Some might remember that when I shared my most anticipated movies of 2024 back in January, George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga topped that list. Looking back at that list four and a half months later, I notice that there were quite a few on that list that have disappointed, and a few others that have moved to 2025. It might not surprise anyone who saw Mad Max: Fury Road that Furiosa made my list, even though I can’t even remember where Miller’s earlier film fell on that year’s Top 10.
Most will go into Furiosa knowing that it’s a prequel to Fury Road, telling the story of Charlize Theron’s character leading up to her teaming up with Tom Hardy’s Mad Max. It begins with the young Furiosa (Alyla Brown) being kidnapped from her Eden-like home where everything flourishes, but with no explanation why Chris Hemworth’s Dementus would kidnap her. He ends up bringing her with him to see Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme – original actor Hugh Keays-Byrne died in 2020) in the Citadel in order to make a deal to run Gastown, but Furiosa ends up being used as part of the bargaining. Realizing that Joe uses women essentially as brides for breeding, the young Furiosa shaves her head and decides to escape.
I honestly wish there was more to this story than it just being set-up for Furiosa’s journey in Fury Road, but it’s a good hour before Anya Taylor-Joy even takes over the role, and that's mostly the point when Furiosa stops being a supporting character in her own movie. As a fan of Ms. Taylor-Joy, I was pretty excited for her to step into the role of (essentially) a younger Charlize Theron, but her performance just just doesn’t have the same energy Theron brought to Fury Road. The worst part of the movie (other than the lack of actual Furiosa) is Chris Hemsworth hamming it up with a strange accent as Dementus, essentially channeling the likes of Heath Ledger as Joker or other similarly over-the-top villain roles.
It’s a little surprising how much Furiosa has in common with the recent Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, in terms of very specific storytelling beats, though the less-experienced director Wes Ball does such a better job in telling that story, really making sure to develop the characters fully. By comparison, Furiosa reintroduces many of the same character from Fury Road, including Immortan Joe, and some of his henchmen, but not really giving them any more depth than they had in the 2015 movie.
I did enjoy when Furiosa finally meets up with Tom Burke’s War Rig driver, Praetorian Jack, leading to a great face-off between Dementus’ gang attacking the tanker while being fought off by Joe’s War Boys. It’s one of the better set pieces in the film, but so much of it seems like what Miller already did in Fury Road, so it doesn’t feel nearly as groundbreaking. It was fun watching Miller introducing all these bizarre characters in Fury Road, but Furiosa also goes a little too far with that stuff, and it’s not quite as entertaining when it’s rehashing that far superior film.
Despite Miller already being an Oscar-winning filmmaking, Mad Max: Fury Road wasn’t thought of as an Oscar movie… until it was. In fact, it won six below-the-line Oscars and was nominated for directing and Best Picture, putting a very different onus onto Furiosa. And yet, most people will go into this prequel for the action, and there’s plenty of that on display as Miller savors the spectacle and stuntwork involved with the big set pieces. Sometimes, it’s difficult to follow what’s going on in some of the scenes, as the mix of practical and visual effects just don’t gel in the same way they did in the previous movie. Take a closer look at the credits, and you’ll notice that some of the important Oscar-nominated creatives who worked with Miller on Fury Road – like cinematographer John Seale and editor Margaret Sixel – were not involved with this prequel, even though others (production, costumes, visual effects) did return. (Tom Holkenborg’s score is fantastic as before, often enhancing the film’s movement and pacing where other efforts aren’t working.)
Being two and a half hours long, Furiosa can’t just be wall-to-wall action, but those non-action moments are where it just loses momentum, maybe because so much of what we’re watching is regurgitated from what Miller has done before. Anyone remotely surprised that Furiosa doesn’t live up to earlier “Mad Max” movies may have missed Miller’s last film, Three Thousand Years of Longing, which wasn’t particular good, and though Furiosa was conceived even before Fury Road, it certainly seems like Miller may have peaked on that effort by throwing so much into the sink.
Ultimately, Furiosa ends pretty much where Mad Max: Fury Road begins, making me wish that I could have rewatched that movie right away to wash the bad taste of Furiosa out of my brain. This prequel constantly leans on the style and spectacle to make up for the storytelling not being up to snuff with Fury Road. As nice as it is that George Miller wants to keep playing in this world, Furiosa is almost as big a fail as Thunderdome, although I’m convinced it will do well enough at the box office that he’ll be tempted to do more.
Rating: 5.5/10
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga opens on Friday, May 24 with previews on Thursday night.