After most
of Australia has been reduced to a desert wasteland, the Vuvallini of the Green
Place maintain a patch of civilization. One of their daughters, Furiosa (Alyla
Browne), falls into the clutches of the biker warlord Dementus (Chris
Hemsworth), who raises her as a daughter before trading her to rival warlord
Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). Over the years, Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) rises
through the ranks of Joe’s forces alongside veteran driver Praetorian Jack (Tom
Burke). As tensions build between Dementus and Joe, Furiosa never loses sight
of seeking revenge against those who wronged her and finding her way home.
A prequel
to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa bears many of writer/director/franchise
creator George Miller’s stylistic flourishes: riveting action sequences, minimal
dialogue, and a glimmer of hope amid brutality and despair. Though longer and
gorier than previous Mad Max films, Furiosa avoids sinking under the
weight of excess. There’s an urgency to the title character’s plight that
sustains the film throughout its two-and-a-half hours of desert highway chases,
sieges, ambushes, torments, and occasional moments of quiet contemplation. Composer
Junkie XL (credited under his real name Tom Holkenborg this time) once again
provides a suitably intense and ominous score.
The cast
is a combination of returning performers and newcomers. Taylor-Joy steps in for
the older Charlize Theron and matches her steely nerve and unflappable competence. Hulme, replacing the
late Hugh Keays-Byrne, is every bit as sinister and imposing (albeit more
rational this time around). Joe’s son Rictus (Nathan Jones), doctor the Organic
Mechanic (Angus Sampson), and ally the People Eater (John Howard) are all
played by returning actors, but the fact that they don’t look any younger is
confusing given the film’s timeline (a good fifteen years before Fury Road).
As Dementus, Hemsworth is a mixed bag. The character is bombastic with an overt
goofiness (i.e. riding around in a motorcycle chariot like a would-be Roman
emperor) that belies his cruelty. On the one hand, Hemsworth seems to be having
fun hamming it up, and it’s refreshing to see the Aussie actor play an
Australian character for a change. On the other hand, we’re meant (via the
teddy bear he carries around) to see Dementus as broken by the loss of his
family, but this construction of him as a cautionary tale for letting vengeance
consume seems a bit ham-handed.
Perhaps
because the two films are so closely intertwined, Furiosa inevitably
invites comparisons to Fury Road. While its action sequences are on-par,
it lacks the earlier film’s impact and power to surprise. As franchise prequels/spinoffs/origin
stories go, however, Furiosa is still far better than those designations
alone suggest.
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