Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Review)
Furiosa was the driving force of Mad Max: Fury Road. While Tom Hardy's Max Rockatansky was technically the main character, he more or less ends up being an ally to Furiosa on the most intense road trip you'll ever witness. This was one of the welcome surprises of Fury Road. Like Max, it doesn't take long for you to become invested in Furiosa's mission to save these women's lives, return to a paradise in this desolate wasteland, finding redemption.
So once we all settled after Fury Road blew our minds, and heard rumors of a potential Furiosa spin-off with director George Miller directing, the buzz was already growing. It just sounded so obvious. With Miller returning, who wouldn't want to witness that?
And here we are. Almost a decade since Fury Road, George Miller returns to his mad world with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. To put it simply, it was worth the wait. This movie is fucking awesome. However, it may not be what you are expecting.
Where Fury Road covered a two day long road trip, Furiosa spans years. The movie tells the origin story of the titular character, as she grows from a young preteen living peacefully in the Green Place to the hardened Imperator of the Citadel. Along the journey we meet a wide variety of characters. Some are new, and some you'll recognize from the last time we were in the Mad Max world.
This is where your expectations for the movie may get in the way of your enjoyment. If you're going into this expecting Fury Road 2, then you'll either be pleasantly surprised or pretty disappointed. Miller isn't interested in making another movie that's centered almost entirely on incredible action setpieces. Instead, we get a twisted but personal coming-of-age story, a character centered movie of someone trying to keep hope alive in a world of almost pure brutality. Not only that, but we get an expanded look at the world Miller created but only showed us brief glimpses in the previous entry.
Along with returning to the Citadel, we also get to finally see the perfectly-named Gas Town and Bullet Farm, and the circle of trust between those controlling these three places. This makes Furiosa almost larger in scope than Fury Road with each of these towns playing such a large part in the film's last two acts. You feel the grandness throughout the movie, and Miller and company wow us every time we go into one of these towns.
And yet, despite this large scale, Furiosa tells a deeply personal story. Make no mistake, this isn't another Fury Road situation where the character the movie is named after is in the background. Furiosa is the front and center of the film, and her journey is one that is intense, brutal, and even emotional (but, again, not in the way you expect). I think this might be the meanest film Miller has ever made. Furiosa goes through the ringer in this movie, right from the start when she is quickly taken from her home (the "Green Place" as mentioned in the previous film. We also get a small glimpse at that too, and you quickly understand why she wants to go back). She then is forced to be a part of this gang of ruthless bikers, led by the also adequately named Dementus, as he tries to climb the ranks of power and drives a thorn in the sides of Immortan Joe and company. Whether it's in the company of Dementus or Immortan Joe and his warboys, we see her either lose people she cares about, or witness their crews commit savage acts in order to obtain power. I wasn't prepared for how brutal this movie can be. Even though Fury Road is the more action packed of these two, I think Furiosa is actually the meaner one.
The cast is uniformly excellent. Everyone does great, but Chris Hemsworth, Anya Taylor Joy, and Ayla Browne are very clearly the standouts here. Hemsworth plays Dementus so well. He is brutal and horrible, leads his gang off fear yet has (kind of?) tender moments with young Furiosa. While he does try and rise up the ranks, he surprisingly isn't the best leader, as his rise to power is far from smooth. This, to me, was a great and very welcome idea. Miller and Hemsworth could've easily given us an Immortan Joe 2.0, but instead they go an entire other route that feels fresh and is engaging to watch. Ayla Browne is also fantastic playing young Furiosa during the movie's first hour. She doesn't get to say much, but her cold looks as well as her cries of pain hit you in the gut.
And then there's Anya Taylor Joy. It was really hard to imagine anyone other than Charlize Theron playing Imperator Furiosa, who embodied the role so well. And yet, Joy really makes it her own. She's phenomenal in this movie. Much has been said about her lack of lines, and I think it only makes her performance all the more incredible. Much of what Furiosa is going through in this movie is internal. There is such a silent rage going through her the entire movie, and we feel all of it just through her eyes. She also gets some absolutely badass moments that led to some audible reactions in my theater. I always thought she was great in everything she's been in, but man did she blow me away. Her and Hemsworth give the best performances of their career here.
But it's not all rage. I mentioned earlier that this movie is mean, but that isn't to say that's all it is. Furiosa's journey includes trying to keep hope alive, even in the darkest of places. It's an insane balancing act Miller is doing here and it actually works. A movie this brutal yet also sympathetic feels like nothing short of a miracle. It makes the character of Furiosa even more heartbreaking, and makes her journey in Fury Road all the more emotionally involving.
To no surprise, this movie is also a technical knockout. It is absolutely stunning to look at, with shots that could be blown up onto a poster and hung up in my room. Each vehicle is incredibly designed, whether it's a classic war rig or a chariot of motorcycles. The score is a little more subdued here, but still adds to the intensity. Same goes for the sound design, which is honestly the star of the show here. When this movie gets loud, and it does pretty often, you feel your entire seat rumble. And the action....my goodness. While it is a little more limited here, it still makes for some of the most intense experiences you could ever have in the theater. Whether it's quiet sniper fights or signature chase sequences or both, Miller and company know how to get you absorbed and on the edge of your seat. This includes an extended chase sequence involving a war rig, motorcycles, and gliders that is easily one of the most electrifying action scenes you could ever experience. It's one thing for action to be awesome to watch. It's another to get you so involved you feel your adrenaline spiking, and no one is better at this than George Miller.
I could easily talk way more about this movie (even though this is easily my longest review), but it really is something you have to experience. It's a cliche to say you have to see it on the big screen, but you really do have to experience Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga on the biggest screen possible. It is not what I expected, and I imagine the same will go for a lot of people, but I loved it anyway. It's an incredible achievement on its own, but it's also a great companion to Fury Road. As soon as it ended, it simultaneously made me want to rewatch it and watch Fury Road at the same time. George Miller is an absolute madman, and we are all the more lucky to witness it.
