (Charlee Fraser) has other ideas and sets out after her. Anyone who has seen Fury Road knows that Furiosa ends up separated from her family and home, so the intrigue is really in how this happened.
The film is segmented into five chapters, not exactly a five act structure, more like a lengthy preamble, where Furiosa sets herself up as a Steampunk Yojimbo, playing one side against the other for her own ends, followed by a rampaging sequence of battles. The central point is an absolute showstopper - the creation, then inaugural run-out of the war rig, a multi-wheeled truck kitted out with weaponry and armour to fend off potential gang attacks. The extended sequence where the rig is ambushed is pure cinema, equal to, maybe even better than anything in Fury Road (rewatch required).
I'll go back a touch - the battles eventually happen because Dementus decides to take on Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme) for control of the Wasteland, which includes the three pillars - Gas Town, the Bullet Farm and Immortan's water reservoir, The Citadel. Dementus manages to commandeer one of these, and is satisfied until desperation forces him to attempt a grab for total power. Hemsworth is out of the picture while Furiosa changes from Browne to Taylor-Joy, but when he reappears, he brings the class, chewing everything in sight but devoid of irony. There's no meta shit from him here, he's doing entirely his own thing and its the best I've seen him. Taylor-Joy is the exact opposite - she's basically mute for most of the film - and her coiled ice rage opposed to Hemsworth's nasty buffoonery is one of the highlights of the film.
There are plenty of winks. Many actors return from previous Max films: John Howard as the People Eater; Richard Norton as the Prime Imperator; Angus Sampson as the Organic Mechanic; Nathan Jones as Rictus Erectus; Josh Helman as Scrotus (but Slit in Fury Road?); even Tim Burns as Hungry Eyes (he was Johnny the Boy in the original Mad Max in 1979). You Am I lead singer, Tim Rogers pops up for a bit, too. Near the end, you might spot the back of Max Rockatansky himself, looking down on the action from atop a cliff. And at one point in Gas Town, when things are getting rough, Dementus paraphrases a classic Mel Gibson line from Mad Max 2.
It's not all perfect, though. I wasn't too sold on the character of Praetorian Jack, played by Tom Burke (with an admittedly pretty solid Aussie accent). He's clearly a necessity for Furiosa to learn the trade but his motivations didn't really ring true - pure altruism? In the Wasteland? Even 'heroic' Max is more nihilistic. I was also wondering if they cast Burke because he looks like Stacy Keach from Road Games. Maybe I'm being unfair to expect him to hold his own against Hemsworth and Taylor-Joy.
Another issue I found was that the ending was a mite fumbled - not the most satisfying after a solid two hours of adrenaline. It could also have done with a few minutes trimmed off it (I feel like I'm saying this a lot lately). But when the ups are so high, the downs feel worse than usual. Furiosa ultimately dovetails snugly into Fury Road and there's so much to enjoy about it that it feels churlish to nitpick. The sound design on the Xtreme Screen was incredible, Simon Duggan's cinematography looked great and the stunts were top drawer. This is rollicking good fun from Miller once more.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga opens in Australia on May 23rd.
See also:
Of course, Fury Road (2015) but it would be nice to revisit the 70s and 80s versions too - Mad Max (1979), Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), all directed by Miller.
(Film stills and trailer ©Warner Bros, 2024)
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