Ah, George Miller’s apocalypse: it’s horrible to be back.
I don’t know about you, but when I come into a Mad Max movie, I expect a certain level of grot. A level of grime, grossness and gasoline, the smell of petrol in the air, villains stalking around in fetishwear, you feel me?
And, if there’s one thing that Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga does, it’s deliver on that. The prequel to 2014’s Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa, as the title suggests, follows Furiosa (originally played by Charlize Theron, here by Alyla Browne and Anya Taylor-Joy as a child and adult, respectively) in her origin story, as she grapples with the threat of the dominating Dementus (Chris Hemsworth).
It’s hard to think of many other franchises with such a distinct, iconic, and completely absorbing aesthetic and feel as the Mad Max series; from moment one of this lengthy two-and-a-half-hour epic, you know exactly where you are and what it feels like to be there. From the costume design to the characters to the sumptuously-horrible sets, George Miller’s apocalypse remains one of the most distinctive and genuinely disturbing out there – a blend of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and action, with a hefty dose of black humour to round things off.
And to be honest, the action is perhaps what this series is best known for from a filmmaking perspective, and Furiosa picks up that and runs (well, drives) with it. Miller’s action has an almost operatic quality to it, a precision and artistry matched with this breathless sense of momentum that really is almost unmatched across modern cinema. If you’re coming to Furiosa just for the action, there’s not a chance in hell you’ll be let down.
But, on the other hand, if you came to it for Furiosa, you might be. The problem with Furiosa in this movie is that she takes on the Max role – the cypher through which we see the rest of this world, a naturally-limiting leading role that doesn’t lend her the same impact she had in Fury Road. While Alyla Browne (making a double-appearance on No But Listen after her incredible turn in Sting) really makes the younger version of Furiosa work, Anya Taylor-Joy feels more limited, having to match the performance to Theron’s version of the character, but lacking the physicality and presence to really make it happen – she’s not bad, but the Furiosa we got as a supporting character was undeniably more interesting than this lead. Doubly so when she’s up against the rest of the excellent cast, especially Chris Hemsworth, turning his near-nuclear levels of charisma to a twisted, unsettling, and unfathomably compelling villain in Dementus.
Despite this, though, Furiosa is still a brilliant entry into the Mad Max canon, one that captures Miller’s uniquely horrible vision for an apocalyptic future – grit, grime, gas, and all.
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By Lou MacGregor
(header image via IMDB)
No But Listen 